April 19, 2009

April 19

Today was day one of command week. We were all a little nervous of the idea of being handed over the ship and running things on our own even though the crew, Molly and Ann trust that our group is ready for it. We took votes on who would decide members of our Command Week watches. It was a long wait to find out the new watch groups and fortunately we were all happy with the change. After lunch clean up & reports, we set sail to our final destination: Fernandina Beach, Florida. It’s hard to believe we’ve made it this far on our journey. I remember when we had just set foot on the ship and left the port in Puerto Rico but now after traveling to many islands we’re finally heading home.

Our rotated JWO (junior watch officer) Briana started us off by giving commands to leave. It took us a little longer than usual to set sail on our own but we set the sails fine, hauled up the anchor, and prepared to go on our last leg of this voyage.

On our eight to twelve night watch, it was my turn to be JWO. The wind blew hard and nerves kicked into Mr.Bailey who was very antsy about a strange noise in the main sail and how none of us could keep the ship heading straight. I knew he was just as nervous as the rest of us though. As the junior watch officer, it was my job to continuously check the radar for ships and plot a gps position on the chart every hour. I had to stay on top of everything that was going on and be aware of the ship & its surroundings. Even though it was a work load, it wasn’t as hard as it was made to seem. My “deckhand” helped me out a lot to keep rotation going and to make sure our navigation was right. It felt a little weird not having Matt or Mr.Bailey or any other crew ordering us around. Now we were more independent to run things by ourselves. As long as we continue to have good weather and the crew to keep everything safe, I know we can make it fine on the last stop of our journey.

Sara Cortes