Programs Blog

Wednesday October 23, 2025

Noon Position:  32°55.4’ N x 060°49.6’ W            

Ship Heading: 115 °PSC

Ship Speed: 8.0 kts

Log: 1445nm

Weather: Sunny with force 3 SE winds, seas 2-3 ft 26°C (almost 80°F!). Sailing under the four lowers, the JT and the fish!

Description of location: 216nm east of Bermuda

Almosts have been today’s theme.

During a busy morning watch this morning, the redundancy lashing that keeps the course yard in place was in the way of putting up the fish (our kite sail). So Jeremy, the second mate, sent me aloft to relocate it to a new spot.  I spent about an hour aloft unlashing and re-lashing. I did almost 15 lashings I think! And it seems to be staying in place-phew!

During morning watch we had almost all of our sails up! Once I was back on deck after my time aloft, we tacked twice (TWICE!), reset the JT and set the fish. Just missing the raffee (which 2^nd mate Jeremy said we couldn’t set because he hates fun) and no tops’l because it has a tear in it so we brought it down to deck to mend the rip- which we will be doing tomorrow!

Today Nate Cornell and I celebrated our half birthday! Well, almost. In reality our half birthday is in August because we were both born on February 23. But we thought it would be a good excuse to do something fun and silly- so we made invites to our joint pirate themed bday celebration and posted them all around the ship a few days ago. And then today during ships meeting, after we learned about points of sail and weather, we set everyone off on a treasure hunt we’d created.

Here are some of our favorite clues:

Top of the hour, plot your fix. Hope this clue clicks. (Clue leading to the plotting table in the charthouse where we plot our hourly position-aka gps fix- on the chart marking it with the time over log)

A star? A ship? A UFO? How to tell I just don’t know. Better inform my mate, before it gets too late. (Clue leading to the bow where a lookout is posted 24/7 who reports everything they see- last night some swear they truly saw a ufo!)

Just took a stinky poo? if you want to find this clue, you know what to do. (Clue leading to the the ventilators for the heads which never hurts to press really anytime you think of it)

After visiting the lab, the galley, the library, the focsle, and the science deck, the treasure hunt ended in dry stores with the discovery of a pirate hat (generously loaned by Tucker) and delicious coconut, pineapple rum flavored Pirate cake made by our amazing Stews Brooke and Jeremy). What a fantastic almost half birthday.

We are almost halfway through this voyage. In many ways I can’t believe we are not more. It feels like we’ve been at sea for ages. I’m almost always a little bit tired. Life in Jake’s Corner is full of almost asleeps before being jostled awake by the movement of the ocean. After my deck shower I’m  what feels like almost clean. Boat life is not for the faint of heart and sometimes it’s exhausting.

And I also can’t imagine it being over. There is almost always something beautiful to look at. Like the amazingly clear skies we had last evening watch when the Milky Way looked so prominent I thought it was a close cloud. And the array of cumulus clouds we’ve had for the past few days that are always spectacular but at sunrise and sunset glow with pinks and oranges and rays of sun that poke through on the horizon. There’s the bold brilliant blue of the Sargasso Sea- so indigo, the deepest blue. Seeing 20 flying fish glide across the waves never gets old. Despite the challenges, these beauties big and small are almost perfect.

And now it’s almost time for me to go to bed because I have dawn watch! See you at 0100!

Rebecca, Program Assistant and Deckhand

Hi Mom, Treely, Akaash, Niki and Charlie! I love and miss you 😀