The Voyage

Natalia Lee

Navigator & First Mate

        What an adventure it was!  An adventure so exciting it seemed like yesterday.  I’ll tell you my story.  Me?  I’m Natalia, former Navigator and 1^st mate on the Black Diamond.  Black Diamond was my crew’s ship.  Yes, we were explorers.  So, where should I start?  I’ll start at Gilder, my homeland, the first day of our voyage, the day where the big storm struck.

        I was doing some last minute packing, checking to see if I had my favorite telescope with me, and trying to control the feeling of wanting to scream and jump around with excitement.  We were getting ready to board the Black Diamond, the ship that would take us across the Red Ocean, towards true adventure.  The king had decided to send us on an expedition.  I was the king’s trusted advisor, Marcelo was the king’s royal cartographer, Luciana was the king’s royal chef, Nicole was Gilder’s best doctor and Juanchi was once a chief commandant in a war between Gilder and Sneezeville.  We were all very trusted by the king.  The king promised to reward us if we found lots of resources, I have a feeling that we would.  Suddenly, a big, black, cloud covered the sky.   Lightning flashed and I heard thunder rumbling in the distance.  Then…  It started to rain, hard.  I slammed the door and went to check on the other members of the crew.  They were gathered under the roof of a little shack near the port.  We all started blaming the weather, yelling and cursing.  We probably made some real loud noise in there.  Our cartographer, Marcelo, put on his matter-of-fact voice and said, “According to my calculations, the wind will be very strong and will cause our ship to sink.”  “Well,” I said, “that is SO obvious!”  Then we had an argument over his Royal Nerdiness, yelling at each other.  Finally, the captain barked, “STOP IT!” at the two of us.  After we had calmed down, we all had to go back home.  I was so bored.

Luckily, we could get on the ship the next day.  There was pretty decent wind.  We got to move 2 degrees latitude.   Marcelo was muttering something about liquid nitrogen.  Our captain says that we’ll be heading towards the Gray Ocean.  About a week after, spotted an island in the distance.  It had inhabitants, but they were friendly and offered to trade, they were delighted with the Venetian glass beads we traded with them.  Marcelo mapped the island and named it Filder, after Gilder.  Later on that day, we were pretty worried about two things.  First of all, a sailor got sick with a really high fever, he was sweating and gasping for air.   We all thought that he might die!  Fortunately, our well-trained doctor Nicole cured him with a special kind of antidote. We all stopped worrying, but then we had a really big storm.  The rain poured down in buckets, lighting flashed, the waves rocked and rolled our ship.  The wind howled and threatened to send the ship tumbling down towards the dark, deep, depths of the ocean.  A sail ripped and I had to personally climb up to repair it.  Then, I gave the others a lecture about women having to repair sails.

            On our eleventh day at sea, we found yet another island.  Marcelo named it Milder and mapped it down.  But the best part?  There was gold, lots of it.  Shiny, sparkling gold!  We couldn’t wait to tell our king!  We gathered mangoes and coconuts on the shore and our excellently trained chef, Luciana, whipped up a delicious mango Crème Brule with fresh mangoes and coconut milk.  I enjoyed it immensely.  Five uneventful but happy days later, we found ANOTHER island!  Marcelo named it Jilder and mapped it down.  We were not so fortunate like last time, this island had timber, but it was good enough to satisfy the king.

            On our twenty-third day, you are not going to believe this, we found ANOTHER island, again!  It’s called Jilder (if you don’t like the name, blame it on Marcelo.)  There were indigenous people.  We went calmly and peacefully to the island and tried to convince the people to change their religion.  We thought that they were pretty crazy because instead of being catholic like everyone else, they prayed to a strange god with a weird face.  We said that they had to change because they would be outcasts forever.  The chief said that he’ll call a council meeting to discuss about the “religion issue”.

            Our voyage was almost ending, but suddenly, we saw a dark shape siluetted against the misty skies.   We navigated closer, and there was…  SURPRISE!  Another island with gold and pearls!  The pearls were big and round, they would sell for a lot of money in Gilder.  Now, not even the gloomy weather could penetrate our joy.  We thought that we would be rich and we were probably right!  There were these strange yellow, long, thin, curvy types of fruit on the island.  I peeled it and there was a white curvy soft fruit inside.  I bit into it.  It tasted exotic, you know strange, but I liked it.  Luciana made an excellent drink out of it with some leftover coconut, it tasted creamy and sweet.  That night, we had a big party.  There was lots of laughter and dancing on the deck.  We found some spare candles and lit them all up.  It looked like a Christmas party!  We ate cake and drank cider.   We also played music and played card games like Poker and Blackjack.  I won lots of money, but the others were not mad about it.  We were rich anyway!  Then, we compared our models of the Black Diamond in glass bottles.  Naturally, Marcelo’s was the most perfect, but Luciana’s was the most creative.  Mine was the most detailed.  We also counted some of the gold and pearls we decided to take to Gilder.  There were a lot, and they were samples!  We estimated that the pearls would cost $2,000,000,000 in Gilder currency, and the gold pieces would cost $90,000,000.  We all decided to head back to Gilder.  With our great news, we would be heroes… and millionaires!

            I’m writing about this adventure to you in my mansion, my beautiful mansion!  It’s on the volcano side of the Nilder twin islands.  A small, sparkling stream separates Tropical Kingdom and Lava Springs.  After we arrived in Gilder, the king was so happy with us that he rewarded us with a lifetime supply of riches and wealth.  The Black Diamond is on exhibition in the Gilder Museum of History, we have crowds of visitors.  My mansion is right next to the volcano, which according to the best scientist in Gilder, erupted every 5,000 years.  There are lots of exotic flowers and birds called parrots.  They have bright colors like lemon yellow, red, green or electric blue.  They can also talk!  There are crystal clear rivers and bubbling hot springs.  My friends, the other crew members, visit me a lot.  I visit them too.  Sometimes we talk about our adventure, and then laugh at ourselves because how scared we were.  Everything is so serene and peaceful after all the excitement, storms and worries.  I finally feel at peace.  It was like an oasis in the middle of a hot, dry dessert.  It was like paradise!