Class Afloat 2011-2012: 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