Location: Sambawa to Bali
This morning, we woke up bright and early at 5 am to swim with whale sharks!!! Steph messaged our bestie Roberto, and he checked out the different spots we could go to. We picked up anchor a few hours later and moved Argo to the location he told us. We all loaded up our gear and took the dinghies to one of the squid fisherman’s boats. They look really interesting and have wide pontoon-looking things on either side. When we pulled up, there were already two whale sharks in the water, and another boat of tourists was swimming with them. The fishermen were dumping buckets of krill and tiny fish overboard, so the water was full of food for them to eat. They were so incredible to swim with, and they were so huge but derpy looking with their wide mouth and tiny eyes on the side of their head. It was a little hectic at first because the other people were swimming all over them and only cared about taking selfies with them, but once they left, it was more enjoyable because we knew how to keep our distance and appreciate them without touching them. The two whale sharks were about 12-15 feet long and so beautiful with their spotted backs. It was cool to see them feed because their mouths open so wide, and they just suck a bunch of water down. We swam with the two whale sharks for a little over an hour, and then we loaded up and went back to Argo. We got everything ready to go and we got underway to Bali! We ate pancakes for breakfast (literally cake in a pan), and I was bow watched for a couple of hours. There were so many fish traps and floating water bottles that I was radioing the cockpit every few minutes. A pod of dolphins rode the bow for a while, which was amazing! They were so small and cute and tiny, and the water was so smooth and glassy that it looked like they were flying. After breakfast, the 40A people had a marine bio test while I was on watch. We had a later lunch at around 1, which was rice and vegetables with garlic bread. After lunch, I took a much-needed nap, but while I was asleep, Anabelle did her watch team leader duties and led everyone in, putting the main staysail and forward staysail up all by herself! (She wanted me to say that) When I woke up from my nap it was time for dinner, so everyone gathered in the cockpit and had a nice dinner, lentils and pasta. We had a squeeze with a beautiful sunset. I have watch from 8-12 tonight, and we are going strong on our student led passage, all the leaders are doing great. We are most likely going to arrive at our final destination at around 3 pm tomorrow. Miss you, Mom and Dad!