Even the geology students can get into the awesome ocean biology out here!

Today is a momentous day for us. After all of this time at sea I can now say that we are solidly about a week from land in any direction, and even more importantly we have reached our fabled Checkpoint A. At about 1700 (5:00pm for you landlubbers) we turned the wheel away from the comfortable ~230os true we have been steering these last many days, as we have reached our golden latitude. From this point on we will be steering nearly straight west, towards our next checkpoint in the Caribbean.

We have begun to learn some methods of non-instrumental navigation that could help us more accurately plot our position: we can use the star Denebola to help us stay at the right latitude by waiting for its highest point in the night sky and comparing it to our zenith, or point in the sky right above us. We are going to try to keep the star just South of us for much of the next part of the journey

While our navigation ventures will impact our long-term destination, another very important change happened today that is much more pertinent to our day-to-day lives. Mickey, our engineer, has convinced Captain Jason that our water consumption is low enough to warrant shortening the shower schedule from one every three days to one every two! In a world where you are expecting to live in grime and mung for several days before a quick shower this news is an absolute godsend, and I am definitely expecting to see a subsequent morale boost in the upcoming days.

Dad, if you could see this ocean you'd know why most of those treasure-filled ships stay as stories and are never found. There is absolutely nothing but clouds on the horizon for miles, for days and weeks on end. They tell us our visibility on deck is about 4 nautical miles, and a little more when we go up in the rigging. When you look out on the horizon it seems to go on forever, and then you realize that there are thousands and thousands of times that size of ocean for a little ship to sink in. There are probably thousands and thousands of lives, stories and riches lost to us out here, swallowed up by the vastness of the ocean through time. And even if the stories aren't true, this place is way too big to not have secrets. Keep believing! Mom, we're not allowed to listen to music here, but every time I stand on the bow for lookout at night I always end up singing our soul music. The song varies, but I almost always end up coming back to Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. I'm  not sure if that's a reassurance or an omen, but it definitely describes us out here. STAYIN' ALIIIIIIVE!!!!!!

There's so much more to tell, but I'm running out of space and time. I want to send out some love to Jamie and Oralie; happy early birthday to you both and I wish you guys were here so we could celebrate. Shout out to all my Carleton friends holding out and saving the cold weather for when I get back, and to my awesome grandma for holding down the fort and keeping an eye on the troublemakers while I'm gone. Hopefully Peri and Phoebe have warmed up to you by now. Finally I want to shout out to my big little bro Phil, I love you and miss you so much and can't wait to see you when I get home. You da real MVP.

Signing off with Poseidon's salty kiss,
Peter