June 16th 2022
This trip has taught me a lot about myself, especially when it comes to what I want to do with my career. Although I am a marine biologist major, I had little to no boat exposure or experience and this trip has shown me that I can not only handle living at sea, but that I love it. It is an ultimate conservation teacher, as you have to conserve water, food and resources to the most minimal amount possible, especially with 13 other people aboard. Our showers consisted of rinsing our bodies in the ocean, lathering with reef safe soap and then using the freshwater hose to rinse off. We often had flavored powder to put in our water, considering the fact that the tanks were filled with fresh hose water and then when they ran out, there was a water converter that filtered seawater into freshwater and it didn’t always taste the best. During the trip, each member of the crew was given a job each day, anything from captain to sail team to dishwasher. This gives us all the opportunity to learn how to drive and sail the boat, navigate the sea and keep the boat in livable conditions.
We also learned how to tie cleats, fenders to the side when we dock, lift and lower the dingy when we leave and raise, change and lower the sails.

Sometimes the open sea brings lots of movements and rain. Movements have made a lot of students experience sea sickness for the first time and with a lot of us sleeping outside, the surprise short bursts of rain would give us all a nice wake up call at random hours of the night. The sun rising at 6:00am every day was a great alarm for us that slept outside and it was really cool to wake up with no alarm, and just a circadian rhythm.
I am actually sad to go back to the societal normalities of air conditioning, “good” water, a bed, pillows, laundry and long showers because living with the bare minimum has taught me a lot about myself. A lot that I am very grateful for.