Location: Underway to Fiji
Hi Guys!!! It’s Nick coming at you with day 32 of passage. My day started at 7:30 AM when Mac, the skipper, woke me up for Watch Team 2’s last ever morning 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM watch. After a brief stint on the helm, I came down to work with Mac, Frankie, and Nat to finalize our passage plan for the student-led passage. I then came up to the cockpit for a two-hour study sesh for the Oceanography Final with Elie, Riley, Ezra, and Steph. At 11:13 AM, our student-led passage officially got underway, and Tim quite literally made sure the four of us felt the weight of responsibility. Niko, Marina, and Gabe yet again cooked up a storm with Niko’s classic Pasta Capri for lunch. We all went down to the steamy salon for a mini Marino Bio presentation and the Oceanography final. When that wrapped up, people slowly made their way on deck in anticipation of finally seeing Fiji, and at 3:11 PM, we spotted Welagilala Island. There were a couple of shouts of “Land Ho!” before everybody made their way on deck to look through a pair of binoculars and see the small patch of palm trees off of our port bow. Before long, there were a handful of Fijian islands around, and everyone was rejuvenated for showers. A beautiful dinner consisting of burgers, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, and rarely seen bread rolls soon arrived on deck. When everyone was stuffed, I announced my final squeeze question: “What is the best/funniest nickname you’ve ever been called?” It yielded a fun selection of answers before Tim made a groundbreaking announcement at 6:05 PM: it was now 5:05 PM on Sunday the 25th, 23 hours into the future. So, it’s kind of day 86, and also kind of day 87. Confused yet? When the shock wore off, we all got to clean up in front of our first of many Fijian sunsets. As I am writing this, a couple of us are getting cell signals, so hopefully, soon, we’ll all be able to chat with home. It looks like we’ll be docking sometime Tuesday, and we’re all looking forward to setting foot on land yet again.
P.S: Mom, Dad, Julia, and Mattos can’t wait to talk to you all. Miss you lots.
Current position:
16 59.3858′ S
179 36.7076′ W
Pictured:
Niko ensuring all the Potatoes are mashed
Sunset over Taveuni Island
A sunset selfie with Izzy, myself, Marina, and Frankie