Location: Underway to Richard's Bay
Good morning from 27*10.9’S 45*54.5’E! For the whole of watch team three, the day started at 12:00 am for our round of watch yet again. The days went by so quickly, and it felt like just yesterday. We were waking up at this same time, looking forward to a bowl of popcorn and calm seas. While the sea state was calmer than it had been over the last 24 hours, we were flying at nine knots consecutively for an hour or so with the help of our trusty new propeller. There is a certain peace to only going a couple of knots but there is a great feeling in gliding across the water a speed we don’t hit very often. While watch did not differ much from the other nights, topics on artificial intelligence and how our parents met filled our time with ease, and the hours flew by. But this was the watch in which Ali and Ava fulfilled Hannah’s dream of a prank war by adding some leftover Ramen water to her water bottle that was left peacefully on the bopbagonudh. Later in the afternoon, she stressed the necessity of putting in the blog her near-death experience of being poisoned by vomit in her water. Hannah, I truly hope by the time you are back home and reading these blogs, the lingering taste of ramen has disappeared from your most prized possession. Following the boat-wide wake-ups at 11:30, we were once again graced by one of Ava’s delicious meals with homemade cinnamon rolls and incredibly dry eggs (which is the only right way to cook them, in case you were wondering). After clean-up, we all gathered in the incredibly hot salon for a rare Gabe episode.
Reviewing what we’ve been learning over the past two months, not by books or lectures but rather by practice, drills, and lots of trial and error. Then, an even rarer occurrence occurred in an oceanography class taught by Ben. I have been trying to figure out all day what to write about. Oftentimes, there is a lesson weighing heavy on my heart, a realization, or something new that I can’t get off my mind, but finally, as I sit down to write this blog, I reflect on all the trip logs I read before coming on this journey. The dreaded countdown has begun, and the time we have left here on Argo is really hitting as we get closer to South Africa, where our first ocean crossing comes to an end. Here’s a message to those debating signing up for this adventure Coming to live on Argo was my first time ever being away from home, ever living without my dad’s hugs and life lessons or my mom’s encouragement and homemade meals. I won’t lie; it hasn’t been easy, but I’ve been thinking about the times in the near future when I won’t always be living at home, times when I can grow beyond measure and build a life of my own.
There are days I really miss my bed and my big duvet at home, but I know for a fact there will be a day not far from now when I will desperately miss my bunk. I think if you’re reading this blog and you’re trying to decide if you are ready to leave home for the first time and sail across an ocean, you aren’t ready. I wasn’t ready. But if you wait until you’re ready, you may never go. Stop thinking about it, send in the application, and put yourself out there to live life with twenty some odd strangers on a 112ft sailboat; you’ll learn things about others and yourself, and you will walk away a better person than you walked in; I can promise you that. Oh, have I mentioned that today is day 65, a national holiday? A day that I’m not sure if we have been looking forward to or dreading. An Argonaut that once resided in the starboard six stack gave us little hope for this day, but I think that I can speak for most people on board that there have been days that have felt like day 65 much more than it did today, perhaps when flaking the main sail or when our eta to Mauritius was two days for six days straight, days that were hard in the moment but we look back on fondly. I’m glad that this crew could turn day 65 into something special with laughter, cinnamon rolls, and Gabe episodes. Lots of love to my people back home. Ellie, Mom, and Dad, I miss you more than words could describe. Dad, I can’t wait to be in the sameish time zone as you in ten days’ time! I love you so much!