Seasick!

I was sick for the first four days of the sail. It was horrible! I became quite intimate with the puke funnel, these big funnel things at the back of the boat for seasickness. I wasn’t the only one that was sick though and I wasn’t the worst but I was completely incapacitated and slept a ton. About three quarters of the people on the boat (teachers included) were feeling nauseous. It took three days for me to feel good enough to sit up, eat a bit and shower. I definitely had enough shower pushes saved up by then! I probably wouldn’t have been so sick had we not hit a storm, what the North Sea is famous for. The swells were so huge and the wind was so strong that we weren’t allowed on deck and during watch we had to always be clipped into ropes that were strung around for safety. Down below on the worst day was so bad that all classes were cancelled because it was almost impossible to walk around. The boat was at times tilted 45 degrees! It actually became really funny watching people trying to move. Some slid on their butts and others just stumbled around. Even our super grippy sailing shoes weren’t grippy enough because the ship would be at such a slant. You would be sitting on a bench and suddenly the boat would tip a lot and someone that was standing in another room would come sliding into yours! Everyone’s covered in bruises from sliding into walls! There were also a few injuries from people falling down stairs when the stairs tilted or sliding into tables and banging their heads. We’ve got one kid with a concussion. So that’s not too cool but everyone’s doing a lot better now so that’s good. You also make a lot of new friends by sliding into people. While I’m on the topic of sliding, showers were an adventure! The floors were so slippery and everyone falls a lot. While trying to put pants on I slid all the way from one side of the shower room to the other. So most people put off cleaning themselves and as a result the boat is getting a bit greasy :P
The last three days had much better weather. The storm ended, the rain stopped and the swells died. As a result we could sail much faster. We went from covering 40 nautical miles every 24 hours and travelling at a speed of 1.6 knots to covering 220 nautical miles and travelling at a speed of 8-9 knots. Everyone was so happy because not only could we walk around again without falling but we would get into St. Malo on schedule, maybe even early. Our slow speed would have got us in about five days late! So the mood on the ship dramatically improved.
We had a meeting on Thursday night about the clubs that we wanted to have on the boat. There are so many fun ones I have no idea what I want to do! Some examples are the stargazing/philosophy club, the glee club, the sampling local cuisine club, the baking club, the birthday/holiday/special events club, the water sports club, the scuba/snorkel club, the fitness club, the music appreciation club, the dance club, the knitting club, the movie club, fishing club, hippy sports club (hacky sack and ultimate Frisbee) and even more! We already don’t have too much free time with all our watches and classes and homework so I’m not too sure how many clubs I’ll be able to fit in!
Friday night we decided it would be fun to project a movie for everyone to watch. The night before me and this girl had been watching the Lion King and it soon became so popular that we had this big crowd trying to watch on the one laptop. So you can guess what movie we watched on Friday night! If I ever doubted how great the people on the boat were, it’s all gone now that I know that everyone’s a Disney lover!
On Saturday we sailed through the English Channel and woke of to the sun rising over the white cliffs of Dover. That was amazing.
We finally got into St. Malo yesterday! It’s a really nice city. It was amazing sailing in and watching the land grow and seeing specks turn into sailboats. As we approached St. Malo I was standing way up in the riggings, on the tgallant (second yard from the top) folding up a sail. It was a great view and a beautiful sunny day so I was in an ideal position. Tonight I got to eat good food! It was great. I went out for crepes which was an amazing change compared to boat food.
I apologize for the lack of pictures. I wasn’t really feeling up to photography most of the time. I'll try and steal some from people to put up later.