Location: Underway to Palau
Passage life is a simple life. Each day the sun peeks above the horizon in the east, displaying incredible hues of pink and orange. All you can see for miles is deep blue ocean water scattered with white caps and sparkles as the wind and sunlight dance upon the surface. The end of each day is celebrated by sailing west into a beautiful sunset. As the sun tucks below the horizon, it always puts on a golden display filled with pastel skies and glimmering pink seas. Once it is finally set, the most incredible stars you could ever imagine coming out. Each night is filled with wonderful shooting stars that are so bright they light up the sails as they explode in the night sky. My favorite part about the passage is being on the helm at night. We use the stars to navigate and stay on course, and it is always a good challenge when clouds roll through.
As you can imagine, it is inexplicably exciting when you finally do spot the gentle glow of lights from another boat on the distant horizon. They are nothing but a small dot on our radar passing us by, but I like to believe that they are also looking at our navigation lights against the night sky and wondering the same questions that we are. Who are they? Where are they headed? What have they seen? It’s interesting to remember that humanity exists outside of Argo. All we have are some old photos on our phones to remind us that land, the people we love, and fresh produce exist outside of the high seas.
Day and night simply define the light hours versus the dark hours. On passage, time is better measured in terms of when you are on watch versus when you are off. Sleeping is an interesting struggle. It is a battle between the heeling of the boat and how well you can tuck all of your appendages into various spaces in your bunk to prevent yourself from rolling out. Sometimes you win, and sometimes the boat rolls about 60 degrees.
Today we hit 2000 nautical miles into the trip. We have the Solomon Islands somewhere on our port side, and the equator is straight ahead. We are about one-third of the way to Palau, and it seems as if the seasickness of the crew has subsided as we all become acclimated to boat life. My personal appreciations for today was learning about the fishing industry in oceanography, as well as our whaling debate in leadership. I had a great bow watch date with my best friends E and Morgan during dinner. I also really enjoyed the 8-12 watch with the best watch team on Argo (watch team 1). Finally, I really appreciated E and Ty surprising me with carrot butts from the galley. Eating them is a great way to reduce food waste and eat some fresh produce. (Fun fact: If food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses).
I also want to say I love and miss my friends and family. I know my mom really enjoys reading these, so I hope you enjoyed this as much as she did. Finally, I would like to shout out my dog Charlie (the best dog ever!!!) Miss you, buddy <3
Current position: 706.24′ S x 16146.33′ E
Pictured:
Rainbow
Sunrise clouds
Me, E, Max, and Ian at sunset