Barcelona!

On the sail from Cadiz to Barcelona, 3 very awesome events happened: We crossed through the strait of Gibraltar, and I was up in the rigging at the time and I personally think that I got the best view of Europe and Africa (At the same time!). The second awesome event was my Sweet 16! During 4-6am watch the AB whi was working at the time made me a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, During colors (our daily morning all-crew meeting) I got about 8 buckets of water dumped on me as they all sang happy birthday to me, Madeline took my morning galley for me and let me sleep in, and then Marta made me a birthday cake that night! I love my crew so much! And the third most awesome event was knowing that we were only a few days away from seeing our parents in Barcelona!

On arrival day, we were scheduled to arrive at around 3 so we spent most of the day preparing for that and having school. When we were able to see the port we were gonna be moored at, the Chief officers sent selected people to dress the yards of the fore mast (which is where we climb onto the yards as were pulling in, its for show mainly, I’ll post a picture below) I was assigned to the Upper Topsail Yard which is the 3^rd from the top. As we were up there and we got closer to our destination we were able to see a large crowd of over excited people, which happened to be our family members! They started cheering as we got closer and were in earshot distance. You could hear the parents calling their kids names and it was so cool!

We also had a few people on the boat deck playing the pirated of the Caribbean theme song on French horn, guitar, and drums. We thought the music was very suitable for the time being! We pulled into our spot and we could easily see our parents, my mom documented the whole thing! So we were dockside and then the oolice wouldn’t let the parents on for like 30 minutes, so we just talked to them while we were on the ship and they were dockside. Any who, when I was reunited with my mother we went off to a gourmet meal at McDonald’s and then went back to the hotel my mom was staying at. I finally got to enjoy the luxuries of normal life, a real bed, not a bunk. And a real shower with unlimited water, on the ship we are only allowed 3 shower pumps a day! And Internet! It’s quite hard to get Internet sometimes. We skyped people and I chatted with my friends and family and I finally got to relax and it was simply wonderful! The next day Nadia and her mom and my mom and I went out for Tapas and to go to the big Supermarket on Las Ramblas. They have so much fruit and meat there, it’s unreal! They had these fruit juices/smoothies and they were like 1 euro each and they were freshly made each day and I swear to god it was one of the best things I have tasted, my favorite flavor was chocolate/banana/coconut, and the honorable mentions are mango/coconut, guava/coconut, and just plain coconut (as you can see… I like coconut!). After the super market extravaganza mother and I walked around the city just looking  around and we also went back to Nadia’s apartment just to socialize, following that the student crew put together a little presentation for the parents for them to really see what a typical day on Class Afloat is like, we made different stations consisting of meal times, school, bed time, rigging, and safety and we walked them through each one trying our best to recreate our day in 10 minutes per station. I started the next day with a nice hotel breakfast where I could actually choos what I got to eat and how much I got to choose of it, it was actually like the best thing ever, I chose so many pastrieds and TOAST! We don’t have a toaster on the ship! L we got a full day of shore leave where Mom and I and some friends took one of the Barcelona red tour busses around the city and stopped at some of the famous places around the city. We stopped at Barcelona Cathedral which was so gorgeous there were gold statues and walls lining the whole chapel and they had a service going at the time and they were making music and it sounded awesome in there. The next “stop” was Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia we didn’t exactly go in there, but we drove past it for a while and all the architecture is just mind-bending. It’s so awesome to think that this guy designed this amazingly intricate cathedral more than 300 years ago using the very limited resources he had. The guy’s a genius. Our next stop was Park Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi, It has the worlds longest bench there, everything there looks like it cam from Whoville/Candyland. Its all tiled and so colorful, it’s filled with all the colors of the rainbow and it’s a very happy place in my opinon! Ihad to be back at the ship at 4 to do Gangway watch until 6 so we headed back and then after watch, A few people invited some of the ships orphans (the kids whose parents planned to not come to the first parent port) to come out for dinner. We went to an Italianesque restaurant, and just to conclude my thoughts about food: all of the food in spain is delicious. End of story, no questions asked! Afterwards a few of the orphans came up to the hotel right next to the ship that a lot of parents were staying at to come chill in the hot-tub. We did that a lot and its amazing because we obviously don’t have a hot tub on the ship so it’s a real treat!

The final day of full shore leave, we went to  Montserrat which is basically a cathedral in the mountains of Spain. It was very cloudy when we wet but it lightened up for a while and it is so pretty there, all the architecture was so finely detailed and it makes you think how a human can make all of this by hand and have everything perfectly symmetrical and placed. We went inside the cathedral and listened to the Montserrat boys choir sing. These kids are highly gifted, they go to school there and do music lessons everyday and they’re also training to become monks because Montserrat is also a monastery. That night Nadia’s mom organized and my mom helped out too to host a spaghetti dinner for some of the orphans. We walked to the apartment and just had a nice home cooked meal followed by gelato and Canadian chocolate bars. I’d say that that was one of my favorite meals in a long time! J

On the final day (the final day we got to see our parents) mother and I bought me some earrings and we made one last stop at the hotel and the supermarket to get some of the delish fruit smoothies and then headed back to say our goodbyes. But as it turned out our departure got delayed so we got our shore leave extended until 9 O’Clock at night which gave us a few more hours ot spend with our families. My mom and I made one last stop at the hotel to pick up the stuff she brought me from home, and then we went out for another gourmet meal, this time it was burger king! Then came back to the ship to say a nice long goodbye. And now  I won’t see my mother until March! I miss her, and the rest of my family and friends, I miss you all!! And that’s all I have to report from Barcelona J

the fruit juices!

Barcelona Cathedral!

Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

The Black Madonna (Montserrat)

Looooove, megan!

Hola Spain!

So, during the sail from Porto to Cadiz we got to do something amazing! We raced one fo the sister tall ships of the Sorlandet to Cadiz, The ship we raced was the other Norweigan sailing vessed called the Cristian Radich. They got some amazing photos of our ship which will be posted below. It’s an  awesome thing to say that you raced another Full rigged sailing vessel from Portugal to Spain. Its pretty freaking cool!

Since we were racing, we arrived there a dayt early, but we weren’t allowed off the ship until the next day because we had school to do (sad face). So on arrival day (Arrival days are kind of like Fridays to me because it’s a short day and then we don’t have school for 4-6 days after, so it’s kind of like our weekend.) Everyone got shore leave from 3-11 but I didn’t leave the ship for very long, just to go get some food and stuff. The next morning me and 3 friends, Anna, Allison, and Clio went for a  run around 6am, it was a Friday and let me tell you, the Spaniards do not stop partying until the sun comes up. All the clubs still had music blaring out of the speakers and there were (intoxicated) people everywhere! Which was rather entertaining for us. We came back to the ship and had a wonderful pancake breakfast and then we got ready for our Port Program, which was a day trip to the Spanish city of Seville! We boarded a bus and started on our journey. We split off into groups of 4 and I was with Grace, Clio, and Goldwin for the whole day. We started our day by going out on the search for food, we ended up at the National Festival, which happened to be conveniently there at the same time we were! Grace and I settled for pizza (how cultural of us) and Clio and Goldwin got some Indian food, also very cultural. We went shopping at the festival and I found the most awesome pants ever in the Moroccan booth (Am I the only one who finds it funny that I’m buying Italian food and Moroccan pants in Spain?!),they are these blue gypsy pants which are hard to describe, but a photo will be posted sometime along the way! I promise.  Afterwards we just walked until we found something unique or entertaining to do, eventually we stumbled upon the river separating 2 parts of the city, there was a little bar there and you were able to rent paddleboats, and that is what we did. We rented it for an hour and just floated down the river, which was very peaceful and relaxing, and the sun was shining and it was just beautiful! Time was up, and we got off and bought some lemonade slushies. It was nearing dinnertime so once again; we went on the hunt for food. We settled for the cheapest way out, El Super Mercado! (Supermarket) We each bought 2 items of food (Including ice cream!) and then headed to a grassy area and we picnicked! Then just relaxed and laid out in the sun and watched as it slowly went down. The Spanish nightlife begins to come out now, so we crossed the bridge and went to the busy restaurant/club side of the city. There wasn’t much for us to do over there cause we only had an hour left until curfew so we sad by the river and people watched and had deep conversations about life and the human brain (we’re weird kids). Then it was time to head back to the bus, I had made plans with my friend to sit with her on the way back, but we were both so tired that we ended up falling asleep within 5 minutes of the bus ride. Exploring a city sure takes a lot out of you!

             The next day after cleaning stations A few of us decided to have a beach day. We stayed on the ship until lunchtime because we all were so tired and just napped for a few hours. Then Christy, Nick, Madeline, and I left to go get some food and beach time! We stopped at this kebab/donair place and it was so delicious!! I love those, and they’re everywhere in Spain, which is a very good thing!  We then headed out the beach in Cadiz where we also met up with another group of 4 people from the ship, Annunziata, Kacey, Josh and Phil. We hung out with them for a bit, we splashed around in the water for a while and oh my god the water was so warm and it was a lovely sand bottom! Then we all laid our towels out and more people from the ship came and we all were just chilling there, suntanning, in Cadiz, in Spain, with our closest friends. No big deal at all!!  We stopped for ice cream on the way back to the ship. It was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which tastes just like heaven. I always have such a large craving for ice cream all the time here; probably because we ever have any while were at sea! Then we headed back to the ship and did homework, sooo exciting! Not.

Then we went to sleep!

So this was basically the highlights of Cadiz. I like Spain, ice cream everywhere and beaches all around, oh and very warm weather! J

Talk to you soon!

-Megan

Porto, Portugal

On the first day we got a few hours to explore around after we arrived. The area we were docked at was just a little town outside of Porto but we got to explore around the little surf town we were at, but we took a tram or a bus into Porto a few times. So the first night I went out with some friends and we went to restaurant on the beach. I got a really good burger, but I had no idea what it was at the time I ordered it. It was a burger with egg, real bacon, and beef and cheese and tomato. So good! We headed back to the ship after that because we didn’t have much time for shore leave that night. The next day we had our first Port Program which was going to Graham’s Port Wine Company. We got a tour of the place and they keep all their wine in big wooden barrels in this dim storage area. It smelled very odd, like wood and grapes! We learned that the older the wine/tawny is the lighter the color gets and the sweeter flavours it will have. The guide says that the older it is the more it develops flavours like vanilla and berries. It was very interesting. And afterwards we got to sample some 10-year-old port wine. Let’s just say that I did not like it. It was very sweet and it burned my mouth a lot! The same day we also went to the British Factory House, It was so interesting inside everything in there was from the 1800’s and they had a library with 20,000 old books.  It smelled like history! :P We even went to the ballroom in there and Clio played the piano and everyone else danced around just having fun. The kitchen even had the old ovens and pots and it had one of the first electric refrigerators ever made. It was really cool, and the weather was so nice! And oh my goodness the buildings were all so beautiful, they use a lot of rustic colors like pale yellow, dark reddish browns and oranges. After the port programs we went back to the ship and were able to leave and once again go visit the little surf town we were in.

The next day we had an option to go see the Casa Da Musica in Porto, I went and it was such a cool building. It had all these different colored and oddly shaped holding rooms and the concert halls they showed us had amazing sound. Like it was so crisp and pure and the acoustics were really good. And they had all these computers with garage band and a bunch of music programs set up in the lobby and we played around with those for a while. It was an awesome experience. I stayed in Porto for the day after. We went into a little central park area with local stores and a market and 3 friends and I went to get some food from the market and a bakery and had a picnic in the park and afterwards we just laid there and relaxed once we were done eating. Then we started to wander around Porto and we ended up in a really sketchy area which I think would be like the Forest Lawn of Calgary. So we were basically completely lost. We ended up from the center of Porto down to the waterfront. Hmmm…. But we got on a bus and somehow navigated our way back to the area where our ship was. Even though we were completely lost it was still fun and it was a great way to see the city!

On our last day in Porto we had a hike in a small village/countryside area just outside of Porto. The hike took us to the countryside and it was really hot outside! WE got a lunch provided for us from an authentic Portuguese restaurant, I had like no idea what we ate, but there was bread with tuna pâté, some squash or carrot soup, and chicken with pineapple and potatoes. The food here was so good. We also got to navigate around the little village and I bought a leather bracelet! I’m getting one from every country! When we got back to the ship after the hike A few friends and I went out to the beach and swam during sunset! It was one of the highlights from this port. Just splashing around in the waves… on a beach… In Portugal! Afterwards we got back to the ship to get dressed and the whole crew got together and had a dance party! It lasted for about an hour and then everyone got tired and headed off to bed and to go study for midterms! Sometimes it gets hard having to balance travelling and schoolwork, but it’s manageable!

Porto was a cool port, it was so warm, the buildings were awesome and the food was great! And it was just fun!

Talk to you soon, off to Cadiz!

- Megan

Sail from France to Portugal

Sail from France-Portugal

The bay or Biscay, also known as the bay of Pukay. I have not been seasick but a lot of people did on this sail. The swells were really big and the ship was taking on a lot of water. At one point a wave washed over the whole deck! Luckily I was below deck! But for night watches everyone had to wear a harness to avoid people falling overboard. And I fell out of my bunk because the ship moved back an forth so much A lot of people couldn’t sleep during the night because dished were always moving around and some of them broke! During this sail a lot of people energy levels were down because not a lot of people felt very well, we were all tired and just wanted to see land. Everyone also just wants to sleep when the ship is rocking. A lot of the time when were at sea a lot of people will fall asleep during class because we get anywhere between 4-6 hours of sleep a night and because when were in class, the lights aren’t that bright, you’re sitting on a comfy couch type thing and the ship is gently rocking back and forth. It’s just a recipe for relaxation! But not this time around. Books were flying off the tables and people were always running up on deck because they needed to puke. It was definitely the hardest sail to get through, but I hope its gonna make the next one easier for everyone! I’m just glad that I haven’t puked!

Just incase you were wondering, we have these things near the side of the ship which we call the puke funnels, it was one of the most popular places of congregations this sail!

But I’m doing well!

- Megan

Brest, France

Bonjour!

Originally we were supposed to go to Dournanez, France, but there were some complications happening there so we went to a port just an hour away. Sadly there is not a whole lot of things to do here, but we have made our own fun. We had a one-day sail from England to France and we anchored just outside of the harbor for the night and since it was the Captains birthday and the sun was shining and the water was calm, we got a swim call!!! WE FINALLY GET TO SWIM! They split us up into 2 groups and I was in the first group. We only got to jump in like twice because each group only swam for 10 minutes because of the cold water and lack of time before sunset. I jumped off the boat deck, which is the highest deck you can jump from! As soon as you hit the water the cold finally got to you. Like before you jump you’re so excited because it’s the first swim call, and then mid jump you realize that you’re about to jump into the English Channel in October! It was still such a fun time even if it was only for 10 minutes; it was the wonderful end to a school day. The next day we arrived in France and got shore leave after our classes were over and the ship was clean. The first day we just looked out for bakeries and Internet, which we are deprived of on the ship. As I said before this port did not have as much stuff to do as uor previous ones, but we made the most of it! One of the days we took a city bus our to a beach area by a harbor and brought some speakers and played ultimate Frisbee for a few hours and had a nice picnic on the beach which consisted of a variety of cheeses, pâté, and baguettes.  Then we headed back to the ship to gather more people to go play Laser Tag! We walked about 15 minutes to the place and strapped on our guns and vests and just burned off all of our energy playing the game. I was on the red team, but the blue team won L . Yet it was still fun! Our Port Program for this port was by far the most fun! We went out and sailed Hobie 15 Catamarans. We took out 15 boats with 3 people in each of them, I was with Clio and Grace and we just cruised around on a Catamaran dinghy! 3 of the other groups capsized their boats, but it was all good fun. The water was warmer than the air surprisingly! Our boat almost capsized but we saved it, and at some points we got going so fast that our boat started planning, it was amazing, I was the skipper for most of the time, cause no one else in my group wanted to be! But it was such a cool experience sailing dinghies in French waters! Do not even get me started about the bakeries in France! Almost everything I have eaten in France has contained some form of bread. I have had chocolate croissants, almond croissants (my favorite) and 2 whole baguettes, and a variety of Panini’s. And of course I would not forget to go to a creperie, I bought La Carene crepes which is “tiramisu” style, with coffee ice cream and lots of chocolate sauce! And there is this one ice cream place that only had 2 flavors of ice cream, but there’s something about it that is just so delicious! It’s strawberry and vanilla soft serve ice cream mixed and it is amazing! The weather has also been getting warmer! It was like 35 degrees and sunny here one day, and even though its overcast a lot of the time, it is still so warm! The food and the weather here definitely gets two thumbs up!

Au Revoir!

-Megan

Falmouth/Penzance, Cornwall, England

We arrived on the 22^nd in Cornwall. As we were docking I got to go on the small boat that hang off the side of the ship, what my job was to do was to hold a fender right in the tip of this small dinghy while we were literally pushing the ship to the right direction it needed to go to dock. It’s fairly intimidating feeling like you’re going to crash into a 210 foot sailing vessel. After we docked we were able to get shore leave in Falmouth and the first thing we did was go out and explore and go to Tesco to get some junk food, and we stopped to get some famous Cornish Kelly Whip ice cream, which was so good. I have no idea what made it taste so good, it just did! We returned to the ship after our explorations and then went to sleep. The next day we had a port program in Penzanze which involved us going to listen to a lecture about an environmental program that tries to locally prevent pollution, they hope that their program will spread, it’s called Transition Penworth. Afterwards and afterwards we went to a local farm that is involved with Transition Penworth. That port program was not my cup of tea, but it was still cool to see what people’s ideas are. The next day we had a full day of shore leave and we just hung around Falmouth and I went shopping and then we stopped at this food place called Harbour Lights which is famous for fish and chips and its very obvious why, it was delicious and I had these things called cheese chips which are chips (French fries) covered with mozzarella cheese. The next morning some girls and I from the ship got up at 5:30 and went for a jog. Let me tell you, it was epic! We jogged down to the Pendennis Castle and sat in one of the windows (it was fairly small) and got to watch the sunrise over the ocean. It was majestic. I am trying to watch as many sunsets and sunrises as possible! The next day we had our 2^nd port program. We went out to Penzanze once again and  we visited a local high school called Mount Bay Academy. We got to mingl with some of the students and we found many similarities and differences between our culture, lingo, and apparel. Everyone got along really well. They had to wear uniforms everyday, and it was a public school, but it seemed so much like it would be a very prestigious prep/private school. After we went to Sennen Cove, which is this beautiful beach area, it had white sand, but the water was freezing. We weren’t allowed to swim but we all got our feet wet! My friend Clio and I sprinted along the whole coastline of the cove, it was a magical moment! :P  And on the way home on the bus ride we saw travelling gypsies in the caravan! Have you ever heard of a Cornish Pasty? They’re like a type of bread/pastry filled with potato, onions, and meat. That’s the traditional type of Pasty, but you can fill them with whatever you want! They even have dessert Pastys. Cornwall and Penzanze were both beautiful places in England, and it was sunny for the most of it, which just made everything even more amazing!

Talk to you soon,

Megan

A Typical Day At Sea!

A day at sea!

 -Wake up at 6:30

-Go out on deck for gym class at 7.We stand on the boat deck (upper deck) and stretch and do push ups and sit ups and all the stuff (There’s only so much you can do on a ship!)

-Go down below and eat breakfast

-Be out on deck for Colors at 8 (Colors is like a daily meeting with everyone on the ship to find out what’s going on during the day.) Colors is always at 8 no matter what and you always have to be present and always on time or else you get to do the early bird watch from 6-7am!

-Then we stay out on deck and work from 8-9 at cleaning stations, I currently clean heads (bathrooms), which change when each watch time changes. While the galley crew from yesterday cleans the banjer (our sleeping, eating, classroom, and social space) and the galley from that day goes and cleans up. (We each have galley groups made up of 6-8 people and there are 6 galley groups. I’m in galley 3, so on my galley day we get up at 6:30, have to be at the galley at 7 and then we help out the cook and the cooks mate for that whole day, and we do galley once every 6 days. Galley is great because you don’t have to do your 2 hours of daywatch and 2 hours of nightwatch, so you get to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep and you just have galley and classes for that day!)

-Classes go from 9am – 6pm and during that time frame you have your classes, daywatch, and lunch. Our schedules differs each day based on whether its day 1-6. Some days I have as little as 3 hours of classes, and some days I have 6 hours! But no matter what we always have 2 hours of watch, and you have lunch at 11:30 or 12, it depends which seating you are in.

-Daywatch is fun sometimes. My favorite physical watch position is lookout because you stand at the bow of the ship as the ship is pitching and you get that butterfly feeling in your stomach, and I’ve gotten drenched by the waves of the North Sea while on lookout, it was quite the experience, then one time on lookout a water plane circled around and the pilot waved at me! Lookout can just get boring sometimes though since your out there by yourself for an hour until the next person scheduled there comes to relieve you. I enjoy doing Helm as well, helm is a term for steering the ship. It’s kind of intimidating though.  Nightwatch helm scares me a lot because you cant see where you’re going, you have to say on the course or else the navigator yells at you! And when the water is really rocky you get thrown off the helm sometimes because the rutter is getting smacked my waves which jolts the wheel to the side which then lifts you off the ground. That’s when the harnesses come out! Steering a 500 Tonne ship with 60 people on it sure is fun!

-After daywatch we have dinner from 6-6:30

Then we get free time to do homework or watch movies or whatever ( unless you have daywatch from 6-8 or nightwatch from 8-10)

-Lights out is at 10pm every night. Just the banier lights go off, but we have the aft and fore nooks to do homework or silently chat with friends. But everyone is typically asleep right at 10 because were all so tired. It’s surprisingly easy to fall asleep with 22 other girls in the room! I have the bottom bunk which I have managed to fall out of sometimes because the ship is rocking back and forth because of the waves, but our bunks are very comfortable and just a little bit smaller than a twin sized bed!

Nightwatch hours run from 8pm to 9am. My current watch is from 12am-2am, every 3 weeks it changes times.  On October 6^th my watch time will move from 2am-4am. We are all divided into watch groups made up of 6 or 7 people and the watch groups you’re put in at the beginning of the year is the group you’re with most of the time fro the rest of the semester. It’s crazy how close with them I have become, we get up in the middle of the night every night together! It’s quite the bonding experience. Anywho, the previous watch wakes us up 15 minutes before our watch starts. An alarm never wakes you, someone always wakes you up which is nice! During nightwatch 2 people clean the heads, and the rest of us go on helm and standby (there has to be 2 people on the helm cause its tough by yourself), lookout, and firewatch which is where every half hour you make rounds of the whole ship making sure everything is safe and that no fires have started because there is a lot of tire hazards on the ship.

After your nightwatch is done, you get to go to sleep until the next morning where you do that all over again!

And whenever you have free time, everyone is asleep because you’re so tired all the time, and it’s tough not being able to eat whenever, just mainly at mealtimes and the small amount of free time you get on some days.

It gets really tiring sometimes, but when we get to port, its like our weekend because at sea we always have school no matter what day it is!  It’s amazing how you lose track of what day and date it is!

So that is a typical day at sea :D