March 12, 2016
Well the luxury of the first few days has officially worn off and the crew has stopped “babying us” for lack of a better term. They have set us in our watch groups and have begun the shift system. We work three hours, rotating boat checks and navigation, manning the helm, and bow look out. In the morning, breakfast cleanup, below deck cleanup, and above deck cleanup. The crew still helps us and steers us in the right direction, but they are far more hands off than when we first began the journey. We anchored at Santa Barbara Island on Wednesday (not to be confused with Santa Barbara the city) and spent the rest of the day learning knots and making monkey fists in a necklace. We used a rope coming off of one of the sails as a swing and jumped from the bow of the ship into the frigid Pacific Ocean. We also met some friendly sea lions who we lovingly dubbed “Noodles.” The next day we set sail for Anacapa Island and spent the day sailing and learning the ropes both literally and figuratively. We also learned how to perform maintenance on the ship, and learned several knots. So far, the hardest part of sailor life is waking up at seven and the memorization of the ropes. The crew has been very nice and I can’t wait to see what in store for us next!
