Location: Underway to Barcelona
Morning, afternoon, and night my dear readers at home,
Today was a big day — it was another day of passage! Just kidding, that’s not why it was a big day. Today we crossed the prime meridian! During watch team 1’s (obv the best watch team) 8-12 am watch, we had the joy of witnessing the longitude coordinates hit 00’00.000 minutes W and then 00’00.000 minutes E. Before this major event, we decided we needed to do something to celebrate, so we put on a lovely, never-ending, eight-minute long song called… (you’re never going to guess)… prime meridian! Natalie videoed the moment the GPS changed, and while doing that, the music cut out, so, naturally, Kayla and I blessed the rest of our watch team with our rendition of the song. We danced along as we crossed and even had a few members of other watch teams join us.
In other news, seeing the coast of Spain never gets old. The mountains and the cities are breathtaking, and it’s so cool to see how the landscape is changing. The sea state also finally calmed down, which was an incredible change from constantly beating into the waves as we’ve been doing for the majority of this passage. The wind also died, which is unfortunate, but now we also don’t have endless tacks to complete. The sunrises and sunsets have also been breath-taking, like nothing I’ve ever seen before (I’ve added pictures). The sunrise looks like a sunset. It is so red, and it expands over half of the horizon. The sun comes up red and orange — while incredibly beautiful, the beauty is making forb incredibly difficult (forb is guessing the time that the entire orb of the sun will be visible at sunrise… full orb) because I can’t stop looking directly into the sun. Am I partially blind for about ten minutes after? Who’s to say? Is it worth it? Definitely, the sunset over the coast and mountains of Spain is spectacular — it is generally bright orange, red, green, purple, you name it.
Anyways, we had lunch then, which was a delicious continental breakfast by wonderful head chef Amanda, saw a whale, then went down to do oceanography. Now, let me set a scene for y’all. The salon, without people in it, is sweltering. When we put twenty already sweating bodies into it — bad news. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated more in my life. Otherwise, though, oceanography with Dylan is always a pleasure. After class, instead of working on our research projects, we watched a Blue Planet episode! I love that show so much. The videos are incredible. I also changed my position in the salon to one with more airflow, which was spectacular. When we finished the show, there seemed to be a general consensus that it was time for a salon nap since every bench and even some of the floor was covered in sleeping students. I read for a bit on deck. Then it was time for dinner.
Another incredible meal by Amanda, which was miso soup (yum yum yum), and then we did squeeze! I asked everyone about their ideal plans for when they were older (obviously not as old as Tom, though) — did they want to be retired, where do they want to be living, who with, etc. Got some really fun answers out of that. Then, as what seems to be the trend, I made dessert! I made brookies. I always love it when I’m baking at the end of the day because once everyone sees there is a dessert being made and once the smell starts filling up the salon, I have everyone coming up to me asking me when it’s going to be done or stealing some of the brownie/cookie dough. I find it hilarious, and it also makes me smile at how excited everyone is for the dessert.
Finally, to end off the night, a group of us watched ‘I love you, man,’ which was hilarious. I was too tired to finish it, so I decided to brave the sweltering cabins to go to sleep. Honestly, I am impressed by the new climate we’ve created in those cabins. First of all, it’s already hot outside, which is the first issue. Then, the only hatch open in the section of the boat with the three and six stacks is the emergency companionway, which is nowhere near either six stacks. So, when you walk through the door from the already hot salon to the cabins, it’s like being smacked in the face. The temperature rises about ten degrees, the humidity is probably hovering around 100%, and both just keep rising as you get farther into the cabins. Needless to say, we are all getting real cozy without fans, and the words blanket and sheet aren’t spoken anymore. Luckily, the watch schedule has us always ready for sleep, so most of us have been able to bear it, regardless of waking up in a puddle of sweat every morning.
That’s all I got for now, so Mom, Dad, Quinn, I’ll talk to you tomorrow from Barcelona!