Sarah has not been able to get internet connection where Sorlandet is currently docked in Tobago. It's +26C in Tobago at the moment, with high of +28C for tomorrow; I know where I'd like to be tonight!
She's hoping to post at their next port of call - Cartegena, Columnbia. Sorlandet is expected to arrive there around January 5th, 2011. Till then, Happy New Year everyone :-)
Nan
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean
Sorlandet left Praia, Cabo Verde early this morning, leaving Africa behind and heading for Trinidad and Tobago. For those following this blog, I wanted to let you know that it's expected to take about 18 days to sail across, with arrival in Trinidad planned for December 22nd. The crew will be spending Christmas in Tobago (lucky!). Sarah's looking forward to watching a movie projected onto a sail during this crossing! Here's wishing Sorlandet and its crew a smooth sail across! Nan :-)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Senegal!
This one’s long. And I mean really long. Like the make yourself a cup of coffee first long. Just thought I’d give you a heads up :)
We got into Dakar last Thursday night and it was hot! It doesn’t help that we have to wear pants. I still haven’t gotten used to the heat over a week later. It’s really humid and always more that 30°C sometimes 40°C so you feel sticky and sweaty all the time. I’ve never been this hot in my life! But enough complaining about the heat. You’re all probably getting mad at me and thinking, “Well Sarah, here its -30°C and snowing so don’t complain!” though I must say I think that I prefer the snow to this disgusting heat. I’m also finding that my French is coming very much in handy. Though I don’t speak Wollof, the native language, most people will speak French fluently so I’m having a much easier time than others with no French skills whatsoever.
On Friday we went to a center where nurses are trained to meet with SYTO (Senegal Youth Travel Organisation) students that we will be working with during our time here. We did some icebreaker games and it was so much fun! It was amazing how much we have in common. Around lunch time we were allowed to leave with them so that they could show us around Dakar. My group took us out for lunch where they served yassa, a traditional Senegalese dish with chicken or fish in a really good sauce on rice. They also took us to the beach where we went swimming with our clothes on because no one brought swim suits. We thought that it was a good idea until we were told by our SYTO friends that we couldn’t take a taxi back to the boat like that so we had to walk a long ways. It was worth it though. The only problem is that now I have a very salty pair of pants and we don’t get laundry until after we leave.
Saturday was again spent with the SYTO students. We went back to the center and there was a guest speaker in the morning who talked to us about the dying art of storytelling and shared with us some of the important Senegalese values. We went out for lunch with the SYTO students and in the afternoon there was a youth forum organised by the SYTO kids on topics such as culture, politics and youth employment in Senegal. It was really interesting to hear about what they have to say on topics such as religion, polygamy and education. There are so many different things about the culture here due to the fact that almost everyone is Muslim.
Sunday was a port program. We took the ferry to Goree Island, and island just off the coast of Senegal. It was here that millions of African slaves were kept before they were shipped across the Atlantic to the US, Brazil, Haiti and other countries. It’s hard to guess at its dark history just by looking at the island. There are brightly painted houses and a beautiful beach. It actually looks like something off of a Caribbean postcard. We got a tour of the island from one of the island’s 1000 residents. We visited the slave houses and saw where they were kept before they were shipped across the Atlantic. It was horrible some of the stories that we heard. We saw the door of no return, the door that the slaves passed through to board the boats and never come back. It wasn’t all depressing on the island though. Goree is home to the most prestigious school in Senegal, for girls chosen from across the country because of academic excellence. It was founded by a Senegalese author. It also used to house one of Senegal’s best medical colleges. The island was incredibly touristy. There were vendors everywhere and people constantly trying to sell you art, sculptures, jewellery and other random touristy stuff. We took the ferry back to Dakar after spending a good chunk of the day on the island and a group of us went to a bakery. Here we bought ice cream cakes and took them back to the boat. We ate them all sitting on the dock beside the ship. I felt sick and after our ice cream fest we all had to lay on the dock in the fetal position. It was great!
On Monday we met up with the SYTO kids again to work on our projects. We were separated into three projects: microfinance, health and agriculture. I was in the microfinance group. We visited the SEM office (Senegal Eco village Microfinance Fund) who provides microfinance group loans to people who are living in an eco village. We got a presentation as to what microfinance is, what an eco village and what SEM does. It was very interesting. We also met with the people in charge of the SEM office in Dakar. I was the only one in my group that spoke French fluently so I was asked to do a short presentation on what Class Afloat is and what we do. Afterwards, because I had done the presentation, a lady that had been one of the founders of SEM wanted to talk to me. She was really nice and it was amazing that she chose to talk to me.
Tuesday was our project day! The microfinance group took a two hour bus ride into an eco village outside of Dakar. We got there late in the morning. It was a rural village that the government had invested in to turn it into a sustainable eco village. There are lots of very innovative agricultural techniques that are being used in order for them to grow their food more efficiently. For example, with the new drip irrigation they went from using 10 litres of water every day on a certain crop to only 1 every two days. We got a tour of the village during which all their agriculture and sustainable techniques were explained. Being a bit of a tree hugger, I found some of the little things that they did to make themselves completely sustainable amazing! The people from the village followed us around during the tour. I missed quite a bit of it though because I was talking with some of the little kids from the village. They were so cute! They wanted me to take pictures of them so I did however immediately afterwards they all crowded around the camera wanting to see what the pictures looked like. This was a huge source of amusement and pretty soon even the mom and the grandmother were looking at the pictures, laughing at some of the funny faces that the kids were making. In the afternoon we sat down to ask the villagers questions. The people of the village had applied for a microfinance loan and therefore a SEM representative and a man from the government wanted to talk to them about how to go about receiving a loan and what they would be using it for. The idea of SEM is to not give out individual microfinance loans to a single person but instead group loans to a small group of people. This ensures that if one year there is a bad harvest for example and one person is incapable of paying their loan, there will be others who can help them. The whole village had applied for a loan so that the women could make cheese to sell with the excess milk from the cows. We also got to split up into smaller groups and interview one of the women in town. We, with the help of a few SYTO students, asked her what her life was like, why she lives in an eco village, ect. I interviewed Myriam. She has three children. She invited us into her straw hut so that we could see what it looked like on the inside. This was quite an experience for me. I guess that I thought before going to this village that the people in Africa live in straw huts because they can’t afford anything better and that they’re unhappy there. This really isn’t the case at all. There was a queen sized wooden bed complete with bedside tables and a dresser inside this hut. Myriam was happy with her home and her hut was comfortable and practical. This was really different from the typical Western perspective towards African countries. All in all my project day was incredible. I met some of the nicest, most inviting people ever in this eco village and had a great time.
On Wednesday the teachers decided that we had earned a sleep in day. Yay! I discovered however that after growing accustomed to waking up at a certain time I am no longer capable of sleeping in and I woke up at 8am which was a bit disappointing. There was a group of us that decided to drive out to Lac Rose that day or Pink Lake for all you non- French folks. We caught a small bus for really cheap with the help of a very friendly SYTO student. We had the bus all to ourselves for the day! The bus ride took about an hour and a half. When we got out to the lake our tour guide (yes the bus also included a tour guide/body guard/bartering helper/friend!) took us for a traditional lunch of maffe which is peanut sauce on rice. We also visited the local artisans market. Then it was time for swimming! I would recommend google imaging a picture of this lake so that you can see just how pink the water is because I didn’t get the best pictures:P It was pink because of algae I think. Anyways the lake was also extremely salty. Kind of like the Dead Sea. We had so much fun just floating around. I could float vertically, and my shoulders would be out of the water! It looked like I was standing. When we got out there was a local lady who had brought us fresh water to rinse off. It was really nice of her. It got weird though because the water lady set up some jewellery to try and sell us some. Another lady set some up as well but apparently the water lady had dibs on us because when I picked up a necklace from the second lady, water lady comes running in, yanks the necklace out of my had and pulls me over to her blanket. There was then this huge yelling match between the two ladies and a bit of a catfight. We all decided to run back to the bus. We drove away but as we were leaving we noticed that the crazy water lady had jumped onto the back of the bus! The tour guide and the SYTO guy went over and opened the back door to make her get off but she started screaming and wanted to shove past and onto the bus, insisting that one of us had stolen something though no one did. In the end the tour guide yelled, “Accelerate!” to the bus driver. He gunned it as the tour guide shoved the lady off of the bus and slammed the door. We looked out the back window and watched as the crazy lady ran after the bus with the other lady laughing her head off in the background. What a gong show!
Thursday we had a port program in the morning with shore leave in the afternoon. In the morning I visited a street kid’s center. It was for boys from the ages of 5 to 18 that had been found living on the streets. They were given food, a place to stay, medical care, school, activities, counselling and really anything that they need. There are some volunteers there that so things with the boys such as crafts, tae kwon do, music and basketball. The main goal of the center is to try and unite these kids with their families, because many of them had just gotten separated. There is also mediation between families to find out how the children had gotten separated in the first place. We got a tour of the facility and then we sang some songs with the boys. It was really fun. They were so cute and they loved learning new Canadian songs, as well as teaching us their Senegalese music. In the afternoon I just went out for internet which was when I posted that Morocco blog.
Friday was our last day in Senegal. There was shore leave in the morning so I visited Marche des HLM, the main fabric market in Dakar. The fabrics were amazing! So many vibrant, African prints. You were even able to get clothes made on the spot but we didn’t have enough time for that. In the afternoon we had to go back to the ship because there was an open house and reception on the boat for all those people who we had worked with during our time in Dakar such as all the SYTO students, the people from SEM and many more. Sadly, as soon as I got back from the market I got really sick. I’m pretty sure it was heat exhaustion. So I slept through the whole thing. Apparently the really sweet lady from the SEM office was looking for me too :P I ended up staying sick for most of the sail to Cape Verde which leads me to believe that I actually had the flu and not heat exhaustion . The sail was really short so I’m not going to write an entry for it. I’ll just put some stuff here. We saw a sea turtle that had migrated all the way from South America which was cool. It was massive. Also, we needed to conserve water before going into Cape Verde so we could only take saltwater showers, no freshwater. That’s all really. Sorry about the lack of pictures I actually didn’t take that many in this port.
We got into Dakar last Thursday night and it was hot! It doesn’t help that we have to wear pants. I still haven’t gotten used to the heat over a week later. It’s really humid and always more that 30°C sometimes 40°C so you feel sticky and sweaty all the time. I’ve never been this hot in my life! But enough complaining about the heat. You’re all probably getting mad at me and thinking, “Well Sarah, here its -30°C and snowing so don’t complain!” though I must say I think that I prefer the snow to this disgusting heat. I’m also finding that my French is coming very much in handy. Though I don’t speak Wollof, the native language, most people will speak French fluently so I’m having a much easier time than others with no French skills whatsoever.
On Friday we went to a center where nurses are trained to meet with SYTO (Senegal Youth Travel Organisation) students that we will be working with during our time here. We did some icebreaker games and it was so much fun! It was amazing how much we have in common. Around lunch time we were allowed to leave with them so that they could show us around Dakar. My group took us out for lunch where they served yassa, a traditional Senegalese dish with chicken or fish in a really good sauce on rice. They also took us to the beach where we went swimming with our clothes on because no one brought swim suits. We thought that it was a good idea until we were told by our SYTO friends that we couldn’t take a taxi back to the boat like that so we had to walk a long ways. It was worth it though. The only problem is that now I have a very salty pair of pants and we don’t get laundry until after we leave.
Saturday was again spent with the SYTO students. We went back to the center and there was a guest speaker in the morning who talked to us about the dying art of storytelling and shared with us some of the important Senegalese values. We went out for lunch with the SYTO students and in the afternoon there was a youth forum organised by the SYTO kids on topics such as culture, politics and youth employment in Senegal. It was really interesting to hear about what they have to say on topics such as religion, polygamy and education. There are so many different things about the culture here due to the fact that almost everyone is Muslim.
Sunday was a port program. We took the ferry to Goree Island, and island just off the coast of Senegal. It was here that millions of African slaves were kept before they were shipped across the Atlantic to the US, Brazil, Haiti and other countries. It’s hard to guess at its dark history just by looking at the island. There are brightly painted houses and a beautiful beach. It actually looks like something off of a Caribbean postcard. We got a tour of the island from one of the island’s 1000 residents. We visited the slave houses and saw where they were kept before they were shipped across the Atlantic. It was horrible some of the stories that we heard. We saw the door of no return, the door that the slaves passed through to board the boats and never come back. It wasn’t all depressing on the island though. Goree is home to the most prestigious school in Senegal, for girls chosen from across the country because of academic excellence. It was founded by a Senegalese author. It also used to house one of Senegal’s best medical colleges. The island was incredibly touristy. There were vendors everywhere and people constantly trying to sell you art, sculptures, jewellery and other random touristy stuff. We took the ferry back to Dakar after spending a good chunk of the day on the island and a group of us went to a bakery. Here we bought ice cream cakes and took them back to the boat. We ate them all sitting on the dock beside the ship. I felt sick and after our ice cream fest we all had to lay on the dock in the fetal position. It was great!
On Monday we met up with the SYTO kids again to work on our projects. We were separated into three projects: microfinance, health and agriculture. I was in the microfinance group. We visited the SEM office (Senegal Eco village Microfinance Fund) who provides microfinance group loans to people who are living in an eco village. We got a presentation as to what microfinance is, what an eco village and what SEM does. It was very interesting. We also met with the people in charge of the SEM office in Dakar. I was the only one in my group that spoke French fluently so I was asked to do a short presentation on what Class Afloat is and what we do. Afterwards, because I had done the presentation, a lady that had been one of the founders of SEM wanted to talk to me. She was really nice and it was amazing that she chose to talk to me.
Tuesday was our project day! The microfinance group took a two hour bus ride into an eco village outside of Dakar. We got there late in the morning. It was a rural village that the government had invested in to turn it into a sustainable eco village. There are lots of very innovative agricultural techniques that are being used in order for them to grow their food more efficiently. For example, with the new drip irrigation they went from using 10 litres of water every day on a certain crop to only 1 every two days. We got a tour of the village during which all their agriculture and sustainable techniques were explained. Being a bit of a tree hugger, I found some of the little things that they did to make themselves completely sustainable amazing! The people from the village followed us around during the tour. I missed quite a bit of it though because I was talking with some of the little kids from the village. They were so cute! They wanted me to take pictures of them so I did however immediately afterwards they all crowded around the camera wanting to see what the pictures looked like. This was a huge source of amusement and pretty soon even the mom and the grandmother were looking at the pictures, laughing at some of the funny faces that the kids were making. In the afternoon we sat down to ask the villagers questions. The people of the village had applied for a microfinance loan and therefore a SEM representative and a man from the government wanted to talk to them about how to go about receiving a loan and what they would be using it for. The idea of SEM is to not give out individual microfinance loans to a single person but instead group loans to a small group of people. This ensures that if one year there is a bad harvest for example and one person is incapable of paying their loan, there will be others who can help them. The whole village had applied for a loan so that the women could make cheese to sell with the excess milk from the cows. We also got to split up into smaller groups and interview one of the women in town. We, with the help of a few SYTO students, asked her what her life was like, why she lives in an eco village, ect. I interviewed Myriam. She has three children. She invited us into her straw hut so that we could see what it looked like on the inside. This was quite an experience for me. I guess that I thought before going to this village that the people in Africa live in straw huts because they can’t afford anything better and that they’re unhappy there. This really isn’t the case at all. There was a queen sized wooden bed complete with bedside tables and a dresser inside this hut. Myriam was happy with her home and her hut was comfortable and practical. This was really different from the typical Western perspective towards African countries. All in all my project day was incredible. I met some of the nicest, most inviting people ever in this eco village and had a great time.
On Wednesday the teachers decided that we had earned a sleep in day. Yay! I discovered however that after growing accustomed to waking up at a certain time I am no longer capable of sleeping in and I woke up at 8am which was a bit disappointing. There was a group of us that decided to drive out to Lac Rose that day or Pink Lake for all you non- French folks. We caught a small bus for really cheap with the help of a very friendly SYTO student. We had the bus all to ourselves for the day! The bus ride took about an hour and a half. When we got out to the lake our tour guide (yes the bus also included a tour guide/body guard/bartering helper/friend!) took us for a traditional lunch of maffe which is peanut sauce on rice. We also visited the local artisans market. Then it was time for swimming! I would recommend google imaging a picture of this lake so that you can see just how pink the water is because I didn’t get the best pictures:P It was pink because of algae I think. Anyways the lake was also extremely salty. Kind of like the Dead Sea. We had so much fun just floating around. I could float vertically, and my shoulders would be out of the water! It looked like I was standing. When we got out there was a local lady who had brought us fresh water to rinse off. It was really nice of her. It got weird though because the water lady set up some jewellery to try and sell us some. Another lady set some up as well but apparently the water lady had dibs on us because when I picked up a necklace from the second lady, water lady comes running in, yanks the necklace out of my had and pulls me over to her blanket. There was then this huge yelling match between the two ladies and a bit of a catfight. We all decided to run back to the bus. We drove away but as we were leaving we noticed that the crazy water lady had jumped onto the back of the bus! The tour guide and the SYTO guy went over and opened the back door to make her get off but she started screaming and wanted to shove past and onto the bus, insisting that one of us had stolen something though no one did. In the end the tour guide yelled, “Accelerate!” to the bus driver. He gunned it as the tour guide shoved the lady off of the bus and slammed the door. We looked out the back window and watched as the crazy lady ran after the bus with the other lady laughing her head off in the background. What a gong show!
Thursday we had a port program in the morning with shore leave in the afternoon. In the morning I visited a street kid’s center. It was for boys from the ages of 5 to 18 that had been found living on the streets. They were given food, a place to stay, medical care, school, activities, counselling and really anything that they need. There are some volunteers there that so things with the boys such as crafts, tae kwon do, music and basketball. The main goal of the center is to try and unite these kids with their families, because many of them had just gotten separated. There is also mediation between families to find out how the children had gotten separated in the first place. We got a tour of the facility and then we sang some songs with the boys. It was really fun. They were so cute and they loved learning new Canadian songs, as well as teaching us their Senegalese music. In the afternoon I just went out for internet which was when I posted that Morocco blog.
Friday was our last day in Senegal. There was shore leave in the morning so I visited Marche des HLM, the main fabric market in Dakar. The fabrics were amazing! So many vibrant, African prints. You were even able to get clothes made on the spot but we didn’t have enough time for that. In the afternoon we had to go back to the ship because there was an open house and reception on the boat for all those people who we had worked with during our time in Dakar such as all the SYTO students, the people from SEM and many more. Sadly, as soon as I got back from the market I got really sick. I’m pretty sure it was heat exhaustion. So I slept through the whole thing. Apparently the really sweet lady from the SEM office was looking for me too :P I ended up staying sick for most of the sail to Cape Verde which leads me to believe that I actually had the flu and not heat exhaustion . The sail was really short so I’m not going to write an entry for it. I’ll just put some stuff here. We saw a sea turtle that had migrated all the way from South America which was cool. It was massive. Also, we needed to conserve water before going into Cape Verde so we could only take saltwater showers, no freshwater. That’s all really. Sorry about the lack of pictures I actually didn’t take that many in this port.
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| Goree Island |
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| A little girl who followed me around the ecovillage |
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| Myriam, the lady that I interviewed |
Friday, November 26, 2010
Sail to Senegal
In case you didn’t realize I posted an entry for Morocco as well so look below :)
The sail to Senegal was calm and hot. Very hot. It really felt like I was in Africa. Most of the sail was really calm as well. For the first time there wasn’t a storm. There isn’t much to write about so this entry will be short. There were more whales which were, like always, amazing. I also saw another sunfish! We celebrated Halloween during the sail. It was too rough to dress up on the real Halloween that’s why we did it late. I was a ninja (the costume was quite easy with all the turbans that were bought in Morocco). It was a lot of fun. People had to get really creative with costumes on the boat so some of them were hilarious! We had a fashion show of the costumes and then a scary movie night. We also did some fundraisers on the sail to raise money for our projects in Senegal. One of the fundraisers was an auction. Students would sign up for things, such as a 30 minute massage, or taking someone’s night watch, and then everyone would bid on them. The baking club sold a cake of choice for $120! You can probably guess what food we all miss on the ship! All three cakes that were sold at the auction went for more than a hundred dollars. It was crazy how much people will bid on things. Though I guess I’m not one to talk because I, along with a group of 6 others, bid $130 for a cake that the cook would make during the sail across the Atlantic. We didn’t get it however, someone else wanted to pay more. In the environmental club we also worked to reduce water usage on the ship in order to arrive in Senegal with a full tank of water and were successful! Well that’s it for now. I hope to get up a Senegal blog before I leave but no promises.
The sail to Senegal was calm and hot. Very hot. It really felt like I was in Africa. Most of the sail was really calm as well. For the first time there wasn’t a storm. There isn’t much to write about so this entry will be short. There were more whales which were, like always, amazing. I also saw another sunfish! We celebrated Halloween during the sail. It was too rough to dress up on the real Halloween that’s why we did it late. I was a ninja (the costume was quite easy with all the turbans that were bought in Morocco). It was a lot of fun. People had to get really creative with costumes on the boat so some of them were hilarious! We had a fashion show of the costumes and then a scary movie night. We also did some fundraisers on the sail to raise money for our projects in Senegal. One of the fundraisers was an auction. Students would sign up for things, such as a 30 minute massage, or taking someone’s night watch, and then everyone would bid on them. The baking club sold a cake of choice for $120! You can probably guess what food we all miss on the ship! All three cakes that were sold at the auction went for more than a hundred dollars. It was crazy how much people will bid on things. Though I guess I’m not one to talk because I, along with a group of 6 others, bid $130 for a cake that the cook would make during the sail across the Atlantic. We didn’t get it however, someone else wanted to pay more. In the environmental club we also worked to reduce water usage on the ship in order to arrive in Senegal with a full tank of water and were successful! Well that’s it for now. I hope to get up a Senegal blog before I leave but no promises.
Morocco
So this is VERY late. Sorry.
Morocco was so much fun! I had an amazing time. This was probably my favourite port so far. So I mentioned before that we left for a four day port program. On Thursday at 6:30 in the morning, we loaded up onto buses. The group was split into two groups that the students picked so I was with most of my friends. One group was on one bus and one was on the other. We didn’t see each other again until our night in the desert because we did our routes in reverse. My bus started out by driving into a walled city named Taroudant. We stopped at a cafe here that was attached to a place that grew mandarin oranges so I had the best fresh squeezed orange juice of my life! After this we drove on and past the argan trees. Argan is a nut that the Morocans use to make oils and beauty products however the goats love eating the leaves and actually climb up these trees! It was the weirdest thing to see goats in trees.We then continued on to Zagora, a town famous for dates. This was my first real taste of Morocco. We had shore leave so we got to explore. It was incredible! There was market there with all these guys trying to sell you fruit or dates or spices. At one point someone in my group told me to get off the road. I turned around to see whey and saw a man riding a donkey laden with stuff to sell at the market! This just seemed so strange but throughout the day I kept seeing more donkeys and horses on the road! In another small town we stopped in along the way they sold tons of carpets. We went into one carpet cooperative where they were weaving the carpets at one part of the store and selling them in the other. It was in this shop that I bartered for the first time :) Can’t say I’m all that good. I actually think they ripped me off a bit! In this town I also had lunch. I tried tajine, the national dish here. You get bread that you use to scoop up the food because traditionally they don’t use utensils. Tajine normally comes in a pottery platter with a lid on top. They remove the lid and inside is meat, potatoes, carrots and other random stuff. It’s all cooked in a really good saffron sauce (saffron is grown in Morocco). They also have an omelette tajine where there are eggs, potatoes and meatballs. Our next stop on our trip was the hotel where we were staying at. It was really nice. There was a pool so a bunch of us decided to go swimming before supper. Little did we know that the pool wasn’t heated so we had a bit of a polar dip! After supper we had shore leave so we all went to explore the town. We went into a store to buy turbans for our trip to the desert. All the guys that worked at the store really kept trying to sell us other stuff so I think that they made a fortune off of our group. We were getting ready to leave the store when one of the guys that worked there pulled out an African drum and started to go at it. One of the guys in my group also knew how to play so he joined in. Pretty soon there was a big jamming session going on with people from other store coming to see. It was great! After awhile we decided to move on. We got to the next store and the store owner came out to try and get us to go in. We told him no because we had just bought so much but then one of the guys from the store we were just at ran up and said, “Hey! It’s my uncle’s store!” He then started conversing in rapid Arabic with the uncle. The uncle happily took us into his store and told us to sit on carpets. He then gave all of us tea! It was a great night.
The next day we got up and had some more shore leave until lunch time during which we walked around some more and explored the town that we were in. We drove after that to Tamgrout, a village that sold pottery. Everyone in the village, even most of the kids, were involved in making pottery in some way or another. There was a local man who gave us a tour of the village and showed us how the pottery was made. They sit in a hole in the ground. In the hole there is a pedal that you have to turn with your foot in order to make the pottery wheel spin. He made it look so easy and he instantly made a beautiful pot, however one of the girls in our group got to try and it was a lot harder than it looked! We got to see the pottery cooperative where the community sold all of their pottery. There were beautiful pots, bowls, plates, tajines and many more. There was a guy there who was painting the designs onto the dishes using henna. It was really neat. After that we drove out the beginning of the Sahara to start our dessert trip. We got to pick our camels! Mine was white and at the very front of the group. I named him Christophe. We rode through the desert for 45 minutes and then the other half of the group rode and we walked for 45 minutes. The desert wasn’t quite what I expected. I always pictured these massive sand dunes with no trees in sight when in reality the sand dunes weren’t huge and there was a fair bit of date palms and shrubbery. This might be because I was towards the edge of the desert though. When we arrived at the Bedouin camp where we were staying for the night the sun was setting so we all ran to the top of a very large sand dune to watch the sun setting over the Sahara desert. It got cold almost immediately after the sun set so we all went back down to the camp and the Burburs (kind of like the aboriginals of Morocco, they were our guides) made us mint tea. When I say that we were staying at a camp you probably all jumped to the conclusion that there were little tents with sleeping pads and sleeping bags laid out on the sand and that we were peeing behind the sand dunes. This was not, in fact, the case. Since I’m used to roughing it while camping, I found that it was like we were staying at the five star hotel of camps! There was a large circle of tents that had carpets completely covering the floors so as to not have to walk on sand. There was a really big tent that had tables in it and that was where we ate. There was also a toilet tent further in the back that they had somehow gotten running water in. So we really weren’t camping at all. My bed was bigger than the one on the ship! We were served an amazing supper in the tent and then some of the Burburs came out with traditional instruments and drums and started performing for us! There was a belly dancer too so pretty soon everyone was up and dancing. A bonfire was started in the middle of camp so the dancing and music was moved to around the bonfire. It was so much fun! There was a dance off between guys and girls. I went stargazing after this on top of a sand dune. Stars are amazing in the desert. Almost as good as on the Churchill. I say almost because nothing can beat good old Saskatchewan stars; not even the Sahara :)
In the morning I got up at 6:30 with the rest of my tent in order to get to the top of a large sand dune so that we could watch the sun rise over the desert. It was a really magical moment. We left the camp after breakfast and rode the camels again. This time I had a curly haired camel who I named Wallace. The rest of the day was spent on the bus with a few stops along the way. Our hotel was in the middle of nowhere. Supper was really cool though. It was in this really long tent and we all sat at the same long table which was a nice change. There was a family that owned the hotel. It was the mom that cooked our food and then all the guys played music for us. The girls danced and we danced with them. It was really fun.
The next day we got up and went on a hike. We first walked around an abandoned caspa (fortified house) which I guess would be comparable to chateaux in France. It was really neat because the guide explained each of the rooms that we were in and we learnt a fair bit of Moroccan history. Next we hiked through a little village and across a river (river crossings are always interesting!) to get to the fields in which saffron was grown. We learnt about how saffron was grown and harvested. We walked back to the hotel and after a great lunch we set out on the road again. We stopped once in Tamgrout in order to go to a women’s cooperative where argan products were produced. We also went to a souk, a local market. I have never felt as claustrophobic in my life as I did at the souk. There were way too many people way too close together. I was happy when we left it. Finally after this we got back to the boat. It was so nice to be home!
Our last day in Morocco was full day shore leave in Agadir. I stayed on the boat for most of the morning to help with provisioning. In the afternoon a group of us decided to go to a hammam. We had heard about it the day before from our tour guide and were told that it was a sort of bathhouse. This wasn’t actually true. It was more like an African spa. We sat in a steam room for awhile and then got massages :) Later we went to the grocery store to stock up on junk for the sail. I’m really sorry that this blog is so late. I was hoping to get it up as soon as I got into Dakar but the internet has been really bad up to date.
Morocco was so much fun! I had an amazing time. This was probably my favourite port so far. So I mentioned before that we left for a four day port program. On Thursday at 6:30 in the morning, we loaded up onto buses. The group was split into two groups that the students picked so I was with most of my friends. One group was on one bus and one was on the other. We didn’t see each other again until our night in the desert because we did our routes in reverse. My bus started out by driving into a walled city named Taroudant. We stopped at a cafe here that was attached to a place that grew mandarin oranges so I had the best fresh squeezed orange juice of my life! After this we drove on and past the argan trees. Argan is a nut that the Morocans use to make oils and beauty products however the goats love eating the leaves and actually climb up these trees! It was the weirdest thing to see goats in trees.We then continued on to Zagora, a town famous for dates. This was my first real taste of Morocco. We had shore leave so we got to explore. It was incredible! There was market there with all these guys trying to sell you fruit or dates or spices. At one point someone in my group told me to get off the road. I turned around to see whey and saw a man riding a donkey laden with stuff to sell at the market! This just seemed so strange but throughout the day I kept seeing more donkeys and horses on the road! In another small town we stopped in along the way they sold tons of carpets. We went into one carpet cooperative where they were weaving the carpets at one part of the store and selling them in the other. It was in this shop that I bartered for the first time :) Can’t say I’m all that good. I actually think they ripped me off a bit! In this town I also had lunch. I tried tajine, the national dish here. You get bread that you use to scoop up the food because traditionally they don’t use utensils. Tajine normally comes in a pottery platter with a lid on top. They remove the lid and inside is meat, potatoes, carrots and other random stuff. It’s all cooked in a really good saffron sauce (saffron is grown in Morocco). They also have an omelette tajine where there are eggs, potatoes and meatballs. Our next stop on our trip was the hotel where we were staying at. It was really nice. There was a pool so a bunch of us decided to go swimming before supper. Little did we know that the pool wasn’t heated so we had a bit of a polar dip! After supper we had shore leave so we all went to explore the town. We went into a store to buy turbans for our trip to the desert. All the guys that worked at the store really kept trying to sell us other stuff so I think that they made a fortune off of our group. We were getting ready to leave the store when one of the guys that worked there pulled out an African drum and started to go at it. One of the guys in my group also knew how to play so he joined in. Pretty soon there was a big jamming session going on with people from other store coming to see. It was great! After awhile we decided to move on. We got to the next store and the store owner came out to try and get us to go in. We told him no because we had just bought so much but then one of the guys from the store we were just at ran up and said, “Hey! It’s my uncle’s store!” He then started conversing in rapid Arabic with the uncle. The uncle happily took us into his store and told us to sit on carpets. He then gave all of us tea! It was a great night.
The next day we got up and had some more shore leave until lunch time during which we walked around some more and explored the town that we were in. We drove after that to Tamgrout, a village that sold pottery. Everyone in the village, even most of the kids, were involved in making pottery in some way or another. There was a local man who gave us a tour of the village and showed us how the pottery was made. They sit in a hole in the ground. In the hole there is a pedal that you have to turn with your foot in order to make the pottery wheel spin. He made it look so easy and he instantly made a beautiful pot, however one of the girls in our group got to try and it was a lot harder than it looked! We got to see the pottery cooperative where the community sold all of their pottery. There were beautiful pots, bowls, plates, tajines and many more. There was a guy there who was painting the designs onto the dishes using henna. It was really neat. After that we drove out the beginning of the Sahara to start our dessert trip. We got to pick our camels! Mine was white and at the very front of the group. I named him Christophe. We rode through the desert for 45 minutes and then the other half of the group rode and we walked for 45 minutes. The desert wasn’t quite what I expected. I always pictured these massive sand dunes with no trees in sight when in reality the sand dunes weren’t huge and there was a fair bit of date palms and shrubbery. This might be because I was towards the edge of the desert though. When we arrived at the Bedouin camp where we were staying for the night the sun was setting so we all ran to the top of a very large sand dune to watch the sun setting over the Sahara desert. It got cold almost immediately after the sun set so we all went back down to the camp and the Burburs (kind of like the aboriginals of Morocco, they were our guides) made us mint tea. When I say that we were staying at a camp you probably all jumped to the conclusion that there were little tents with sleeping pads and sleeping bags laid out on the sand and that we were peeing behind the sand dunes. This was not, in fact, the case. Since I’m used to roughing it while camping, I found that it was like we were staying at the five star hotel of camps! There was a large circle of tents that had carpets completely covering the floors so as to not have to walk on sand. There was a really big tent that had tables in it and that was where we ate. There was also a toilet tent further in the back that they had somehow gotten running water in. So we really weren’t camping at all. My bed was bigger than the one on the ship! We were served an amazing supper in the tent and then some of the Burburs came out with traditional instruments and drums and started performing for us! There was a belly dancer too so pretty soon everyone was up and dancing. A bonfire was started in the middle of camp so the dancing and music was moved to around the bonfire. It was so much fun! There was a dance off between guys and girls. I went stargazing after this on top of a sand dune. Stars are amazing in the desert. Almost as good as on the Churchill. I say almost because nothing can beat good old Saskatchewan stars; not even the Sahara :)
In the morning I got up at 6:30 with the rest of my tent in order to get to the top of a large sand dune so that we could watch the sun rise over the desert. It was a really magical moment. We left the camp after breakfast and rode the camels again. This time I had a curly haired camel who I named Wallace. The rest of the day was spent on the bus with a few stops along the way. Our hotel was in the middle of nowhere. Supper was really cool though. It was in this really long tent and we all sat at the same long table which was a nice change. There was a family that owned the hotel. It was the mom that cooked our food and then all the guys played music for us. The girls danced and we danced with them. It was really fun.
The next day we got up and went on a hike. We first walked around an abandoned caspa (fortified house) which I guess would be comparable to chateaux in France. It was really neat because the guide explained each of the rooms that we were in and we learnt a fair bit of Moroccan history. Next we hiked through a little village and across a river (river crossings are always interesting!) to get to the fields in which saffron was grown. We learnt about how saffron was grown and harvested. We walked back to the hotel and after a great lunch we set out on the road again. We stopped once in Tamgrout in order to go to a women’s cooperative where argan products were produced. We also went to a souk, a local market. I have never felt as claustrophobic in my life as I did at the souk. There were way too many people way too close together. I was happy when we left it. Finally after this we got back to the boat. It was so nice to be home!
Our last day in Morocco was full day shore leave in Agadir. I stayed on the boat for most of the morning to help with provisioning. In the afternoon a group of us decided to go to a hammam. We had heard about it the day before from our tour guide and were told that it was a sort of bathhouse. This wasn’t actually true. It was more like an African spa. We sat in a steam room for awhile and then got massages :) Later we went to the grocery store to stock up on junk for the sail. I’m really sorry that this blog is so late. I was hoping to get it up as soon as I got into Dakar but the internet has been really bad up to date.
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| Goats in an argan tree |
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| Pottery in Tamgrout |
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| The Sahara! |
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| Me and Christophe |
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| An abandoned caspa |
Monday, November 8, 2010
Morroco is amazing
The sail to Morocco Strait of Gibraltar
Speaking of force 7s, we got some really rough weather again on the 30th. Halloween was probably the roughest day of the sail. No one dressed up because it was too much effort. And if I’m saying that Halloween was too much effort when I’m normally so hardcore about it then that means that it was rough! We were supposed to write our first day of midterms that day but because it was so rough they were postponed. So we got the day to study. The next day we had midterms even though it was still bad. The winds shifted that afternoon though so we could finally sail. We started going really fast because the wind was so strong so we furled all the sails and didn’t turn back on the motor but even then we were sailing using only the rigging and still making 6 knots! This happened when we were trying to slow down so that we wouldn’t get into port early. It was crazy how strong the wind was!
We got into Morocco Africa for the first time! We’re docked in the main commercial port so it’s about a 20 minute cab ride away from Agadir. This is too bad because we all have to catch cabs just to get into town. We got shore leave around 5:00 pm after the boat had been completely brassed and cleaned. In Africa we have to travel in groups with at least one guy. I ended up being in a group of 12 because all the guys left in one big group so there was only one guy for all 11 of us girls. It was crazy having to figure out cabs for a group this big! The cab ride into town was probably the craziest cab ride of my life! They drove so fast and the drivers kept their windows rolled down so that they could yell instructions at each other. It was so different from anything that I’m used to. Also, on the way back to the ship, we called two big cabs instead of 4 small ones. Big cabs turned out to be the same size as the small ones; they just let you squish 6 people in instead of 4! I’m leaving tomorrow for a four day port program. We’re going to go camping in the Sahara ! I can’t wait!
Italy!
So I don’t think that I’m really going to write all that much about the sail the Cagliari. It was only a four day sail, but it was a bit shorter because we got in early. The only really interesting thing that happened was that we got more rough weather. We had a force 7 one day. Classes were canceled and the no standing policy was implemented. For the first time I wasn’t sick so I got to spend the day avoiding homework and watching Lord of the Rings (probably the best movies to watch when you have a whole day with nothing to do). We weren’t allowed on deck to walk to the heads so we were only allowed to use the one staff toilet that was below. Not much else happened.
Italy, in case you didn’t know, was a parent port so I got to see my mom! We got in a day early (again!) therefore I didn’t think that she was in yet. I had galley so I was in the galley finishing cleaning around 8:30 when she walked in! It was amazing to see her. I gave her a tour of the ship and then I went off the ship with her. Parents are allowed to check us off of the ship for the night so I got to sleep at her B & B. It was a great sleep. The first time in over a month that my bed wasn’t moving and that it was completely quiet. My ears were ringing because of the lack of white noise. The next morning I had classes because we had missed a day of classes during the sail when it was rough so we had to make up. The afternoon though was shore leave so I just spent the day with my mom. That’s mostly what I did during this whole port. It was great for me to finally be able to relax. I missed both port programs and spent all my nights off the boat so I had a lot of time with my mom. I only returned to the boat for cleaning stations and gangway. It was an amazing four days! I felt completely recharged by the time I returned to the ship on Sunday morning. It was amazing to get to see my mom and we had lots of fun. We toured a bit. A highlight I think was a Roman Amphitheatre. We went there and bought tickets. The lady asked us if we wanted a tour so we agreed. She then proceeded to lock the gate so that no one else could enter. We had the whole place to ourselves! So my mom and I got a private tour of the amphitheatre which was cool. The food in Italy, as you all probably guessed, was incredible. I ate so much I thought that my mom would have to roll me back to the ship! Pizza, pasta, cappuccinos, tiramisu and gelato. The gelato was probably the best thing that I’ve ever eaten. I had Nutella gelato which blew my mind. It’s also interesting to see how fashionable everyone is in Italy. It’s impossible not to dress well because there aren’t any unfashionable stores. I think that both my mom and I felt underdressed everywhere. I don’t think that there’s much else for me to write about. Like I said I didn’t do too much touring, it was more of a rest port for me which was so nice. See you in Africa! Actually, by the time I get this posted I’ll probably be in Africa :)
Italy, in case you didn’t know, was a parent port so I got to see my mom! We got in a day early (again!) therefore I didn’t think that she was in yet. I had galley so I was in the galley finishing cleaning around 8:30 when she walked in! It was amazing to see her. I gave her a tour of the ship and then I went off the ship with her. Parents are allowed to check us off of the ship for the night so I got to sleep at her B & B. It was a great sleep. The first time in over a month that my bed wasn’t moving and that it was completely quiet. My ears were ringing because of the lack of white noise. The next morning I had classes because we had missed a day of classes during the sail when it was rough so we had to make up. The afternoon though was shore leave so I just spent the day with my mom. That’s mostly what I did during this whole port. It was great for me to finally be able to relax. I missed both port programs and spent all my nights off the boat so I had a lot of time with my mom. I only returned to the boat for cleaning stations and gangway. It was an amazing four days! I felt completely recharged by the time I returned to the ship on Sunday morning. It was amazing to get to see my mom and we had lots of fun. We toured a bit. A highlight I think was a Roman Amphitheatre. We went there and bought tickets. The lady asked us if we wanted a tour so we agreed. She then proceeded to lock the gate so that no one else could enter. We had the whole place to ourselves! So my mom and I got a private tour of the amphitheatre which was cool. The food in Italy, as you all probably guessed, was incredible. I ate so much I thought that my mom would have to roll me back to the ship! Pizza, pasta, cappuccinos, tiramisu and gelato. The gelato was probably the best thing that I’ve ever eaten. I had Nutella gelato which blew my mind. It’s also interesting to see how fashionable everyone is in Italy. It’s impossible not to dress well because there aren’t any unfashionable stores. I think that both my mom and I felt underdressed everywhere. I don’t think that there’s much else for me to write about. Like I said I didn’t do too much touring, it was more of a rest port for me which was so nice. See you in Africa! Actually, by the time I get this posted I’ll probably be in Africa :)
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| fruit market |
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| view from the top of a tower |
 me and mom |
 Sorlandet getting ready to leave port  |
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Barcelona pics!
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| A lion in front of the Columbus statue |
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| Park Guell, Gaudi's park |
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| I always thought that this building looked like a gingerbread house:) |
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| Me with a dragon and some random Asian tourists |
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| You can see the pink house where Gaudi lived for over 20 years |
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| More cool architecture in the park |
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| Segrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral that as you can see is still under construction |
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| The monastery at Montserrat |
Friday, October 22, 2010
Pictures from the sail to Barcelona
This is really late. Sorry.
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| A view of the ship taken while on the bowspread |
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| Me on the bowspread |
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| Sunset over Spain |
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| A fishing boat as we're entering Barcelona |
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| A crowd of people watching us come in. You can see the ship reflected in the glass and also some kids up on the yards. |
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Barcelona
Sorry that this blog is so late. I didn’t have time to post it before I left but at least it was a short sail and I didn’t have you waiting too long.
Barcelona was amazing. We were docked in the main tourist area so tons of people were watching the boat come in. There was so much interest in the ship that the professional crew decided to open the boat up for free tours on Tuesday. In the two hours that I was doing gangway during tour hour’s seven hundred people came on! After my gangway on Tuesday I mostly walked around a lot. I didn’t see too much but that’s fine. I took it easy and did a bit of shopping. Oh I thought that this was kind of cool. We were docked right next to a private yacht called the Pelorus (you can Wikipedia it). It’s owned by a Russian multi-billionaire. There was a forty man army on board and you needed level two security clearance just to get on the boat. It was pretty intense. I think that it’s the sixteenth most expensive yacht in the world, and the owner of it owns the most expensive yacht as well. It was kind of intense and made the Sorlandet look quite old fashioned. We were like the pirate and it was more like the ninja :)
Wednesday was probably the best day of my time in Barcelona. It was a port program to Park Guell but when we got there we were allowed to go off on our own. The park was really cool. It was entirely designed by Gaudi, the famous architect. Everything looked like it was right out of a Dr. Seuss book and the cool thing was that the park was built at the beginning of the 1900s. There were a lot of mosaics on the walls which made some of the buildings look like gingerbread houses. I explored the park for most of the day. In the afternoon we headed back to the ship. A lady from the Canadian consulate came to the boat to speak to us about Canadian-Spanish relations and what her job is like at the Canadian consulate in Barcelona. It was really interesting however we were all really tired so I have to say that it was a little difficult to stay awake. I did manage though. We all had supper with her on the boat. While I’m on the topic of food, our cook, David, was let go. I was really sad. He was really nice and made great food :( He left that morning so making supper was a bit of a challenge. Luckily, our shipboard director’s wife is joining us for the sail to Italy so she was there to help cook. After supper my watch group left on a watch adventure. We’re allowed to leave the ship overnight if we’re with our watchdog so that’s what we did. We checked into a hostel and then went out dancing! I had a great time. We ended up staying out until three in the morning but it was lots of fun.
The next morning we got to sleep in at the hostel which was nice. It was great to be on a bed that wasn’t moving! It really makes a difference. After that my watch went to the Boqueria (a fresh food market) and picked up some food for our potluck brunch. We took the metro to the Segrada Familia, Gaudi’s famous cathedral, and ate brunch in front of it. The Segrada Familia started being built in 1882 and is still under construction today! It isn’t estimated to be finished for another twenty years. So I didn’t even see the finished product but what I did see was incredible. We went back to the boat after this and got shore leave. I went out and did some exploring in the afternoon.
Friday was a shore leave day. We took a tour bus to Montserrat, a mountain about an hour outside of Barcelona. Serrat means serrated and it’s called this because the mountains look serrated. I thought that they looked more like melting sandcastles but you can be the judge :) We hiked in the mountains and also visited a famous monastery that is located in the mountains. The weather was also perfect so I had a really nice day. In the late afternoon I got shore leave so I walked around Barcelona some more and did some grocery shopping for the sail. I went and had paella and tapas for supper!
Barcelona was amazing. We were docked in the main tourist area so tons of people were watching the boat come in. There was so much interest in the ship that the professional crew decided to open the boat up for free tours on Tuesday. In the two hours that I was doing gangway during tour hour’s seven hundred people came on! After my gangway on Tuesday I mostly walked around a lot. I didn’t see too much but that’s fine. I took it easy and did a bit of shopping. Oh I thought that this was kind of cool. We were docked right next to a private yacht called the Pelorus (you can Wikipedia it). It’s owned by a Russian multi-billionaire. There was a forty man army on board and you needed level two security clearance just to get on the boat. It was pretty intense. I think that it’s the sixteenth most expensive yacht in the world, and the owner of it owns the most expensive yacht as well. It was kind of intense and made the Sorlandet look quite old fashioned. We were like the pirate and it was more like the ninja :)
Wednesday was probably the best day of my time in Barcelona. It was a port program to Park Guell but when we got there we were allowed to go off on our own. The park was really cool. It was entirely designed by Gaudi, the famous architect. Everything looked like it was right out of a Dr. Seuss book and the cool thing was that the park was built at the beginning of the 1900s. There were a lot of mosaics on the walls which made some of the buildings look like gingerbread houses. I explored the park for most of the day. In the afternoon we headed back to the ship. A lady from the Canadian consulate came to the boat to speak to us about Canadian-Spanish relations and what her job is like at the Canadian consulate in Barcelona. It was really interesting however we were all really tired so I have to say that it was a little difficult to stay awake. I did manage though. We all had supper with her on the boat. While I’m on the topic of food, our cook, David, was let go. I was really sad. He was really nice and made great food :( He left that morning so making supper was a bit of a challenge. Luckily, our shipboard director’s wife is joining us for the sail to Italy so she was there to help cook. After supper my watch group left on a watch adventure. We’re allowed to leave the ship overnight if we’re with our watchdog so that’s what we did. We checked into a hostel and then went out dancing! I had a great time. We ended up staying out until three in the morning but it was lots of fun.
The next morning we got to sleep in at the hostel which was nice. It was great to be on a bed that wasn’t moving! It really makes a difference. After that my watch went to the Boqueria (a fresh food market) and picked up some food for our potluck brunch. We took the metro to the Segrada Familia, Gaudi’s famous cathedral, and ate brunch in front of it. The Segrada Familia started being built in 1882 and is still under construction today! It isn’t estimated to be finished for another twenty years. So I didn’t even see the finished product but what I did see was incredible. We went back to the boat after this and got shore leave. I went out and did some exploring in the afternoon.
Friday was a shore leave day. We took a tour bus to Montserrat, a mountain about an hour outside of Barcelona. Serrat means serrated and it’s called this because the mountains look serrated. I thought that they looked more like melting sandcastles but you can be the judge :) We hiked in the mountains and also visited a famous monastery that is located in the mountains. The weather was also perfect so I had a really nice day. In the late afternoon I got shore leave so I walked around Barcelona some more and did some grocery shopping for the sail. I went and had paella and tapas for supper!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sail (or should I say motor) to Barcelona
We left Porto a day late because there was a storm and it was too rough to leave. However though the winds may have calmed down, the ocean takes a little longer. Everything was smooth as we were leaving harbour. We sat down to eat lunch and the boat was barely rocking however as soon as we leave the harbour and got back out onto the ocean, food, plates and people start flying! The waves weren’t as bad as the North Sea however it was still quite rough with 4m waves. Within minutes of leaving the harbour people were up on deck losing their lunch. I didn’t feel good either and again spent the first day of the sail seasick. Classes were cancelled that afternoon because it was so rough so most people ended up spending the whole first day sleeping. That night we switched night watches. I’m now on the 12:00-2:00 which is so much worse. You’re so tired for the whole shift because you were woken up after only about one and a half hours sleep. We also switched cleaning stations so now I’m cleaning the heads (toilets) :P I’m glad we switch every three weeks because now I only have 2 weeks to go until I’m not on heads anymore.
Sadly we didn’t get to sail much. We motored most of the way because the winds weren’t favourable. On one of the times that we did sail, the winds changed direction and we ended up going backwards for a little while. We sailed on the seventh day however there were some approaching squalls so we had to switch to the motor again. While I’m on the topic of the squalls, they were the reason that we got into Barcelona a day early, even though we left a day late! There were some storms approaching us from behind so we hurried in order to miss them. In doing so we had to go through some other, smaller squalls. This was actually kind of cool. The sky was pitch black and every once in a while the lightning would completely light up the sky. There was a row of people standing on deck with cameras trying to see who could get the most epic lightning pic :)
The first few days of sailing were relatively uneventful. I watched a lot of Disney movies and slept quite a bit trying to get used to my new night watch. I learnt to knit! That was actually quite exciting. I made a headband already. There are a bunch of us in the knitting club, also known as the granny club. It’s a really good way to pass the time.
The fourth day of sailing was probably my favourite day of any sail. It was the first day that was nice and hot out. It was also the day that we went through the Strait of Gibraltar. This was so cool. I was on fire watch for the first shift of day watch so I saw Africa when it first came into sight. As the day went on, Africa came closer and Spain emerged. Around one in the afternoon I went out onto the bow spread, this is the netted area at the very front of the boat. We were right next to Africa, close enough to see details on the coast. We were also really close to Spain. While on the bow spread, a pod of dolphins came up and rode the bow so they were right underneath us! There were also sunfish and whales! The sunfish were really neat; they looked almost like turtles at first because they’re really round. The whales were pilot whales. At one point when I was on the bow spread, a tourist whale watching boat from Morocco came up really close so that the people on it could take pictures of our ship. So I guess since I was on the bow spread I’m going to be a random in quite of few Moroccan vacation photos.
On the fifth day of sailing we got a swim call! They stopped the boat and called every on deck for a man overboard drill and when we were done they told us that we could go swimming! It was the best surprise. It was a really hot day and the Mediterranean was nice and cool. I think that it made everyone’s day. It also helped that we got to miss a class in the process.
The eighth day was Thanksgiving! I was on galley so I had to help make the turkey and serve it however being on galley lets you eat as much as you want so you probably guessed that I ate quite a bit of turkey :) We also got into Barcelona that day so I got shore leave that night. We’re docked right in the main touristy area so we are in a perfect spot. When we came in there were tons of people watching us and taking photos. Today I just explored because it was a full day shore leave. Again I’m in a McDonalds for WiFi. I’ve gone there more in two weeks than in the last decade :P
Sadly we didn’t get to sail much. We motored most of the way because the winds weren’t favourable. On one of the times that we did sail, the winds changed direction and we ended up going backwards for a little while. We sailed on the seventh day however there were some approaching squalls so we had to switch to the motor again. While I’m on the topic of the squalls, they were the reason that we got into Barcelona a day early, even though we left a day late! There were some storms approaching us from behind so we hurried in order to miss them. In doing so we had to go through some other, smaller squalls. This was actually kind of cool. The sky was pitch black and every once in a while the lightning would completely light up the sky. There was a row of people standing on deck with cameras trying to see who could get the most epic lightning pic :)
The first few days of sailing were relatively uneventful. I watched a lot of Disney movies and slept quite a bit trying to get used to my new night watch. I learnt to knit! That was actually quite exciting. I made a headband already. There are a bunch of us in the knitting club, also known as the granny club. It’s a really good way to pass the time.
The fourth day of sailing was probably my favourite day of any sail. It was the first day that was nice and hot out. It was also the day that we went through the Strait of Gibraltar. This was so cool. I was on fire watch for the first shift of day watch so I saw Africa when it first came into sight. As the day went on, Africa came closer and Spain emerged. Around one in the afternoon I went out onto the bow spread, this is the netted area at the very front of the boat. We were right next to Africa, close enough to see details on the coast. We were also really close to Spain. While on the bow spread, a pod of dolphins came up and rode the bow so they were right underneath us! There were also sunfish and whales! The sunfish were really neat; they looked almost like turtles at first because they’re really round. The whales were pilot whales. At one point when I was on the bow spread, a tourist whale watching boat from Morocco came up really close so that the people on it could take pictures of our ship. So I guess since I was on the bow spread I’m going to be a random in quite of few Moroccan vacation photos.
On the fifth day of sailing we got a swim call! They stopped the boat and called every on deck for a man overboard drill and when we were done they told us that we could go swimming! It was the best surprise. It was a really hot day and the Mediterranean was nice and cool. I think that it made everyone’s day. It also helped that we got to miss a class in the process.
The eighth day was Thanksgiving! I was on galley so I had to help make the turkey and serve it however being on galley lets you eat as much as you want so you probably guessed that I ate quite a bit of turkey :) We also got into Barcelona that day so I got shore leave that night. We’re docked right in the main touristy area so we are in a perfect spot. When we came in there were tons of people watching us and taking photos. Today I just explored because it was a full day shore leave. Again I’m in a McDonalds for WiFi. I’ve gone there more in two weeks than in the last decade :P
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Porto
I’m leaving Porto tomorrow. We had to leave a day late again because the water was too rough. I’ve had a great time in Portugal. The people here are really friendly and eager to help tourists, even if they don’t speak English. The language barrier has been a bit tough, especially when ordering at restaurants. They’d give you an English menu but they don’t understand what the English translation of the food is! It takes a long time but it’s kind of funny and it’s a really good experience.
We got into Porto on Wednesday and we had a nice afternoon exploring. We took a half hour metro ride into old Porto. When I was leaving an internet cafe in old Porto, I decided to ask a man that was there where he would recommend for a good supper in the area. He was extremely helpful and told us to go to Le Chien Qui Fume (in English it’s The Smoking Dog). We got directions and managed to find it. It was in a back alley and it was kind of a hole in the wall. But it was really nice inside. There were Portuguese tiles covering the walls. The food was traditional and amazing! It was also really cheap. The restaurant was extremely popular with the locals and most of the few tables were reserved however the Portuguese don’t eat till around 8-9 o’clock so they snuck us in. The supper was a great experience and definitely a highlight of my time in Porto.
On Thursday we had a port program. We took a bus into Guimaraes, a medieval town. There’s a castle with dungeons and a really beautiful church. The dungeons were closed though:P I was a bit disappointed. At lunch when we were eating lunch in a cafe, we heard a group of people chanting really loud. Then a group of people, some dressed in suits and black robes and others in white jumpsuits, emerged. There had to have been over a hundred of them. They sang some songs and did some other crazy things, and then they sat down for lunch. We decided to ask what was going on. They told us that everyone in the robes was the third year university students and the ones in the jail suits were the first years. The first years had to do everything that the third years told them to do. It was pretty funny :)
Friday was another port program. We took a two hour bus ride to the only national park in Portugal. We then went on some hikes. The first one took us to a medieval village that had been washed away when the hydro dam was built. We walked through the foundations and the walls that remained. It was quite cool actually. We then hiked into a lake and went swimming! That was probably one of my favourite days. It was so nice to get some exercise and spend time in nature.
Yesterday, we had a full day of shore leave and the teachers let us sleep in as late as we wanted! I got an early start though because I wanted a full day in Porto and I had to be back for six for galley. I had the best day ever! We walked A TON and explored. We climbed the Torre dos Clerigos, the tallest tower in Portugal. From the top you could see the entire city. We saw some amazing churches and went to a farmers market to buy fruit. I also ate a lot of pastries. They’re so good and so cheap here! We walked along the river. It’s absolutely beautiful there. It helped that that it was a perfect, sunny day. While we were out, we walked past the university. When we were passing it we noticed that there was a group of guys with guitars, mandolins, drums and a ukulele. They asked if they could perform for us! It was great:) One of them danced with this girl Bryn who I was with. It made my day.
Right now I’m sitting in McDonalds. I know, I’m disappointed in myself too. It is however the best and closest WiFi. We had classes this morning but shore leave in the afternoon so I’m happy to be out. I hope that we can leave tomorrow but the storm is so bad and the wind would be completely against us that I’m not sure if we’ll be able to leave. I hope so. I’ve had fun in Portugal but I can’t wait to be sailing again. Guess I’m really turning into a sailor!
We got into Porto on Wednesday and we had a nice afternoon exploring. We took a half hour metro ride into old Porto. When I was leaving an internet cafe in old Porto, I decided to ask a man that was there where he would recommend for a good supper in the area. He was extremely helpful and told us to go to Le Chien Qui Fume (in English it’s The Smoking Dog). We got directions and managed to find it. It was in a back alley and it was kind of a hole in the wall. But it was really nice inside. There were Portuguese tiles covering the walls. The food was traditional and amazing! It was also really cheap. The restaurant was extremely popular with the locals and most of the few tables were reserved however the Portuguese don’t eat till around 8-9 o’clock so they snuck us in. The supper was a great experience and definitely a highlight of my time in Porto.
On Thursday we had a port program. We took a bus into Guimaraes, a medieval town. There’s a castle with dungeons and a really beautiful church. The dungeons were closed though:P I was a bit disappointed. At lunch when we were eating lunch in a cafe, we heard a group of people chanting really loud. Then a group of people, some dressed in suits and black robes and others in white jumpsuits, emerged. There had to have been over a hundred of them. They sang some songs and did some other crazy things, and then they sat down for lunch. We decided to ask what was going on. They told us that everyone in the robes was the third year university students and the ones in the jail suits were the first years. The first years had to do everything that the third years told them to do. It was pretty funny :)
Friday was another port program. We took a two hour bus ride to the only national park in Portugal. We then went on some hikes. The first one took us to a medieval village that had been washed away when the hydro dam was built. We walked through the foundations and the walls that remained. It was quite cool actually. We then hiked into a lake and went swimming! That was probably one of my favourite days. It was so nice to get some exercise and spend time in nature.
Yesterday, we had a full day of shore leave and the teachers let us sleep in as late as we wanted! I got an early start though because I wanted a full day in Porto and I had to be back for six for galley. I had the best day ever! We walked A TON and explored. We climbed the Torre dos Clerigos, the tallest tower in Portugal. From the top you could see the entire city. We saw some amazing churches and went to a farmers market to buy fruit. I also ate a lot of pastries. They’re so good and so cheap here! We walked along the river. It’s absolutely beautiful there. It helped that that it was a perfect, sunny day. While we were out, we walked past the university. When we were passing it we noticed that there was a group of guys with guitars, mandolins, drums and a ukulele. They asked if they could perform for us! It was great:) One of them danced with this girl Bryn who I was with. It made my day.
Right now I’m sitting in McDonalds. I know, I’m disappointed in myself too. It is however the best and closest WiFi. We had classes this morning but shore leave in the afternoon so I’m happy to be out. I hope that we can leave tomorrow but the storm is so bad and the wind would be completely against us that I’m not sure if we’ll be able to leave. I hope so. I’ve had fun in Portugal but I can’t wait to be sailing again. Guess I’m really turning into a sailor!
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| taken from a square in Guimaraes (also the photo quality is probably worse cause I finally figured out how to compress pictures) |
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| A church in Guimaraes |
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| The famous church from Guimaraes |
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| The destroyed village that we saw during the hike |
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| The remains of the village again |
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| View from the top of Torre dos Clerigos |
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| Torre dos Clerigos |
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| Me in front of the river |
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| Some houses in Porto. You can see the famous blue and white Portuguese tiles. |
Friday, October 1, 2010
Epicness.
Yes that is a word. And it is the only word that can describe these sunset/sunrise pictures taken during the sail.
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| Taken while at the helm during sunset |
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| Sunrise |
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| The lines at sunset |
St. Malo pics!
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| View from the ramparts in St. Malo |
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| Mont St. Michelle |
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| A museum in St. Malo |
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| View from the top of Mont St. Michelle |
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| About to head out for the day |
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| a view of the ocean |
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| My home at sunset |
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Pictures from the sail
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| Me at the helm |
So I had troubles uploading and only loaded one picture so that will have to do for now. I guess pictures from the sail turned into picture from the sail.
Sail to Porto!
It’s amazing how fast 60 people can run upstairs when someone yells out, “dolphins!” We got on deck way faster than during the fire drill or when “idle hands” is called. (Idle hands means that everyone not in class is supposed to get on deck to help with a sail manoeuvre) It was the second day of sailing and there was a pod of dolphins up by the bow and they swan with the ship for the whole afternoon. It was incredible! At one point there were at least twenty of them! Sometimes they spun and jumped, almost as if they were showing off for us. Only in Class Afloat does the whole class, teachers and all, drop everything they’re doing fire drill style to book it on deck to see dolphins. I don’t think that anyone was expecting to see them this early into the trip. It was a real treat and I think that it made everyone’s sail. The next day, someone called out’ “whales!” and the same thing happened. This wasn’t as impressive however because many people couldn’t see them cause they were far away. I only say the spray from the blow hole but this was still amazing. I did however see a whale a little closer up and this was magical! First I have to paint the setting for you all. I was helming with this girl Morgan and we had the 7:00 – 8:00 pm shift so the sun was setting. It was an epic sunset because there were no clouds as it had been a hot and beautiful day. It was by far the most impressive sunset yet so many people were hanging out on deck to watch it set. We were talking about how content we were and decided that the only thing that could possibly make the whole situation better would be if a dolphin jumped and we ate some chocolate. Well shortly after that a whale came quite close to the boat and waved at us with its fin and a girl brought us each a piece of chocolate mousse cake! So that was definitely the best helming experience I ever had and ever will have I think. It’s hard to beat whales, sunsets and chocolate!
As for the first day of sailing, I was sick again. It was strange because some people that were really sick the first sail were fine but others who were completely healthy got sick. I was unlucky and was sick both times but I got better after the first day so it’s all good. It also got really calm after the first day and the ocean was like glass. You could see forever, it was like a blue Saskatchewan! The only problem was that there wasn’t that much wind so we had to turn the motor on in order to get to port on schedule. Surprisingly, even after leaving port a day late, we made it to Portugal on time and had to slow down a bit so that we didn’t get there at 2 in the morning!
Monday was my watchdog (teacher in charge of my watch)’s birthday. Ms. Williams is super enthusiastic and is the best watchdog ever so our watch decided to do something special. It was also the same night that we switched time zones. The time zone switch always takes place at midnight and at midnight you either go back to 11:00 pm and do that hour all over or you skip to 1:00 am. For us we had to go back an hour so my night watch and the following night watch each split the hour and did an extra half hour of work. It wasn’t too bad though. I was on the helm (steering) for the first hour and then I rotated to standby on helm which basically does the exact same thing as helm so for two and a half hours I did the exact same thing. It got boring but at least there was always someone to talk to and the night was clear so there were a ton of stars. Anyways, back to Ms. Williams’ birthday. She decided it would be fun to do night watch with us so that she could stay up till midnight, and then the second midnight because that way she could have her birthday twice. So she helped us out and afterwards we took her downstairs because we had planned a small party in the pantry for her. There was tea, cookies, music and birthday cards. She was so excited and happy. There was also some birthday stuff planned by everyone, not just our watch. I helped to make a birthday cake and there was a special dinner. It was a lot of fun. The birthday tradition on the boat is at morning colours (when we all assemble on the boat deck to hoist the ‘colours’ or flags of the boat) we dump buckets of water on the lucky birthday person. So she also got really wet :)
There was a meeting for the scuba diving club and we’re trying to plan our first dive for Spain! I can’t wait to make use of my certification. There are however a ton of regulations for insurance reasons, such as we can’t dive beyond 30 feet! That’s really shallow so a bunch of us were disappointed but it will still be nice to dive anyways. I also started up the environmental club with help from Ms. Williams (she’s a bit of a tree hugger) and Morgan the whale/sunset/chocolate girl. So the clubs are all in full swing!
I got to spend quite a bit of time aloft during my watches. I helped set sails and attach a sail that had been repaired. I also climbed all the way to the royal! That’s the highest yard. I went at night too so it was extra intimidating. There was a bunch of us during night watch that just wanted to climb up for kicks so we did. The pro crew is surprisingly chill about letting us go aloft. As long as they know that we’re up there, they’re cool with us climbing. It was amazing once I finally got to the top. It’s probably a completely different experience in the day time however it was pretty great at night. It was the clearest night so there were tons of stars and the moon was also almost full so it wasn’t even that dark. It was also quite warm because it had been sunny all day so I stayed up there for awhile.
We got to Porto this morning so right now I’m in an internet cafe. It’s a really beautiful city however the boat is docked in the industrial area so that’s not too nice. I’ll try to write more about Porto soon!
As for the first day of sailing, I was sick again. It was strange because some people that were really sick the first sail were fine but others who were completely healthy got sick. I was unlucky and was sick both times but I got better after the first day so it’s all good. It also got really calm after the first day and the ocean was like glass. You could see forever, it was like a blue Saskatchewan! The only problem was that there wasn’t that much wind so we had to turn the motor on in order to get to port on schedule. Surprisingly, even after leaving port a day late, we made it to Portugal on time and had to slow down a bit so that we didn’t get there at 2 in the morning!
Monday was my watchdog (teacher in charge of my watch)’s birthday. Ms. Williams is super enthusiastic and is the best watchdog ever so our watch decided to do something special. It was also the same night that we switched time zones. The time zone switch always takes place at midnight and at midnight you either go back to 11:00 pm and do that hour all over or you skip to 1:00 am. For us we had to go back an hour so my night watch and the following night watch each split the hour and did an extra half hour of work. It wasn’t too bad though. I was on the helm (steering) for the first hour and then I rotated to standby on helm which basically does the exact same thing as helm so for two and a half hours I did the exact same thing. It got boring but at least there was always someone to talk to and the night was clear so there were a ton of stars. Anyways, back to Ms. Williams’ birthday. She decided it would be fun to do night watch with us so that she could stay up till midnight, and then the second midnight because that way she could have her birthday twice. So she helped us out and afterwards we took her downstairs because we had planned a small party in the pantry for her. There was tea, cookies, music and birthday cards. She was so excited and happy. There was also some birthday stuff planned by everyone, not just our watch. I helped to make a birthday cake and there was a special dinner. It was a lot of fun. The birthday tradition on the boat is at morning colours (when we all assemble on the boat deck to hoist the ‘colours’ or flags of the boat) we dump buckets of water on the lucky birthday person. So she also got really wet :)
There was a meeting for the scuba diving club and we’re trying to plan our first dive for Spain! I can’t wait to make use of my certification. There are however a ton of regulations for insurance reasons, such as we can’t dive beyond 30 feet! That’s really shallow so a bunch of us were disappointed but it will still be nice to dive anyways. I also started up the environmental club with help from Ms. Williams (she’s a bit of a tree hugger) and Morgan the whale/sunset/chocolate girl. So the clubs are all in full swing!
I got to spend quite a bit of time aloft during my watches. I helped set sails and attach a sail that had been repaired. I also climbed all the way to the royal! That’s the highest yard. I went at night too so it was extra intimidating. There was a bunch of us during night watch that just wanted to climb up for kicks so we did. The pro crew is surprisingly chill about letting us go aloft. As long as they know that we’re up there, they’re cool with us climbing. It was amazing once I finally got to the top. It’s probably a completely different experience in the day time however it was pretty great at night. It was the clearest night so there were tons of stars and the moon was also almost full so it wasn’t even that dark. It was also quite warm because it had been sunny all day so I stayed up there for awhile.
We got to Porto this morning so right now I’m in an internet cafe. It’s a really beautiful city however the boat is docked in the industrial area so that’s not too nice. I’ll try to write more about Porto soon!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
St. Malo
I’m almost done my time in St. Malo, my first port. It’s a really beautiful city. There’s a huge wall around the old town which is right next to the port so I spent my first day of shore leave exploring the old town. I did some shopping and walked along the wall. I also ate a ton of crepes! I got an amazing view of the beach here from the top of the wall.
On Tuesday we went on a port program, which is an organised tour that everyone has to go on. First we got on a double decker tour bus which in itself was pretty great. We took the bus to Juno Beach. It was kinda funny that that was the place that they chose to take us seeing that I was there a month earlier but whatever. We also visited the Beny-sur-mer Canadian war cemetery, which I was also at a month earlier. It was still really nice to visit them again so I still enjoyed the port program. We ate lunch in Arromanches and then got on the bus again to drive to Mont Saint Michelle. This was awesome! I was absolutely amazed by it when we were driving up. It’s a city and an abbey that’s built on this huge hill. We climbed to the top and it was hard work! It didn’t help that it was, for once, really hot out. But it was well worth it. We got some breathtaking views from up top and we got a tour of the abbey. Part of it looked like it was taken straight out of a Harry Potter scene! It was so cool. Inside the abbey there’s a wall that all the pilgrims went to. It was supposed to be good luck. So we all got to touch the good luck wall that people were touching a thousand years ago.
It turns out that we have to stay in St. Malo an extra day because there’s a national strike. So the dock workers aren’t working which kind of sucks because that might cut down our time in Portugal. But that's fine. I leave tomorrow morning at 8. Today we didn't do too much because we were getting ready to leave. I went for a run along the ramparts and walked to the supermarket to stock up on junk. After we had a smorgasbord (I loved that I got to use that word) of all the french junk food that we bought. I was going to post some pics of St. Malo but it took an hour to load the previous 4 pictures because of the bad connection so I will try next port. Bye and see you all in 6 day!
On Tuesday we went on a port program, which is an organised tour that everyone has to go on. First we got on a double decker tour bus which in itself was pretty great. We took the bus to Juno Beach. It was kinda funny that that was the place that they chose to take us seeing that I was there a month earlier but whatever. We also visited the Beny-sur-mer Canadian war cemetery, which I was also at a month earlier. It was still really nice to visit them again so I still enjoyed the port program. We ate lunch in Arromanches and then got on the bus again to drive to Mont Saint Michelle. This was awesome! I was absolutely amazed by it when we were driving up. It’s a city and an abbey that’s built on this huge hill. We climbed to the top and it was hard work! It didn’t help that it was, for once, really hot out. But it was well worth it. We got some breathtaking views from up top and we got a tour of the abbey. Part of it looked like it was taken straight out of a Harry Potter scene! It was so cool. Inside the abbey there’s a wall that all the pilgrims went to. It was supposed to be good luck. So we all got to touch the good luck wall that people were touching a thousand years ago.
It turns out that we have to stay in St. Malo an extra day because there’s a national strike. So the dock workers aren’t working which kind of sucks because that might cut down our time in Portugal. But that's fine. I leave tomorrow morning at 8. Today we didn't do too much because we were getting ready to leave. I went for a run along the ramparts and walked to the supermarket to stock up on junk. After we had a smorgasbord (I loved that I got to use that word) of all the french junk food that we bought. I was going to post some pics of St. Malo but it took an hour to load the previous 4 pictures because of the bad connection so I will try next port. Bye and see you all in 6 day!
Pictures
So finally here are some pics from my sail to France. There aren't many cause I was sick.
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| View of the fjords as we leave Norway |
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| Me and Joey on the yard of the lower top sail |
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| Coming into St. Malo |
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| My home docked in St. Malo |
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