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