Not too many photos in this one, just thoughts…
On March 2nd, we had set sail for the longest continuous sailing passage of the trip - an 11 day voyage from Great Barrier Island to Wellington - right before the situation with coronavirus began to get really bad at home. When we left, coronavirus was on our radar, but to be completely honest I thought it would end up being one of those things that looked bad on the news but blew over by the time we got back on shore.
Well in short, it didn’t - when we got to port in Wellington, I remember turning airplane mode off on my phone and just watching the emails, texts, and news roll in from everywhere. The following day, the remainder of our voyage was cancelled, and we were all strongly encouraged to rebook flights home within the next few days.
Although hearing the news about our trip getting cut short was definitely disappointing at first, in a lot of ways, I think that we were some of the luckiest people around - if we had been at school or abroad elsewhere like many of our peers had been, we would’ve lost half a semester of in-person classes and time to spend with friends at school. Since our semester started considerably earlier, we only lost a week, which didn’t feel like a huge loss in the grand scheme of things. My experiences felt whole and complete at this point - had we been scheduled to stop in Wellington, I don’t think I would’ve felt like we had missed anything at all. I was also fortunate that we heard the news soon enough to make travel plans home before travel restrictions and flight cancellations got worse.
In many ways, the silver linings that came out of this situation were truly a blessing - for our last days underway, we lived and experienced them wholly focused on the moment since we weren’t concerned about leaving soon. Had we known the program was ending, I’m not so sure we would’ve made the most out of it - I definitely would’ve carried around a bittersweet feeling throughout those last few watches had I known we were going to stop in Wellington. Those last few watches were truly some of the best experiences I had on board, so I’m glad I was able to make the most of them. In the evening before arriving to port, there were bioluminescent dolphins swimming all around, and it was truly breathtaking to see them light up the pitch-black ocean as they swam around the ship for hours on end. During morning watch the next day, while I was on lookout, there were dolphins on all sides of the sip as far as the eye could see - there must have been 40 of them at least! It was awesome getting to be the watch that took the ship into port - the views as we pulled into the harbor were incredible, and the weather was nice and sunny (which was especially nice after going through that last gale).
The last few days were beautiful - the weather was especially great during our visit to the Zealandia Ecosanctuary, which was honestly one of the prettiest places that we visited (see photos in my post about Wellington here!)
Another silver lining that came out of the situation was being able to finish up schoolwork from the comfort of my desk at home instead of rushing to finish it while maintaining the daily routines on board the ship. Although I do miss being on board the ship, I appreciate being able to write on a stable desk without fear that my laptop might jump off the table at any moment. Having internet access while finishing up assignments (particularly for the research paper) was also really nice to have - I think I got a lot more out of the research by having the time to really dive deep into working on it while at home.
During our last passage, Henry (one of our engineers on board) taught me how to whittle. While I didn’t make much progress while on board, I’m fortunate that I was at learn and at least get started on a piece - once I got home, it gave me something to keep my hands busy while providing time and space for me to reflect on the amazing experiences I had. Although I get a bittersweet feeling whenever I think about the ship, those feelings are also always accompanied with something our captain said after sharing the news of our trip getting cut short: all adventures come to an end, and there are always unexpected things that come up - but it’s those very things that make it an adventure.
Looking back, this experience honestly has me just excited for life in general right now. At the start of college, I had no idea that this program existed, much less thought that it would be something I’d be lucky enough to be a part of. I don’t know what other awesome experiences are out there, but I look forward to whatever comes next - here’s to the next adventure! (But for now, I’ll enjoy the opportunity to unwind and spend lots of time at home with my family)
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to send me a message if you’d like to chat, I’d love to hear from you!