Our sail from Bermuda to the Azores was the longest passage yet. We were out in the open ocean for 15 days without seeing a hint of land or a living soul besides our own crew. On the first evening, we had a “Coffee House” which is basically a crew talent show. Anything goes, from stand-up comedy and puppet shows, to guitar and voice performances. It was a fun night. We were rolling on the ground laughing the whole time.
From our departure, there was an intensifying low pressure system to the North of us bringing gale force winds of 35+ knots to lower latitudes in the North Atlantic and up to 50+ knots off of Nova Scotia and Iceland US
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| Minky Whales |
When we got out of the storm, everything went back to normal and we continued our lonely passage. Over the next few days we saw dolphins, whales and even a leatherback sea turtle! Dolphin sightings are very common as they are almost a daily occurrence out on the open ocean. It’s so cool! We also picked up a Portuguese Man-of-War (which, BTW, can easily kill a human!) and we kept it as a pet in a Tupperware container on the main deck until someone mysteriously set it free … Poor Manny.
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| Lessons on deck |
About halfway through the sail, we had a snow day! We normally have school EVERY day while at sea (we don’t get weekends) so this was a real treat. I watched an embarrassing amount of Big Bang Theory episodes and we spent the day lazing about. (Never fear, we still did our usual bunk inspections, hour of cleaning, two hours of galley and two hours of deck watch.) It was almost like a rainy Sunday afternoon back home!
The weather slowly got better and better as the journey went on and we had a swim call right in the middle of the Atlantic . It was SO COOL. It was the first time that I felt really small out on the water.
Off the stern of the ship (or the aft deck) we have five fishing lines, each belonging to a member of the maritime crew. They have a bit of a competition going on – in every port they seem to buy flashy new tackle to outdo each other. Surprisingly, we didn’t catch ANY fish durning the entire crossing. But on arrival day, when I was on helm, we caught four tuna in the span of an hour! One of the ABs made seared tuna salsa … it was delicious! And FRESH!
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| 100 pound Marlin caught on previous sail |
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