Location: Underway to Galapagos
Hi!
Another day of passage, lots of water, and always sunny 😀 We almost got rain this morning during the 4 am to 8 am watch, but we avoided the clouds and peacefully looked at the sun rays of the rising sun reflecting on the dark grey and fluffy white clouds. Since passage days are quite similar when looking at the schedule, we have to focus more on the small details that turn every day into a new adventure on Vela.
Sleeping has become a challenge with the heat in the cabins, but everybody (at least most of us) manages to stay awake during their watch with a stretching session, plank challenge, or just by standing up. We still sleep enough. It’s just a different schedule with lots of naps (little detail for my family and friends, c’est loin d’etre des power nap, ce sont plutot des siestes de 2h ou plus … shocking for me! For those who don’t speak French, I just said that naps onboard are usually longer than those at home for me). Everybody is excited about Galapagos. I can’t count the number of times I heard people say that. During our watch, we asked a few questions to Steph since it’s her fourth time in Galapagos, and everybody is looking forward to buying shirts or other items from there. If we keep motoring at 8-10 knots, we should be there in 2 days. There is not enough wind to sail (sadly), but with the few days we lost because of the propeller, we are happy to go faster.
People who were still sleeping were woken up around 11:30 for lunch (Saskia, our head chef, helped by Smash and Dylan, made Falafels, and it was really good). As usual, after clean up, we jumped into class (Marine Bio)! We turned the AC on, to everybody’s joy. We finished the lectures for the second exam, which will be sooner than we realized. Between Marine Bio and leadership, the salon was buzzing with all sorts of conversation while the chefs were working hard in the galley. We then had leadership, and our mini-teachers of the day were Gubby and Kirby. They did a great job and temporarily turned Vela’s crew into an organization. After class, we had the chance to go on deck without our PFD for a deck shower! It resulted in lots of spraying and laughter. It felt really good to cool down a bit. Watch team 2 (the best, eh eh) on. watch from 2 pm to 6 pm, and we watched people getting pooped on by 8 or 9 bobbies that were just hanging out on the triatic, ready to fire their gift to whoever dared pass under! The deckie team will have a lot to scrub tonight! We also watched Allie getting attacked by goldfish (the snack, not real goldfish :D) before we took all the fallen goldfish and aim at Elise’s open mouth. Speaking of open mouths, Miles and Ted tried to fit as many Cheetos in their mouths and concluded the max was 4. However, during dinner, Ben proved them wrong by successfully fitting 5 Cheetos in his mouth. Good luck to swallow after that! In the afternoon, some people were also taken one by one for an interview (just kidding, it’s not an interview, it’s just to make sure everyone is doing alright as well as to make sure we all get the best experience out of seamester).
We all gathered in the cockpit for dinner. Saskia and her sous-chef killed it with pizza (making pizza on a boat is not as easy as making some at home). Some people had a surprise to find bird poop on the corner of their pizza … our visitors were not shy! We ended dinner with this squeeze question: if you could find a symbol that represents you, what would it be and why? Some people had a really interesting answer. I answered a spiral because it’s round and because I usually think a lot, though I should have said an origami boat 😉 The couples got a bit roasted while sharing their appreciation of the day because they were cheesy and because it’s fun to make fun of those we like 🙂 It was a great day.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the following day since we are approaching the equator and will soon be named shellbacks instead of pollywogs!! (only if our sacrifice is deemed worthy enough…) 😀
Don’t forget to turn your everyday routine into a special day 😉
Lexi
PS: To my family and friends, I can’t wait to talk to you in the Galapagos. We will surely have a busy schedule, but I’ll find the time to call you 😀 I love you, I miss you, and I’ll have plenty of pictures to show you 😉