Wednesday June 2, 2021
The stowaways are beginning to multiply! Sea Dragon’s onboard team is now up to eight hearty souls! Yesterday Rebecca, Andrew, Bruce, Ben, and Jaden joined the boat and it was immediately obvious that this is going to be a great adventure! Despite long travel days, everyone was full of energy and shared the stories of what led them to Sea Dragon over banana cake and coffee.
Today, introductions continued and everyone got a thorough walk through of the boat, her systems, man over board equipment, and a sense of our responsibilities would be over the next few weeks. After a busy morning our skipper, Anna, rewarded the crew with a snorkeling break at Electric beach. It was beautiful, refreshing, and full of marine life!
Back on board we finished up the remaining pre-departure preparations which included setting up the manta trawl and going through an engine check. Before we knew it the sun had set and it was time for dinner: a veggie pasta so tasty that it would attract even the most committed carnivores! Over dinner we shared stories of our families and learned a few foreign words (such as “ la poubelle”, or ‘the trashcan” in French). Ben and Bruce were the cleaning MVPs and gave everyone a chance to take a final shore shower, call home, and jump into bed with dreams of the high seas!
I’m so excited to join Sea Dragon for this leg to Ensenada and am eager to get underway! I grew up sailing dingys and for the last few years have been working and living on tall ships and keelboats. Hopefully my sailing skills are up to snuff for the crew, but I’ve got three weeks worth of bad puns in case I need to prove my value onboard.
-Elle Schlageter
Tomorrow we set sail for Ensenada so we asked all the crew members to share their pre-departure feelings in a few words:
“EXCITED” -Jaden
“Anticipating an epic adventure” – Rebecca
“Eager for dark skies, ocean swims, and learning how to sail “ – Ben (*though this was later sarcastically amended to “I wish we had a smaller sink”)
“Excited and excited!” – Bruce
“Eager to not get seasick!” – Andrew, the seasoned Sea Dragon sailor ready to test his new seasickness remedies
Sending lots of love to everyone at home! Next stop, Mexico!