Location: Elba
Hey, guys! Today was filled with emotions for all, and the morning started off with a heated cabin inspection that had everyone (me and the other procrastinators) panic cleaning at 7:00, which personally consisted of mashing everything into our Rolly-Taskers, which are our bedside bags. After all, passing our inspections with somewhat flying colors, we learned that some of us would be sailing a boat other than Vela today while others worked towards their open water dive certification. This boat might not have been as complex as Vela (and definitely not as cool), but everyone enjoyed it… except for the people who went out in the evening who were thoroughly underwhelmed by the lack of wind.
Nonetheless, wind or not, we all had good bonding moments aboard the rental, whether they were deep talks or moments of panic while veering away from other vessels. Once the day had begun to wind down, some of the students and staff did bow workouts, which were promptly followed by ocean showers. After the showers, some students took the liberty of doing laundry on board, which looked a little different than your average washer-dryer setup and consisted of students hand washing clothes in our laundry bucket and hanging them up on the side of the boat to dry afterward crossed that it doesn’t rain tonight! Another honorable mention is that today was Brendan’s birthday; he is now 20! A nice benefit of having a birthday on board Vela is that we all get to share some cake and dessert, which is an infrequent site for us. Currently, everyone is doing their chores, such as scrubbing the 112-foot-long deck, scrubbing toilets and shower walls, and vigorously cleaning grease out of dishes while I lounge here, writing to you guys. So, on that note, I am going to go join the rest of the crew and get ready for bed, night watches, and my lovely 20:30 bedtime.
See y’all later
-Theo M