Location: Rakiet, Sambawa, Indonesia
We were back on passage for most of today, and that means more watch! Our 8 am – 12 pm watch was a good one; with Lainey as our watch team leader, we successfully sailed through an unfamiliar channel past a beautiful volcano, avoided running aground in sudden shallow shoals (say that ten times fast), steered in between many poorly marked fish pots, and even saw some dolphins! A great last 8-12 watch for Watch Team 3 (aka the best watch team)!
For lunch, Olivia made us walking tacos, and we gobbled it down in some impressive heat. As we navigated some shallow corals, Skipper Sidney sent Austin up the mast to the first spreader, where he perched on watch. As soon as he was up, he yelled down at us, “There’s a shark! There’s a shark!” We all run to the starboard rail and peer into the water, and we see nothing. Then, Austin yells, “Wait, no! It’s a mola mola! It’s a sunfish! It’s huge!” We run back to the rail, again not seeing anything. I still don’t know if I fully believe that he saw a mola mola, but he’s a genuine guy, so I guess that makes me jealous…
Post-mola-mola-sighting, we all hustled down below for a half hour of study time before our last marine biology exam of the trip! Are we sad? No. At least not about the tests. However, we will miss Anna’s super cool lectures, fun facts, and all the gracious extra credit she gives on exams! After the exam, we had our last leadership class, where we talked about the past 24 hours of student-led passage. We heard from the group about what went well and what could be improved, and then our student leadership team took some time to discuss the feedback. Overall, our first passage running the show went well! We will continue to work on good communication and building trust to create the Argo student crew team!
Post-leadership, we took to the sea for our last ocean shower of the trip. We go on passage again tomorrow for another 24 hours to Bali, where we will not be able to swim off the boat, unfortunately. So, although the wind was cold, we enjoyed the warm waves amidst a spectacular sunset before bundling up in sweatpants and sweaters for dinner. Olivia’s hot curry hit the spot, and she even made us Rice Krispy treats to top it off! Tonight, we will put the final touches on our group research papers, study for our final oceanography exam tomorrow, and dream of whale sharks at sunrise!