Class Afloat 2011-2012

Sunday, 8 April 2012

Dominicaaa!

Once again we were anchored in Dominica because we couldn’t fit into the dock! We had the tenders running again the first day of shore leave. We hitch hiked a ride to a bank machine form some landscaper guy, WE stopped at the corner store to pick up some snacks and we just kept walking. The first day in port is usually just aimlessly walking around finding food and money and figuring out what interesting stuff to do for the next few days. In this area we were in on the island. There happened to be large holes in the sidewalk, like very large. Here’s a “something only Megan would do” story. We were walking and my friend and me were trailing behind, the three other members of my group were ahead and were like “Hey Megan, lookout for that hole” they all said it, but guess what happened, I fell into the hole, I banged my shin pretty badly and there is now a dent in it! But it was pretty hilarious I must say, I was okay other than that!” We took a water taxi back to the ship around 5. The curfew when we are anchored is always 6pm verses the normal 11pm curfew because we have to sue the tenders, which can’t operate in the darkness because they do not have lights L. The next day we got to go on some awesome hikes. Did you know that Dominica is where most of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest was filmed? We went to these awesome caves where Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom were in! jk I am not that crazed. Although we were in a spot in a cave where in this scene from the movie, the crew from the ship is hanging from a cliff in those round crates, the crates drop and they all land in this dark cave like thing of water. I swam in there!!! We also went on a pretty intense hike up to a waterfall. And we to swim in it! The water was awesome but it was so cold. Be sure to check out photos below! This waterfall was supposedly one of the biggest ones in Dominica! We were all climbing up these rocks and jumping in, it was so cool.

The next day I stayed on the ship with Grace and Kaissa because we signed up to do deck work or the day. It is actually so fun, we linseed oiled the deck (since it is wood it needs to get hydrate!) then the deck gets super slippery so we eventually scrub it off. We painted a lot of the railings on the foc’sle (forecastle abbreviation, which is the deck at the front of the ship. Then George, the first mate, let us swim of the ship, and we got to jump of the foc’sle, normally we are just allowed to jump off the main deck and boat deck. But George gave us the special treatment. And we also got the leftover smoothies from the 3 O’Clock coffee break. It was a fun day of deck-work. It was actually so fun! It was really memorable. We also enhanced our tans quite a lot J

It was Aidan’s birthday in Dominica. His parents surprised him by arriving in Dominica, rather than at the parent port. His parent’s then booked a restaurant on the beach for all of us to come and join. It was kind of like a port program/Birthday party. We got to dance on the beach to some music, play pool, and eat really good food. Some of us, including me, even got thrown in the water with our clothing on. Most people did. It was a good time J

We all came back on the ship and we did some awesome sail manouvers. We were anchored so we sailed off the hook in Grenada, where we leave without the use of the motor, so we basically had an all hand call and called everyone up on deck to set all sails to get us out of the bay. It was so epic, we had two watches on each of the three masts. And all these orders were called and we set almost all sails. It was so cool. Everyone from the cruise ships and the other ships moored out there was taking pictures of us departing. You know you’re awesome when you set full sail at sunset from the anchor of a Norwegian tall ship! It was a lot of work. Every one was sweating. Every sail maneuver done on the ship does not happen with the press of a button, it’s all doe manually. It’s so cool to look up and see all that canvas up there taking us around the world via sea

me diving into the waterfall!

see us down in the left corner?

waterfall and us inside the place where POTC was filmed!

Those are basically the highlights of Dominica! Our last Caribbean stop, Dominican Republic coming up soon!

Saturday, 7 April 2012

GRENADA!

rainbow!

snorkellin in grenada!

nutmeg

Carib's Leap

On top of a Russian jet! with my little Russian!

We arrived in Grenada three days early so for that period we anchored just outside of Port George in St George. We continued on with normal classes and stuff. But then the day before we were supposed to go alongside. We got a deck day instead of school! WE had a swim call in the Caribbean where the water is so warm all the time, and we got to swim for like half an our rather than just ten minutes. It was awesome. Followed by that was a wedding! Yes, a wedding. Two students on board got a sea marriage. It is fully legal and it was a real marriage, but you’re only married when you’re underway at sea, not on land. So they get some leeway!

After the wedding we got some cake and then we had a movie on deck! Someone on the ship, I am not sure who, made this square canvas sheet thingy that you dies up on deck and you can project movies onto it! It was quite awesome, we watches Casino Royale as a crew.

We finally arrived in Saint Georges; we got let off the ship around 5pm after classes ended. The first day all I did was do a mass organization of my stuff, I mean massive! I tore everything out of my sea chest and locker and just organized it. Then I went out to the grocery store and it was like North American exploded. There are so many American food products there like barely any local things except for what is sold on the street. But I got a good fix of Froot Loops and Peanut Butter, so that was good J then we went and got internet for an hour, and then by the time that was done we headed back to the ship for the night.

The next day was our full day of shore leave. It was my friend Morgan’s 18^th birthday so for that we went on a tour around the whole island /country, all six parishes! We started with finding a deal with a taxicab and it cost 20 buck each for four of us. We started with heading out to the far side of the island to this remote little spice place where we could buy spices. I bought so many spices for my mother. Lots of nutmeg because Grenada used to be the worlds number 1 producer of nutmeg before the hurricane hit. It is also in the Spice Islands so why wouldn’t you buy spices, duh!

Then we moved on to see a nutmeg factory. It is quite simple actually the nutmeg is brought to these ladies who sort the good from the bad and then they are dried out and then ready to get shipped somewhere, simple as that! And Nutmeg ice cream is delicious! Then we moved on to Caribs’s Leap, which is a big tourist attraction and a big part of Grenada’s history, when Grenada was being invaded and under the control of France, the Caribs drove themselves off a cliff because they basically thought that there was no hope for them. I stood on the edge of that cliff and it is high and rocky, the water is a far ways away down there. Our second last stop was at this crashed Russian jet from a long time ago. We got to play around and climb on this old jet, which was so cool. I don’t think I have ever walked on top of a jet before, or been in the cockpit of the ruin of a Russian jet. There was also a cow beside it! Our last stop was Annandale falls; it is part of a national rainforest reserve. There was this huge cliff there it was higher than 15 feet and I got to jump off of it! Some other groups went there and their tour guides wouldn’t let them jump, but our did so I got to jump 50 feet into a river, it was so cool!, we also got to hold a monkey! Our driver then dropped us off near a beach where there was this one lone little bar there. WE stopped there and ordered some coke and chips, and we were the only people around at that time. We started walking along the road and then we hitched a ride with some local to take us back to St. Georges, it was like a 5-minute drive. We stopped and had a really nice birthday dinner at this seaside restaurant and then we continued to walk around St George and head back to the ship, Morgan decided to be crazy and jump into the harbor fully clothed at night and we had to pull her out because she couldn’t get up. While she as getting pulled out her legs got scraped really badly from the barnacles, luckily no eels got her! Silly girl. But it was pretty funny! We went back to the ship and fell right asleep, such a fun and tiring day J

The following day we had a port program! This was one of the best programs by far, we went snorkeling out on a catamaran and saw underwater sculptures some guy made, there were awesome. It must have taken forever too. They look really creepy too! It was also a day sail so we got to do some tanning and sailing in the Caribbean. There was music blasting and drinks being passed around. It was so chill and so relaxing. When weren’t snorkeling we were jumping and diving off the catamaran. I wish I could do that again so badly, it was amazing! On the ride back there was a few waves. You know how catamarans have the trampoline net in the middle? Well me and my friends Allison and Theresa were laying on there and whenever the ship would pitch down waves would splash over top of us from the trampoline and we got soaked, it was so fun though!

After our port program I stayed at the ship to help do ship work. Sune, the chief Mate needed two helpers to help him scrub crude oil and rubber form Dakar off the side of the ship. A while ago we made this raft out of a few planks of wood and some fenders. IT works but it’s a pain to move around, two students tested it out on arrival day, and no one fell in! Our dilemma was this. We were on the key side, which is a few meters from the water line, and the raft was in the water, so how do we get on the raft. I asked Sune and he just jumped in the water. Normally we are never allowed to swim in the harbor because its dangerous, but I guess not! Kacey, my best friend was with us too. We started with the raft and tried to scrub, it was difficult. So we were innovative and put flotation devices on our legs and just floated in the water with scrapers and scrub brushes as we scrubbed away the rubber and crude oil. George, our First mate cam out onto the aft deck to see how we were doing. She then dropped three sprites in the water. Kacey and I were just floating there drinking sprites in the Caribbean. Sune left to go do Mate stuff so it was me and Kacey in there. There was a cruise ship next to us and they were looking at us like we were crazy, they were just jealous! I ended up staying the water for three hours; lets just say I got a killer tan! It was one of the best jobs on the ship!

The next day we were supposed to leave at around 12, but our MOB (man overboard) boat was still gone for repairs. We ordered it to be back for 10 am, but it came at 10 pm. We left at around 11:30 and I got to helm out of port. Aka steer the ship away from the dock. It was quite nerve wracking but it was awesome!

Let’s set sail to Dominica! J I would have to say that Grenada was one of my favorite ports yet!

Pirates of the Caribbean sailing (and sickness)!

Well, in Belem someone got sick, just a little travel bug, but shortly after we left EVERYONE got sick except for the professional crew and a few students, including lucky me! At one point there were about 22 people sick, like throwing up sick. It got to the point where we had to cancel school for a day, even a lot of the teachers were sick. We had 22 bunks filled with sicklings! The ones who weren’t sick had to do everyones galley and watches (I stood a four hour night watch from 2am-4am), and it kind of sucked sometimes because it was a lot of work for not very many people. But the people who weren’t sick got a surplus of food because none of the sick people ate! That meant more grilled cheese sandwiches for meee! All the lights were off in the banjer and If you went up on deck and then came back down it literally felt like death down there. Paul, one of the AB’s was making a bookshelf out of this old piece of wood and I asked him to go make me a cross so I could bless the well ones and the banjer, it worked for a few people! One day Peter, another one of our AB’s suggested that the sick people get some fresh air, so he took them up to the boat deck. It looked like everybody wanted to die! everyone had no colour in their face and not a hint of happiness. Everyone eventually got better, the Belem bug was cured, we called it the Black Plague!

After everyone was cured we could really enjoy sailing in the Caribbean! The water was blue all the time, the winds were blowing, and the sun was shining. We got some great tans on our way to Grenada J

Belem Para, Brazil (Amazon Rainforest)

THE AMAZON RIVER!

Parrots, Tarantula, and me in the jungle!

sunrise on the river

-Welcome to the Jungle!

We were sailing in the Amazon River for a bit and then we arrived in Belem. One of the first things we noticed when we were there is that there are torrential downpours multiple times a day. Probably because it is the rainforest! Before we could get shore leave on arrival day we had to sort through all out trash that we have been hauling around with us since Dakar. We had to go through everything and separate the papers from the plastics and do all the stuff. The stuff that was plastic we had to wash. We sorted through trash accumulated over 3 weeks from 60 people= not very fun! But we got it done and we got shore leave around six! We then realized that there was a hild up at the port gate. We all had to get out crew cards verified. It took about two hours. Our whole crew was basically waiting at the gate until each member of our group had their cards. We eventually got out at around 8. We had two hours until we could be back at the ship. I was with a group of girls form the ship and our main goal was to get food not from the ship! So we hunted around for a while to find a good place to eat, and we came across a place called Giraffas! It is kind of like a Brazilian version of a Mcdonalds. Between 6 girls we accumulated about nine full trays of food. We were very hungry and were desperately craving fast food, or any food that is advised as not being good for you! That is kind of what everyone does during the first few hours of shore leave. After we had to run back to the ship to get Erin back for gangway watch on time. WE got there with like 3 minutes to spare. And we stopped back at Giraffas multiple times in Belem

The next day I had gangway from 4am to 6am, normally having watch at that time of night was torture, but a special event happened that night. We were chilling on the deck box with Johannes (the AB on watch) and all of a sudden this bird like thing swoops down and almost smokes me in the head, I ran away out of fear of what it may be. I don’t think I have every run that fast in my life. Then I came back to see what it was. It was a huge bug almost as big as my hand. I have never seen anything like t before. It looked evil! We had to kill it because we didn’t want it leaving eggs on the ship and then us having to deal with an infestation of roaches. We didn’t know what to do the thing was so huge. So we threw a bucket over it so it couldn’t get away. Then we went to the paint locker and grabbed Thinner17 and trapped it in a bucket of it. It worked, it died and we named it Jimmy, at colours the next morning we announced his presence. He stayed with us on the ship until we left Belem J

We also had a captains clean that morning. Morgan and I were assigned to the Captains Pantry. It took us five hours, but we managed to remove everything, sanitize it, and then put it all back in. Extra thoroughly! After shore leave that day, we came back and the lights were out. The power was out due to the dang air conditioner acting up again. On the sail to Belem we were in the southern Atlantic Ocean and our air conditioner was breaking down so we didn’t get to use it. It got so hot, the outside temperature was like 35 degrees and the banjer and aftships was even hotter. It was not a fun time of endless sweating and no sleeping because it was so hot, some people even slept on the boat deck (which is against the rules muahaha) but at least they slept for a night. It was constantly hot except for when we pulled out the kitty pool and put it on deck to cool off in, we were innovative and found alternative methods of cooling down J including a swim call in the middle of the ocean. There was a fish that looked like a small shark under us when we were swimming, the swells were pretty fun to swim in, but there was a current so we had to be careful. Swimming in the middle of the southern Atlantic Ocean is a pretty awesome experience.

The next day in Belem was one of the best days by far! We were going on an amazing river expedition! We got up bright and early and made our way to the dock where the riverboat was waiting for us. We hopped on and sat up on the upper deck to get a good view of the Amazon. We sat on chairs and off we went. We moseyed down the river for a bit. The water really looked like it was chocolate milk, it was brown and you couldn’t see anything, other than branches floating on the surface. A bunch of us laid down on the deck and we all fell asleep and were awoken when we had to go to lunch. Lunch was some Amazonian catfish, onions, rice, and really good yellow fried flour that you would put on rice. I ate so much of that stuff! We then moved along on the boats and got ready to go for a hike through the jungle. We started by stopping at some local’s house in the middle of the jungle. He was cutting up Brazil nuts with a machete. Did you know that the Brazil nut shell only contains odd numbers of nuts, never even ones! And one Brazil nut has the protein equivalence of two eggs or a serving of meat. They also taste really good. During our hike we had to run at some points because it was dangerous to stand underneath the trees because the Brazil nuts fall from 50 meters. While we were gathered outside of this place, there were wild parrots in a tree. A bunch of people tried to hold it, so did I but it didn’t stay, it flew away and squawked. Animals just really don’t like me I guess. But one of the parrots was on my teachers arm and then it started crawling up and it landed on here head, it was quite comical. Then we kept walking through and another local who was an old man began to climb up this tree like 30 feet up, and then he began to swing from tree to tree. He had this woven grass thing around his feet, which he wrapped around the tree to help him climb. His dismount was so impressive. He let go of his feet and slid down with his hands and a few feet before the ground his reestablished his feet to the tree and friction slowed him down. It all happened in less than a second. This was coming form an old an. We got to try and climb it too, I could barely get up, but one guy climbed up pretty high. While all this was happening our guide picked up a tarantula and started passing it around. A wild tarantula! I got to hold it and it started crawling up my arm. It was awesome!

There is a lot of fruit in the jungle too, there were mangos and star fruit everywhere and we all ate so much of it. Then we came back to where we started and we had an opportunity to buy this acai berry puree juice thing. It had the consistency of really thick juice or really thin pudding, which is the best way I can describe it. It was so good if you put sugar and tapioca in it. Not a lot of people liked it, but I thought it was so good. It is a specialty from the jungle, homemade in the Amazon!

We then moved spots to where we were staying for the night; we had another empty boat join us because since we were staying overnight we needed a boat for the boys and a boat for the girls. Once we got there we had an amazing opportunity to swim in the river. Wherever you go in Brazil everyone says to not swim in the river, but we did! The water actually looks like a latte. I jumped in and I couldn’t even see my hands at the surface of the water. The water was so warm though. Since I couldn’t see anything I didn’t know what any of the creatures below me were, for all I know that could have been an anaconda that touched my leg while in the river! It was so so so awesome!

When bedtime rolled around we had established our sleeping spots. So many people claimed the hammocks that were available. Two girls and me claimed this cabin like room inside. Most people were asleep except me and my friend Erin found it to be way too hot, so we took our sleeping bags and slept on the ground outside. It was a wonderful sleep up until about 4:30 am where everyone was awoken by a huge flock of parrots emerging from the trees at dawn. It was cool to watch but it was so loud and their squawking lasted for like 10 minutes!

Our boat went back to the dock and we continue on with shore leave for the day.

We headed out to the market for bit to so some shopping. So many people bought hammocks, including me and the banjer was loaded with hammocks for a few nights. Hammocks were what seamen usually slept in and our banker used to be hammocks until the put bunks it. My hammock is a two person one so its huge! At sea its awesome because when the ship rocks you don’t feel it because the hammock counteracts it. So I bought a lovely hammock! But doing wakeups at night was a nightmare because during night watch when you’re trying to wake up the ongoing watch, you don’t know who is who and it’s confusing! It’s just a cluster of hammocks hanging from the overhead hooks! The hammocks were awesome and so was Belem, end of story! :) Now off the Caribbean :)

Fernando!

We anchored outside of Fernando on the 12^thwe were never doecked in Fernando mainly because we were there for only 2 days and because there is no harbor that can accompany a ship like us ad because it was such a small island. The next morning for gym class we got to go swimming!!! We all woke up at 5:30 am (well a lot of people slept through it, their loss though) and got to swim during the sunrise. The water was so warm, and it as so refreshing and so fun! I have to say it was one of the best gym classes I’ve been to yet.

We got shore leave that day, the tenders started running after the galley crew was done cleaning and afterd all the cleaning stations were finished. I went out with three of my friends. Morgan and I had to be back at the ship from 2-4pm because of anchor watch. (there always ahs to be pople on watch at the ship at all times, the ship is never ever ever vacant!) We went out to lunch first at this really cool buffet style restaurant. In brazil they have a lot of rice and fish, its almost everywhere. We also got some ice cream J We had to take a taxi cab to get to the restaurant and the taxi cabs in Fernando were awesome. They were basically little dune buggies and you sat on the very back with your head peering over the roof. They were so awesome. We found our way to this beach where the water was so clear, it was the prettiest colour of turquoise,a and the temperature was so warm. Morgan and I swent swimming and neither of us had our swimsuits so we just went in our shorts and shirts, which was quite entertaining considering we had to stay in those clothes all day. We then made our way back to the dock so we could get picked up by the tender to make it to the ship for anchor watch. We washed down some harnesses and then hung them up to dry, and we sprayed each other with the hose as well, it was quite nice for the temperature that day. We then went back at four and chilled at a beach really close to the dock while we ate French fries and drank coke and redbull. Fernando has this really chill feel to it, everyone is really laid back and patient. So it was really nice to just relax and chill rather than run around a country finding stuff to do.

The last say in Fernando, we had a cab driver take us out to the far side of the island to go to a beach. We somehow managed to find another Class Afloat group there, but luckily they were leaving. Sometimes it is just nice to be with three other people on shore leave rather than be surrounded by 40 teenagers all the time at sea! This beach had snorkeling there. We didn’t want to pay for any snorkels so the group that was leaving gave theirs to us. Morgan and Hon went out snorkeling and I stayed behind with Ana and we just chatted. I tried to go out snorkeling, but I personally never found that much to see, Morgan and Jon found a sea turtle though. Ana and I then went swimming! Which was highly enjoyable because the water is so warm and so clear and so nice!

This is basically what we did in Fernanado, no port programs, just a short two day port where we got to relax after a long Atlantic crossing.