Location: Underway to Almerimar
At exactly midnight, our young troll (Joel) was baptized into adulthood in the beautiful waters of Mallorca. Julia switched the birthday sign from Jimmy’s name to Troll’s, officially marking the second day of our three-day birthday extravaganza (better known as the birthuda triangle). As a birthday present to Jimmy and Joel (definitely had nothing to do with changes in the wind that would have gotten us into Almerimar in the middle of the night), we changed our plans and left at 8 am rather than 6 pm last night. Everyone was very happy to get a surprise full night of sleep. Watch teams 2, and 3 even got to catch up on some zzzzs by sleeping in until noon!
I woke up to a lovely lunch of burrito bowls cooked by chef Max and his gang. Life hack: if you wear a scuba mask, you won’t cry from the onions! I think the floor enjoyed the burritos almost as much as the crew. Amelia decided to be super generous and gave the floor (and pinkie) her whole bowl! After lunch, we rolled right into cleanup. Bowls were falling out of the sky, almost taking Rachel out with them. I walked into the galley to find Anna making yet another concoction of milk and various galley ingredients. Today she added strawberry jam, cinnamon, and heavy cream. Luckily, Jimmy, Julia, and I were able to convince her to ignore her creative tendencies and make us each a classic glass of chocolate milk.
Today I learned that it takes exactly 31 days for people to be comfortable enough to feed each other like a mama bird feeds her child. I walked down the companionway and saw Joel spitting candy. At first, I thought he was just trying to attack Mia, but then I realized she was trying to catch it in her mouth. When I asked for a piece of candy and Hendo told me it would need to be spit into my mouth, I agreed without hesitation. The never-ending supply of chickpeas has made us all willing to take desperate measures for some candy.
Shortly after, we transitioned into the Nav Master class. For those of you who aren’t sailors, according to Matt, this is a class where you learn how to kiss on the mouth. (PSA: this is an inside joke) (PSA: We are not actually kissing) (PSA: jk, some of us are) (PSA: that was another joke) (PSA: this is a highly serious navigational course in which we become navigation masters and there are never any jokes ever) It is taught by true professionals, #cartographers #rolemodels #rockstars #iwishiwasthem #sometimestheircoolnessintimidatesme Matt and Allie. After mastering dead reckoning, we learned how to do a three-bearing fix. We are all now human GPSs that can triangulate our positions based on three random landmarks.
After class, I meandered on deck for our 2-6 watch. I quickly found out it would be me, Jimmy, and the entire PSCT class. If anyone is considering taking the course to become a skipper, from what I overheard today… it is BORING. They spent about 45 minutes learning about light placement and what it means. If you ask me, it was just a bunch of Christmas lights. It was beautiful as I helmed with Calum’s peaceful voice lulling me into a meditative state. We were going 7 knots with no engine!!
Once the watch ended, I was once again surprised by what I saw as I exited the companionway. While this time, there was no baby birding, I was met with what looked like the aftermath of a cocoa powder and powdered sugar bomb. Mia was covered from head to toe with mysterious white powder. She claims it was flour, but the world may never know what it truly was. I joined the brownie baking team only to lose track of how many eggs I had cracked. It is difficult to count to 36 these days!! Mia decided she wanted sugary brownies, so she added extra. We would later learn this was a grave mistake.
Disheveled and covered in a mysterious white powder (PSA: it was flour), we stumbled into the rave going on in the cockpit. Turns out we fit right in! During dinner, we listened to every song we could think of that included Ibiza. It was a pretty magical experience creating club three while looking at Ibiza off our port side. There were definitely some shipmates considering stealing the dinghy or changing course. During a squeeze, we learned that Amelia would absolutely kill it on the deadliest catch. I must say I could not agree more. It also turns out Matt will not be the next top model. Luckily, Calum is destined to win naked and afraid, so we will still have some victors here on Vela.
We were hoping to have Joel’s birthday brownies with dinner, but tragically the oven on Vela is not particularly strong. Two hours later, we are still waiting for the brownies to finish. In the meantime, we learned all about sugar caramelizing. It turns out that adding too much sugar creates creme brle brownies. Pretty crazy!
To Mom, Dad, Jordan, Lexi, and everyone else following along from home… I love and miss you guys! Thank you for making this crazy experience happen. Can’t wait to see you soon!
P.S. Joel would appreciate some birthday Timmy’s if anyone has a spare helicopter lying around. We’re somewhere off the coast of Ibiza. His order is a farmer’s wrap, hashbrowns, and frozen lemonade.