I woke up with people yelling…

Massimo (A watch)

I woke up with people yelling “All hands to raise the main”, and “Land ho” and that there were dolphins off the bow. I had gotten off evening watch at 0100, and didn’t have to be on till 1300, so I didn’t bother to get up. I did at 0900, and climbed on deck to see that we were really close to an island! We had made it to the Marquesas.

I enjoyed the morning breeze and went down and found some food leftover from breakfast. There were still mangos! Then I took a real shower (not a deck one). Then I did my laundry in some buckets on deck because I had gone through all my clothes. And I burned my head in the sun a bit because I was washing my hat and have just buzzed my head again.

After that we had a watch meeting. We do one of these every three days.

Today we got a snack of chocolate, did a rising, low, and high tide check in, and learned about fair leads. During my laundry time and the watch meeting we were going through a stretch where we were only a mile from Hiva Oa to starboard and Fatu Hiva to port. They were rocky, and dry, and brown, with cliffs, and the flat parts were like a bit of Wyoming in the middle of the ocean.

After this, at 1220, it was time for lunch. We had a Build Your Own Adventure lunch and I made mine peanut noodles and tuna salad and pretzels and beans and cucumbers. Dolphins! So I went to the bow to look at them and hear them whistle and breath, and then went to the lab for my watch.

Looking at Dolphins

Looking at Dolphins

In the lab we processed some data from the previous watch, but also did a lot of sail handling with the deck crew of our watch; we took down the fore stays’l for the first time, and set the raffee and a few other square sails.

Right as we were going to take down the staysl, “fish on”! Alas, we had to do the sails. So I kind of missed it, alas. But then I went to the science deck to watch it be cleaned. It was a big Wahoo! (that’s a kid of fish) Wahoos have cool mouths, and nice blue stripes, and pointy chins, and thick tails.

Whistle blowing

During watch, at 1600, we had class. After the deck report and the science report, we did drills because it is Monday. Part of the drill was looking for apples in the ocean, and another part was pretending the ship tipped over and we had to escape sideways. Then I went back to the lab and did some testing of our water samples. Then dinner! We had one of the best yet – rice and eggplant curry and wonderful nan and Wahoo!

I chose this day to blog cus I didn’t think much would happen and I thought it would be fun to write about a day where nothing happened. But a lot happed, it turns out. I also chose this day be cus I felt like we would catch a fish today mayhap. And we did.

Tomorrow I’m going to wake up at anchor and go on a hike on Nuku Hiva!

Massimo (A watch)