Location: Underway to San Blas
We had an earlier wake-up this morning in order to get to customs and give us some extra shore time before passage prep. Breakfast was ready around 7:00, and we began our walk to town around 8:00. Once we were all cleared through customs, we had some time to do final shopping and snack runs before passage prep at 11:00 for San Blas, Panama. We also had to make sure we got enough snacks to last us through the Panama Canal. I, along with Grace and Megan, went to our new favourite ice cream coffee store, Lucianos, one last time before heading to the grocery store. At the store, we ran into a number of others from Argo, all grabbing our foods and drinks and anything else we might want or need for the next 10-15 days. Once Grace, Meg, and I were done shopping, we walked over to a couple of shopping locations and looked around for about an hour. I had to head beack early to work on my research project for Nachos class, so I separated from them and headed back to Argo around 10:20. When I arrived back, I began setting up the 1×1 meter sections my group (Helena, Cason, Jazmyn, and Stella), but when I climbed back on the dock, I learned that Phil was going to be leaving Argo and returning home. There was a card going around for us to sign (which Im assuming hes read by now) where I thanked him for attempting to convince me that New Mexico (his home state) is real (I still dont believe it). People slowly arrived and signed the card while my research project group worked on collecting the trash from the beach. At 11 or so, we began passage prep and made sure everything was in ship-shape for our approximate leave time of 1-ish. Lunch, made by Nick and his sous chefs, had sandwiches for us to DIY, during which SkylEr decided to create his now infamous concoction of peanut butter and jelly with mayo? Not a soul on board understands this very questionable combination of foods, but he seems to enjoy it to the fullest. After lunch, we finished up our passage prep, and everyone said their final goodbyes to Phil before he got off and we left the dock. It was all hands on deck getting the sails up once we were away from the coast of Bonaire, putting up the main sail, main staysail, and forward staysail. Somehow, during all of the clean-up earlier, we managed to miss a stowaway in Graces bed a tiny little lizard. It was put into a jar until we could figure out exactly what to do with it. Watch team 1 (aka the best watch team) started our watch at 2 pm for the 2-6 time block, during which Jonas and Cason set up their fishing lines. About halfway through the watch, we were relatively close to a beach, and we decided to send the little lizard off on an orange peel to the opening song of Wicked, No One Mourns the Wicked. It was a very sad but necessary action, as it probably would have died on board with all of us trying to take care of it (and likely failing miserably). Towards the end of our watch, we put up the jib and flying jib to hopefully get us. A bit more speed (we are currently going a solid 8kn as I write this). For dinner, we had wonderful pesto pasta with cauliflower and chicken (and, for vegetarians, veggie nuggets), and, for gluten-free and nut-free, a red sauce pasta. I decided to sit in the aft-most part of the boat for dinner (the farthest back you can sit), and it was very comfortable; I might need to sit there more often. Our squeeze question, which I forgot about until Jonas reminded me with a suggestion, was what was your favourite memory of or with Phil?, which I think everyone enjoyed. To end the squeeze, I had everyone high-five someone next to them with their feet. I then came down to begin the blog, which was interupted excitingly with our San Blas schedule group meeting, consisting of Avi, Emma, Mars (Martin), and I we have some fun stuff coming up so be excited!
Signing off now, as I have no more to write about. Hope you all enjoyed!
(PS, hello to all my friends and family reading this! Sorry about being terrible about updating everyone whoops)
-Colbie