Date: April 24, 2012
Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Author: AR
On this nostalgic evening the Argonauts begin to say farewell to each other. After 89 days of non-stop action and adventures of a lifetime we have began to reminisce over this amazing adventure. Some of us have begun to hold back tears during the farewell presentations; others already have plans for the next step upon arriving home. The day was spent cleaning up our bunkrooms and keeping Argo looking new. Once cleanups were finished we all found ourselves remembering arrivals and were astonished how fast the 3 months went by. For our final night the crew plans to have a nice dinner at a local restaurant then off to the award ceremony to cheer as loud as possible for Argo!

Date: April 23, 2012
Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Author: Laurie
Today was the final day of the Antigua Classic Yachts Regatta and good luck brought us a lot of wind which made for some great sailing. The crew worked like a well oiled machine and could stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of the crews in the race. We made very good time and came in only 10 minutes behind ÔZacaÕ, a professional boat that is much faster than Argo and came in well in front of ÔKairosÕ, our nearest competitor who beat Argo last year. The weather was beautiful and everyone had huge smiles on their faces all day. It was a great way to spend our last day on the water and each and every student should be thoroughly proud of themselves and all that they have learned. Great day!

Date: April 22, 2012
Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Author: Graham
Today began bright and early with all of the preparations for the coming race. It was our third day of racing and we were still ahead in the standings of our rival, Kairos. This is something we were incredibly excited about and now we just had to maintain the lead. With clear skies and good winds the weather could not have been more suitable for a long day of sailing. During the sail we all went to our designated positions throughout the boat and worked in unison with an efficiency that on day 1 we never would have thought we could amount to. The beautiful thoroughbreds of the sailing world, Elena, Rebecca, Athos, and the new comer, Firefly, provided great entertainment cruising by us at breakneck speeds. At the end of the race we took part in the annual yacht parade that took part in the marina we began our voyage in. Coming back to the dock we cleaned up the boat and started getting ready for tonights dinner which was to be a barbecue on a nearby beach. A couple hours later we were all feasting on chicken and burgers on a very relaxing beach looking out over the marina. Feeling very fulfilled we all cleared out and got ready for the night out at the Maine Party going on at the marina. With live music and fresh lobster, we all had a very fun night and went to sleep with great anticipation for the final leg of the race the following day.

Date: April 19, 2012
Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Author: Sam
Today marked the start of our final adventure on Argo, the preparations for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta began in Earnest as the students woke up to finish some final parts of the boat off to perfection for our arrival on the dock alongside beautiful Yachts from around the world, the Spirit of Tradition Ketch Rebecca is on our port side and behind us, shipped from Monaco is Tuigo, a traditional classic which is one of the only other boats racing that doesnÕt have winches and motors to help them raise sails. With flags flying proudly, we fitted snugly in with this crowd of premium yachts. The skippers briefing was tonight and I found out which yachts was going to be in our class and what the courses would be. The first race tomorrow is ÔThe Old RoadÕ which should be a nice sail except for the short upwind leg. Our start time isnÕt until 11:15 but we will be pushing off the dock around 0800 with professional photographer in tow, so keep your eyes peeled in magazines over the next few weeks and you could see some up close and personal shots of the shipmates doing what theyÕve learnt how to do best, sail Argo like a crew!

Date: April 18, 2012
Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Author: Matt H
Today was our first full day at anchor in Antigua and itÕs hard to imagine that itÕs been 3 months since we left. We started our day with a granola breakfast followed by a meeting where we had our jobs assigned to us for our big boat appreciation day. Some of us waxed the hull, others washed the deck and polished all the stainless, we started cleaning around 9 and didnÕt get finished until 5. Once we finished we ate dinner and had retakes for some of our MTE tests. The boat looks great, we have a few things to finish up in the morning then we head to the dock to get ready for Classics week. Everyone is excited for the upcoming week; most of the boats that are competing in the race are here, we canÕt wait to be docked so we can get a better look at them.

Date: April 17, 2012
Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Author: Alex
3:50 a.m. the lights go on in my cabin. My first thought, ÒIÕm going to kill whoever decided to wake up my cabin-mate for anchor watch by turning on all the lights.Ó My second thought, ÒOh wait, thatÕs right we have to get up and set sail for Antigua.Ó I walk into the saloon and people are already about ready to get started. ItÕs incredible how eager we all are to set the sails so we can go back to sleepÉ depending what watch team you are. We all get up on deck and do the finishing touches on passage prep, everyone in a slightly sleep deprived giddiness. Watch team three sets the main, two sets the main staysail, and watch team one sets the forward staysail. We thought we had the forward staysail this time, but right at the end we saw that once again we had been bested as we missed one shackle on the stay (we still think we would have been fine if there had been light). Watch team three took over watch from 5-8, while watch teams one and two went back to bed. Last watches were a little sad, but most of us tried not to think about it too much. Within 20 minutes of Antigua we all sat down for dinner at 6, seeing a beautiful pink-fire sunset, then we set anchor. Our day wasnÕt over yet, though, as we still had to present our research projects. Around 9:30 we were able to stumble to bed and recharge for the well anticipated all day boat appreciation the next day.

Date: April 16, 2012
Location: St. Barth's
Author: Scotty
As the day comes to an end aboard Argo I would like to tell you about our day here in St. BarthÕs. It all started at 7 am for breakfast, then we did our clean up. Afterwards, we headed into the saloon for some how to presentations. For example, Glenn taught us how to build an air cannon - this will be useful during race week. Hannah D showed us some yoga, which was a good way for us all de-stress and relax. Then it was time to make landfall in St. BarthÕs as we loaded up in the dinghy in groups of five, all with laptops praying we donÕt get wet, yet we always do. When we got on to dry land we got into our groups for the day with some of us surfing waves and others surfing the web. An epic time was had by all!

Date: April 14, 2012
Location: Ile Fourchue, St. Barth's
Author: Carter
St BarthŽlemyÕs Ð A place of fine wine and refined women. This morning we left in a hurry to reach a dive site, but Argo will soon return once more for St. BarthÕs embrace. For the time being, much was enjoyed today at Ile Fourchue. Though uninhabited, this small cove promotes great dive sites and a sunrise-chasing hike to be embarked no later than 5:30 tomorrow morning. In hopes to achieve NavMaster certification and as part of PSCT, this morning we all took part in completing the Navigation exam. Charts and plotters in hand, we drew our running fixes and found the set and drift of currents the Òold-fashionedÓ, but classic (and surprisingly accurate) way. Following the exam, I journeyed into the cove for the last dive of the trip. A juvenile shark and ray accompanied my dive group, as we relaxed underwater having finally completed our advanced open water certification. The days wind down as we near Antigua Classics and will be filled with hiking and plenty of time to improve seamanship in preparation. We need to give a huge Birthday Shout out to Hannah D!! What a great day for a birthday , oh and the brownies were awesome as well! Side note from Brittany : This also marked the dive that certified all of the divers that came to Argo with zero experience as Advanced Divers! Also, for the last 79 days Hayley and Kimmery have been working very hard, demonstrating skills, pumping tanks, organizing dive days, leading dives, doing scenarios and doing very long swim tests to finally arrive to this momentÉ they are both officially PADI Divemasters! Congratulations to the both of you, you are both amazing divers and will be great DMÕs, keep diving! Thank you so much for all of your help throughout this semester.

Date: April 13, 2012
Location: Gustavia, St. Barth's
Author: Brittany
The morning was greeted with an optional MTE class to prepare for the final exam that followed the next day. After class was complete and Argo was cleared into St. Barths, the Argonauts headed ashore. Walking around St. BarthÕs only left two obvious answers of what to do: one, go shopping; two, stop at as many cafes as possible and drink as much espresso and eat as many baguettes and cheese as one can take. And this is what the crew did as they wondered around St. Barths enjoying the last stop before the final destination of Antigua. Some of the crew came back to the boat a little before dinner to put final touches on their PSCT presentations, various papers, or do some last minute studying for the navigation exam. After dinner we had great peanut butter cookies to celebrate GlennÕs birthday! Happy Birthday! Then the students had their last OCB class for the semester. It is quite surreal how close this program is to ending and how close everyone has become, only a few more days until we can show what we have learned and how we have bonded and work so well as a team in Classics week.

Date: April 11, 2012
Location: Underway
Author: Charlotte
Everyone on Argo has been soaking up their time together as today officially marked the last 2 weeks point! We all enjoyed another lovely day in Virgin Gorda. We awoke to crepes made by head chef Hannah S., and her sous chefs Matty and Britt. Then we had another free day hanging out at the Bitter End Yacht Club and the Saba Rock Resort. We played some foosball and pool at the pub (shout out to Alex with her excellent pool skills) and the PSCT students studied for their final exam. After dinghy pick-ups at 4 we all came back to Argo and started passage prep for St. BarthÕs! We then had a superb chicken curry dinner as we headed underway to our second to last island.