Location: underway
Today was our first full day since setting the clocks back, and for me, it began with a 0300-0600 watch. This was a treat since the winds had picked up overnight, and the sun was still rising relatively early. So by 0430, our entire watch was enjoying a gorgeous sunrise over the open Atlantic as we cruised along at speeds averaging nearly ten kts. Dani broke our current semester’s speed record by logging 11.1 kts, and the watch team celebrated a total of 28 nautical miles during the three-hour watch – all great numbers. The rest of the crew began waking for breakfast soon thereafter, and the smells of fried eggs and pancakes took over the deck. After lunch, there were oceanography and marine biology classes, along with an impromptu “bathtime” when some inspired souls beat the heat by scrubbing one of our dinghies clean and then filling it with buckets of seawater and some bubble bath solution. The sunset was early for us, and we all enjoyed dinner on deck under the near-full moonall in all, another contented day in the Atlantic.