A long time ago, it was in a galaxy far, far away…

A tropical depression is spinning in the North Atlantic Ocean. A few days ago, we graduated from the South Atlantic Ocean to the plain old Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway, this tropical depression, which is not close, is messing with our mojo. It is interesting how the weather in the oceans works. You look at it and think, “That is far, far away.” But the swell, the winds, and the rain would tell you maybe it is not that far away. So today, we battled.

Early this morning, we exited Brazilian water and began to traverse three small nations I had heard of but did not know much about. They all sit and enjoy proximity to the Amazon and are rich in natural resources. However, what I found more interesting was the colonial risk board they created. (Note it is really a story of several countries over time, but the below is just keeping it simple)

French Guiana: French

Suriname: Dutch

Guyana: English

If you put Brazil in the mix with Portugal and Venezuela in the mix with Spanish, we have like a full-court press on the colonial presence of the early 17th century in northern South American

Finally, today, we prepared our melon.

There are a lot of odd traditions at sea. Like taking a shot when you cross the equator, etc., but the New Year’s Eve melon toss is right up there. If you happen to find yourself at sea on New Year’s, it is good luck to toss a melon into the sea. And considering how rare of an opportunity this is we did not want to miss it. We are adding the rarely achieved melon toss to the long list of cool things we have done on this trip.

Happy New Year to all, and may your melon dreams come true in 2025