Congo 2013: of dolphins and driving

Today God brought dolphins! And lots of them too! I was in the office, then on a phone-call meeting with the states and missed the first two groups, but mid afternoon as I was sitting on the bow doing projects... and this whole pod of dolphins just appeared out of nowhere. They swam toward the ship from lots of different directions, then swam along with the ship, playing and jumping in the bow wave.
Got lots of video clips and some photos. It was so surreal to actually see them in the wild.

Through most of the sail so far we've been heading south, but sometime yesterday we turned and started heading a little more east down the coast of Africa. There were rainstorms overnight, and the swells have gotten bigger. I managed to not fall out of my bunk during the night, and feel great in spite of the ship rocking a whole lot more.

This morning, two friends and I went on a tour of the Bridge! I've seen it at night during the sail, but it was amazing to see it in the daylight. We brought along some freshly-baked treats, and had morning coffee break with them.

the bow was closed because of bad weather... its usually full of crew enjoying the sights

The highlight of my day was getting to say my new favorite words...

"requesting permission to switch off auto-pilot"

It's hard to enjoy the waters you're sailing through when you have to keep an eye on all those numbers

Yep, that's right, I got to steer the Africa Mercy! 15 years ago I first dreamed of working on the ship, and God fulfilled that dream, and but never once thought that steering was possible.

I managed to keep us within 2-ish degrees of our current heading for several minutes, then I was ready to pass it off to someone else. Kinda stressful but unforgettable! I have so much respect and admiration for the brilliant guys here on the ship who keep us safe and headed the right direction.