Programs Blog

Natalie Patetta, A Watch, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

Ship’s Log

Current Position
01° 37.708’ S x 174° 58.247’ W, near Winslow Reef

Ship’s Heading and Speed
230° and 7.5 knots

Sail Plan
Sailing around Winslow Reef under the Main’sl, Stay’sls, and Jib

Weather
An endless sky filled to the brim with stars, interrupted here and there with small clouds

Souls on Board

I was supposed to be assistant steward the very first day on the boat, but since everything was chaos and all of the students, including myself, were still trying to find their sea-legs, I missed my chance. After weeks of waiting, the opportunity finally came again. Being assistant steward has many perks. One of the best perks: you get to “sleep in”, meaning, while the rest of my watch had to start their dawn watch shift, I got to sleep for another four hours. Don’t get me wrong, I still had a lot of work to do for the day. I had to help the chief steward, Lauren, with the cooking for the entire boat, which is another perk. You get to cook for most of the day, with breaks here and there. Together, Lauren and I, with some assistance from some of the mates, made cinnamon, plain and everything bagels for breakfast. For lunch, we made butternut squash – caramelized onion risotto, with a colorful vegetable slaw. As for the finale, dinner was beef lasagna and vegetable lasagna with numerous loaves of homemade focaccia bread.

I’m not going to lie, but I never expected to eat this well while on the boat. Lauren is a brilliant chef and she’s made delicious meals on this voyage. I don’t know how she does it sometimes. Meals that come straight to mind while writing this are her pulled pork, long beans and mashed potatoes, her pita and falafel and her handmade pizza, but now, this lasagna meal is one of my top favorites. It was both delicious and so much fun to make, especially the bread. Lauren loves to cook and you can see that when she’s planning and creating the meals. She makes cooking so much fun. Whenever someone finishes being assistant steward, they often talk about how much they enjoyed it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to be assistant steward again before we arrive back in American Samoa, but given that there are only thirteen or so more days on the boat, that may not happen.

Moving away from food now, I still cannot believe that we have less than two weeks on the boat. Adam mentioned it to me earlier today, and it just put things into perspective. You have to enjoy every moment, because before long, it’s all going to disappear into memory. It’s strange. On the boat, the days seem to drag out, but grouped all together, the days fly by. Something that I thought happened yesterday was really a week ago and vice versa. Time doesn’t really exist, or I guess make sense, on this boat, because of our six hours on twelve hours off routine. With what time I do have left at sea, I’m going to make the most of it. When bumping into yet another wall or door because of a massive swell, or when I just want to sit down during my time on lookout, I’m going to embrace it, as I won’t have these opportunities come two weeks from now. When the time does come when we have to step ashore for the last time, I will definitely miss the time spent on the boat, sailing through the Pacific.

Quick shout out to my family and friends! I hope everyone is doing well. Happy almost birthday, Mom and Nana! I hope you both have great days celebrating! Miss you all and I guess I’ll see you all soon! Give Cooper a good cuddle for me!

– Natalie