Location: The Med
The heat came with a vengeance. There is no doubting that we are in the Mediterranean now. Watch team 3 started with the midnight shift, where Daniel made friends with three dolphins (King Julien, Mort, and Maurice). Unfortunately, they did not join us at all for the rest of the day. We were joined by Daniel’s other friends, Wimdy and Med. The wind, a.k.a. Wimby, caused us to tack back and forth through the wind as we rounded the Cabo de Gata. The Mediterranean, or Med, joined us all day with tons of sea spray. She especially targeted those on bow watch. Watch team 1, my watch team, started off the day with the sunrise watch.
We were all very off in our guesses on when the sun would rise ( a.k.a. FORB). I guessed 6:53, but the sun did not come up until 7:24. After watch, we all enjoyed a long nap before lunch. While the rest of us were getting some rest, Kayla, Sage, and Sydney made fantastic sandwiches for lunch with homemade bread. We had fresh avocado and tomatoes as well, which are basically a delicacy on board. The heat wave continued as we sat in the cockpit and munched. After cleanup, we all gathered in the salon, or as it felt today, the sauna, for oceanography class. We started a new unit today, physical oceanography, and as of today, you could call us experts on atmospheric trends. After class ended, we had study hall time to work on our research projects for the semester. Some people were working on writing out their project’s methodologies, while others were tediously counting plankton species under the microscope. The afternoon watch was relatively quiet, with the seas having died down a bit as the day went on. A sea turtle popped in for a little bit to make sure we were all paying attention on watch. The chefs of the day made a great dinner to finish off the evening. We had rice with broccoli and chicken with bean burger patties for the vegetarians. We ended the dinner with the squeeze question: “Who is your biggest role model?” where we got to hear who had inspired everyone on board. We were all very excited to find out after cleanup that the chefs had also been preparing for a dessert. You can’t go wrong with a sweet lemon bar before bed.