Location: Baia d'Abra, Madeira
Good evening, gremlins. Every good TV show has a dramatic beach episode, and today was ours (that was Ghost’s line, and she is very proud of it).
I began the day with a playlist that went from calm fall vibes to progressively more aggressive “get on deck now it’s time to eat,” including songs from Twilight and Mamma Mia. Oh, in case it wasn’t clear, it’s Halloween… Vela-ween, if you will. Yesterday was a wonderful shore day, but we patiently gaslit ourselves into believing that today was, in fact, Halloween. It rained all morning, but in the wise words of Barbra Streisand, it didn’t rain on our parade. After a marine bio quiz and exam, the six stack boys dived the laz to prep dive gear for tomorrow (YAY). Skylar and I snorkeled 12 laps around Vela for one of our Divemaster swim tests, and others experimented with food coloring and cookie dough. Matt thought he had fixed the broken salon fan… it started spinning backward… haha.
After Julia’s bussing pasta salad lunch, we headed on shore for leadership beach games. We warmed up with “birdie on a perch,” which featured lots of passionate shoving in order to find our partners and yeet ourselves onto them. Our main activity was a communication game played in teams of three. Teams had to navigate the blindfolded body to collect water bottles around the beach with only one sense each. I’m told it was absolutely hilarious to those with eyesight privileges. Shoutout to Ghost and Amelia for helping me through some tough moments, Ash for just being Ash, and Sam for her toncho and dementor chocolate 🙂
The real fun began in the evening when dinner became a costume party. The creativity from everyone was immaculate. Highlights include pirates, Calum as Carolyn, frat boys, Squidward, and me and Skylar as Matt and Allie. By the way, the prank war is currently a clean sweep in favor of the DMs because the Nav profs’ prank game is weeeeeeak. Post-dinner activities included cabin trick-or-treating and a salon movie party.
For squeeze, I asked my shipmates to name three people on the boat: someone who has inspired them, someone they think they have impacted, and someone they want to get to know better, except in a random order, so it remains a mystery as to which question matches which person. Over the last few days, I have felt my world change because of certain conversations and the presence of these individuals in my life. I can’t even articulate it yet, but the support and love I feel from and for each of these 32 people are just radiating from every fiber of my being. Every day is such a grand adventure. Don’t waste a second 🙂