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