Location: Underway to St. Lucia
Wind! When I woke up today, I noticed that it was strangely quiet. As I climbed up on deck, I noticed that the mainsail was up and the familiar tilt of Argo under sail. Sailing again, finally! After over a week of continuously motoring, we were very thankful that the NE Trade winds were finally filling in. A little later in the morning, we reeled in a fifteen-pound Mahi Mahi, and I filleted him up for later. With cooking and baking teams working diligently in the galley all day, contagious happiness spread amongst the crew. This morning was truly a glorious start to the day: sailing, fresh fish, and sunshine. What more could anyone wish for? For most of us, sailing across the Atlantic doesn’t provide the traditional things that make Thanksgiving what it is, but it’s hard to complain. Everyone is healthy and in high spirits. Watch teams have been running smoothly, the weather has been amazing, and each day underway brings this family on Argo closer and closer. A continuing source of entertainment onboard is our skinny, white bird friend named Larry Bird. Silently he roams the deck searching for morsels of food, lines to poop on, and open hatches to sneak into. One of the things that I think is pretty funny is that someone added a row for Larry Bird onto the boat check clipboard and every hour, we write a little update about what he’s been up to.
Activities so far have included: trolling for babes, bronzing, pooping on the jack lines, and running laps on deck. After lunch, we practiced our coastal navigation skills on the charts and continued preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner. During our usual before-dinner Squeeze, each crew member shared some of their own Thanksgiving traditions from back home and their thoughts about having this Thanksgiving here on board. For dinner, we had copious amounts of Thanksgiving food, followed by tray after tray of desserts. Unable to stop ourselves from stuffing our faces, we now find ourselves a little more than pleasantly full, falling asleep and content. Apparently, if you lean back and to the left, it opens up your stomach and helps you digest, so after dinner, everyone was walking around with a goofy gangster lean. We are thankful for so many things today, including our friends and family, safe passage thus far, and whatever it took for this family of 28 to all end up here doing what we’re doing.