Pirates off Western Australia
Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day! It’s amazing how the JR gives me a constant reminder to really appreciate and enjoy the little things in life. 🙂
I must admit, talking like a pirate is not one of my fortes, but it was a really fun day for all of us and lifted our spirits. I’ve noticed that looking forward to things like talk-like-a-pirate-day, barbeque day, movie nights definitely help the days go by faster. Not that I don’t enjoy my life here on the JR, but some days just feel like an eternity.
Speaking of days: only 10 more days left until the end of our expedition! It’s officially countdown to Darwin starting today! I’m starting to forget what life was like with phones, Netflix, and strangers. It’s going to be weird passing strangers on land without saying “good morning!” Everyone here is on various 12 hr shifts, so you never know whether it’s morning or night for that person. Hopefully, I can stop my habit of saying good morning to everyone, at anytime, when I get back on land…
This week’s event was a kite flying competition! Everyone scavenged for anything they could use to make kites and made some really cool looking kites.
Although Dr. Frankenkite has a face only a mother could love.
It’s amazing how creative you can get when there is such limited amount of craft supplies on board. And of course, upcycling is always a win in any situation.
The winners are:
Highest Flying Kite: Tobi + Eun Young + Millie
Smallest Kite: Ben
Most Acrobatic: Tom + Chelsea
Most Colorful: Dr. Cheaty McCheatypants (a.k.a Jeroen)
Most Creative: Geochemistry Group (Hideko + Isla + Wenfang + Yuxin)
Most Dangerous: Night Shift Sedimentologists (Ali + Gerald + Hokuto + Lars + Dr. Frankenkite)
[Sorry no picture 🙁 ]
The Spectacular Crash Award: Stephen
The “You’ve got to be kidding me” Award: Willem
(Willem’s was filled with Helium)
Hooray for everyone for participating, being a good sport, and getting some sun!
The kites did have some trouble with the strong winds, so many of the hand-crafted kites broke into pieces when they crash landed on to the helideck. But a couple of them did survive and made it fairly high up in the air. There are a couple lessons I’ve learned from this kite competition:
- Kites are meant to be bought!
- Making a kite is a lot more fun than buying or flying a kite
- Wear gloves so you don’t get kite-rope burn (ouch!)