Location: Tarragona,Spain
Hello all. I’ve just sat down at this keyboard and have no idea what to write about. I’m sure it’s from the total lack of sleep, busy day of docking, mini boat appreciation, and putting away the last provisions of this program, but my mind has gone blank. I suppose I’ll just start from the very beginning (which is a very good place to start). Last night, watch team 3 (Amanda, Tim, Leo, Maria B, Sammy, and Lily) was instructed to try out a wing-on-wing, making them work all the way up to the end of their watch. Shortly after watch team 1 (Gabe, Celia, Drew, Santana, and Charles) relieve them, we took down all their hard work, only leaving the forward staysail up. A series of unfortunate events, but that’s just how it goes. After going to sleep at 4 am, I woke up earlier than I usually would after a 12-4 watch to Argo pulling up to the dock next to three massive superyachts. I had to wipe my sleepiness away so I could assist Maria B in throwing the forward leading spring line, the first line thrown onto the dock. After a very successful docking by Gabe, we started on the mini BA straight away. While everyone else was starting on their various cleaning, Santana and Drew set off with Claire on a mission to collect provisions.
I always love cleaning in the galley, but today I started with drying bilges. More specifically, the engine room bilge. This is no ordinary bilge, my friend. Due to the pipes and valves and everything else going every which way, it was definitely a sort of puzzle in figuring out how to get down into the bilge enough to reach the hand pump down to the water. I may have imagined it, but I think I managed to get most of the water out before Maria B came in to help. We had lunch made by Will and Lily and then had about 30 minutes of shore/break time before we started back on our various tasks. During lunch, we all realized that Calum, Maria B, and Maya matched, and Alex and I were twinning. Of course, we had to document this momentous occasion.
During this break, a few of us headed to the cafe directly across from us to order our first real smoothies in many, many weeks and a version of iced coffee. After drinking a cold beverage, Maria B, Lily, and I walked down the dock on a mission to figure out who these superyachts belong to. We realized the largest one of them all didn’t have a name, so we reached out to our old friend, Google, and found some interesting information. First, the yacht is 135 meters (445 feet) long, has a maximum speed of 20 knots, and is owned by a Cayman company named Black Dragon Minerals, LLS. We then come to find that she was detained by Spain in March 2022 as the property of a Russian CEO, Igor Sechin, who is sanctioned in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What a fascinating story, right?!
Back to reality, we went as we continued working on the BA. At this point, I had tidied my bunk and moved to the galley. Charles and I tackled the galley cabinets right before we started our oceanography lecture of the day. With perfect timing, as soon as Amanda finished the lecture, Santana called down into the salon to let us know the provisions were there. We spent the next hour putting away food and sorting it so we were ready for our time as head chef. After we finished our jobs, we all had to go to the marina police to get our passports stamped for our Barcelona day tomorrow! Dinner was delicious with Will, Lily, and Santana in the galley. My squeeze question of the day was to describe the person to your left as a type of shoe. According to Claire, I’m a pair of toe shoes. Not what I was expecting.
I can’t believe we’re here in Spain, even if the end of our program keeps creeping up on us. I hope you guys are as excited as we are to travel to Barcelona and be tourists for the day! Adios!