2PM is the new 10AM

Lovely to sleep in, but it was too nice a day to waste. Sam Suffi bobbed insistently from the next berth, and I had the perfect excuse to entice crew: Simon has had to make the ultimate choice and defer Module 4 and the team project for extended pre-training and preparations for his Mars Analog Expedition this summer. Unfortunately, his last minute packing meant the dock was empty at our planned departure.

I puttered about doing laundry and tidying, but couldn't quite force myself to go to campus. The water was a magnet though, and while I hung my laundry out in the spring air, I was hallooed by 2 classmates biking by who were easy to shanghai and not long after a third texted me to see if he could come too. Not an hour later, I took novice helmsman Isra (Mexico - photo to come) and classmates Marianne (Nova Scotia) and Alex (Québec) on a leisurely cruise up the Ill River.

On the way back, we stopped in at the restaurant by the stairs to the canal to meet Scott1 and Dave and place an order for barbecue fixings and Simon for dinner. Dave and Scott2 managed to drag Simon to the harbour by the time I'd steered Sam Suffi back to the berth, Marianne set up the table and Isra made fire. The impromptu feast fit nicely between a day on the water and an evening at the Irish Times Pub battling for supremacy at Quiz Night - hopefully a night that Simon will remember while he is in self-imposed isolation on Devon Island this summer.

Simon is gone, but the show, you know... must go on. Team project is about to engulf our weary class like a tidal wave. And Colin Firth and his wet-shirt awaits the next weekend.

I'm learning to "go with the flow" and keeping a more French schedule these days. I don't think I'll even bother setting a departure time next excursion ;-)