Location: Underway to the Azores
My watch team (Watch Team 1, aka Watch Team Star) began our day today at 12:00 am to carry out a unique and nowhere-near-normal watch until 4:00 am. We spent our time listening to Gabe’s Japanese folk stories, and staring at the moon and stars through binoculars, taking advantage of the clear, cloudless night. As 4:00 am neared and we started struggling to keep our eyes open, we began to analyze an exceptionally horrible song, offering up a variety of possible perspectives this controversial artist could have been inspired by. After about five back-to-back listens to this creative piece of music, Gabe introduced us to some beats I had never heard before, complete with dance moves that will definitely be seen on the dance floor when I return home. Watch Team Star would now dominate in a dance-off, no doubt about it. We also learned about how “ware-wolf” the moon is, and now we are all questioning if Gabe is truly fully human. His ware-wolf impression is uncanny: think Remus Lupin from Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve seen him… in the middle of the Atlantic. Around 3:45 am, we saw the first light of the morning and were shortly relieved by Watch Team 2. We headed downstairs and realized Gabe’s unique music taste temporarily washed away any exhaustion we had felt earlier. We collectively decided to have a team breakfast of cereal and milk (the crowd favorite around here) before crashing into our cabins. Twelve hours later, we had Leadership, followed by Nav Master, in which we learned how to draw out a running fix on our charts. Tim made us a wonderful lunch and dinner today, which we enjoyed in the cockpit as we watched the sun begin to fall on the horizon. Our squeeze question was about pets, producing way more intrigue and variety than I had anticipated. This included methodical pets as well, including a “flying rhinoceros that can swim in water…as opposed to other liquids”. I’m so grateful to be surrounded by the crew on Argo.