Location: Middle of the Atlantic Ocean
I’m back to write about yet another amazing day on Argo. So far, we’ve been on passage for six days and sailed 825 nautical miles, managing to accomplish so much with no land in sight. My day started at 11:30 pm last night when I was woken up for the 12 to 4 am watch. The sky was clear, and the moon was bright, allowing us to have one of the driest watches to date. Our watch team leader, Gabe, told us a few silly folktales to keep us awake. We had a few philosophical discussions that may have raised some blood pressure, but in the end, we all agreed to disagree and continued with our nightly games and questions. Around 3:30 am, Eddie and I started to rest our eyes which did not go over well with Gabe, so he taught us how to wake up by being stars because stars don’t sleep. Speaking of stars, towards the end of our watch, the moon was finally setting, which allowed us to really see the stars in the sky above. Watch team 1, which consists of me, Gabe, Eddie, Maria, Will, Carson, and Sammy, managed to see two satellites, a shooting star, and a hazy version of the milky way throughout our watch.
After going to sleep for a little bit, we woke up to one of the hottest days we’ve had yet on passage. Maya, Charles, and Emma made a wonderful lunch which was a make-your-own burrito. Following lunch, we did our first safety drill since starting our passage. The man-overboard drill allowed us to see how our watch teams split up to make the rescue as efficient as possible. To start the drill, Santana maliciously threw our friend Cedric overboard, who was a little difficult to keep eyes on, even in the calm waters. Maya and Leo kept their eyes and pointer fingers on Cedric while the rest of the watch teams fell into position (or, as Gabe likes to say, our battle stations). Sammy was leading the easing and taking in of the line that was connected to Tim, our rescue diver. Cedric was safely recovered, and our first MOB drill was a success.
Because of all our hard work saving Cedric, we were given the opportunity to swim. Now this was not your ordinary ocean swim. According to our instruments, we were swimming over depths of approximately 5300 meters. These waters were the clearest and bluest I’ve ever seen, and will be an experience I’ll never forget. This swim definitely rejuvenated quite a few of us because shortly after, we were full of energy sitting in the salon for classes. During Oceanography, Amanda taught us about Earth compositions and plate tectonics. To truly understand the movement of the tectonic plates, Amanda used cake and brownies to demonstrate how the different types of plates shift and interact. Of course, we chowed down on those after class. Gabe led us through Seamanship and taught us how to gasket coil. We went through safety measures on the ship and were able to see the different types of flares we have available (hopefully, the expired ones will be our makeshift fireworks in a few days). At the end of class, he brought us up on deck to see the five life rafts we had on board.
While the galley team was in full force, Maria, Lily, Cate, and I traveled out onto the bow sprit to just sit and enjoy this moment in time. We made our way back to the cockpit and played some early 2000s music until dinner was ready. Maya and her team of sous chefs killed it yet again with delectable lemon chicken, potatoes, and broccoli. My squeeze question tonight asked what you would tell people when they asked what you wanted to be when you grew up. The answers were all amazing in their own ways, ranging from being animals and the Mars rover to being an assassin (to which Cate was later told by her teachers that she needed not to say that anymore).
During clean up, we had one of the best sunsets we’ve had so far. I took so many pictures to try and capture its magic, but no camera can do it justice. There was a moment where everyone just stopped and looked out our port side at this magnificent scene. I’ve added pictures, but this was a “you had to be there” moment.
Thank you for taking the time to read through my essay on a travel blog post, and I hope you enjoy reading about what the next 12 to 13 days of passage, as well as the rest of our adventure, has in store for us!