Feliz Navidad!

The much anticipated Atlantic crossing to Brazil was filled with excitement and nervousness due to the miles we would be covering as well as the Equator crossing and the ceremony that comes with the event. The sail went by surprisingly fast with our ship board duties and a school wide focus on studies everyday with all students completing multiple large assignments that would be due upon arrival at our next port.

As we made our way across the ocean, everyday became hotter and hotter as we approached the Equator and entered the zone in the Atlantic where we encountered squalls. A squall is basically a small violent storm but feels like a wall of water with a great amount of wind pushing. This can be very dangerous and can easily take down a ship if not handled correctly. When we entered a squall, all sails must come down quickly and every door and port hole have to be securely closed to make sure water does not enter into any part of the boat if the storm happened to lay us down on our side briefly into the water. At one point, we lost all of our wind in our sails and made a full circle to try and catch some wind since it instantly became dead calm.  Then, all of the sudden a huge squall came out of no where and there was an incredible amount of wind and rain. It was absolutely pouring and we were drenched within seconds. It was cool to look on the radar and see how many of the squalls were swarming in the area. With it being so hot and constantly having to close all of the doors and port holes, it made inside the boat feel like a sweat box and extremely uncomfortable for classes, meals and every other activity within the boat. For once, our dorms felt like the coolest place on the boat.

Somewhere along our way I guess we  passed the 100 day mark of our journey, which is apparently some sort of personal milestone. The days here kind of blend from one day to the next with no clear division, due to our day and night watch schedules. I actually still have difficulty figuring out what day of the week it is. Day 103 turned out to be the big milestone which we were all waiting for when we reached the Equator. When we crossed this imaginary line, it was like New Years on the boat as we counted down (and played the song The Final Countdown) and crossed from winter time to summer time while entering the southern hemisphere. With this feat of the crossing, we also graduated our sailor status of Pollywogs to Shellbacks. This graduation came at a price however with the long standing sailor tradition of an initiation ceremony, which even our Captain had to take part in as he never had crossed the Equator before. Unfortunately, I can not tell you what happened due to sailor code and maritime superstitions but I can tell you it is basically a hazing ritual and I got off quite easy compared to others, as some of the students were actually crying. It was all in fun though and we all were able to laugh about it after and enjoy our upgraded status which not many people have the honour of saying they have done.

By the end of our Atlantic crossing journey,  our provisions were running low and we were down to rice and lentils for supper. No matter how short we get on food however, we never seem to run out of onions though. I was on galley duty and had the choice to cut up onions or grapefruit for breakfast preparations.  Obviously, I chose the grapefruit due to my previous onion encounters. However, I ended up slicing my thumb open while cutting up the fruit due to my eyes welling up with tears from the onion vapours in the galley. Honestly, if somebody out there has a solution for this, please let me know because I am going to end up seriously hurting myself.

Our arrival to the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha was beautiful and the excitement of Christmas was throughout the boat. Fernando de Noronha is 350 kms off the coast of Brazil and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a protected national marine park and ecological sanctuary that actually only allows 246 visitors a day. Since there is no physical port for our boat at this island, our days were filled with swim calls, sun and more sun while not on land and needing to tender in on our zodiac "Black Betty" when going to shore. Those interested, signed up for a scuba excursion which was awesome! I saw sea turtles, rays, a nurse shark and was even allowed to scuba through caves. Once on land, this island was a beach paradise where we enjoyed body surfing, playing on the beach, snorkeling a ship wreck and third degree sunburns. Even though Christmas Day was not at home it was started with a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, buns, and even juice! We had a Secret Santa gift exchange, opened our gifts from home that we had been carrying with us since Spain and made our calls home to wish our families a Merry Christmas.

Our itinerary going forward has changed and we will no longer  be going to our other two ports in Brazil due to the high cost of the port charges. So instead, we will be making our way to Suriname and Tobago.  I guess it is another two weeks at sea until you hear from me again when we arrive in Suriname.

Happy Holidays!!!

Easton
eleedahl@gmail.com

Surprise Port

Much to our surprise our 2-3 week long Atlantic trek was interrupted after one full day of sailing with a quick stop on an island in Cape Verde. Although the stop was made due to a faculty change issue it is always nice to touch our feet on land and to be able to get out of our classes.

We have become accustomed to our port programs that educate us of the particular country in advance of arrivals to help us learn about issues, language, history, currency, things to do.... Due to the short shore leave granted we did not get our port program and without it and coupled with the fact that we only ever see water for days at a time we had no real concept of where we were in the world which made this port very strange. We were left to explore and figure local customs out on our own and to try to figure out questions like.... "Are we still in Africa?". After our limited wi-fi in Senegal and Morocco we did find a good signal at a hotel and the majority of the student population spent our shore leave catching up with home, restocking our snack bags and a little beach time.

One thing I didn't mention in the last post is that it appears I am becoming quite relied on by the maritime staff which I really enjoy. I am being given responsibilities and opportunities not offered to many of the other student population such as replacing rungs on the ladders, splicing ropes and I seem to be tasked with most of the difficult weather, night time or time sensitive tasks aloft . One funny example...During my watch I was asked to climbed to the t'gallant with Will since it was his first time and the t'gallant needed to be gasketted. He was really scared and is terrified of heights. Even I was a little scared as it was really windy and we were rocking a lot. He asked me to finish the end of the sail for him since he wasn’t comfortable. It was easy to find where I needed to tighten all of his gaskets just by following the trail of blood he left behind due to gripping the yard so hard he ripped his cuticles while stowing the sail. 

Picture from the t-gallant

Talk to you from Brazil and as a Shellback!!

Easton
eleedahl@gmail.com

Shellback is the term given to sailors once they cross the Equator to advance from Pollywog status

A-Frickin'-Yeah

This six day sail was mainly based on studies and preparations for our arrival in Dakar, Senegal. The reasons for the large amount of preparations is due to our home stay, community service project, vast cultural differences and our personal safety and security.

To try and better understand some of the main differences between our culture and a Senegalese one, we participated in a social experiment called "Feast or Famine. We were all divided into 3 tiers; lower, middle and upper class where lower class only ate rice, middle class received rice and beans and upper class were lucky enough to get normal meals on board. I drew lower class with only rice for my meals which wasn't bad until we found out upper class was getting ribs and garlic bread. Although this was a short lived experiment it was amazing how hungry I was after only one day. What also astonished me is that an upper class income is considered more than $10,000. This information made us quite anxious for what to expect in our upcoming port stay.

As so goes Class Afloat, schedules change based on situations that arise. We caught two small types of tuna and then another quick 12 tuna within an hour. This abundance of fish allowed us Marine Biology students the chance to complete our fish dissection labs that were due much later. But even better, the crew were supplied a feast of fresh tuna for supper. I must admit, filleting tuna is much easier than Pike with no worries of later choking on the random bone.

Day 82 of my journey may have been one of the best days of the bunch. Upon waking up and arriving at mess, I found that our boat had been decorated for Christmas. It was an awesome feeling to see the spirit on board. Our Shipboard Director approached me with a "Merry Christmas!" and handed me my original snack bag and hot chocolate from Spain back. I have snacks again!!!!

Upon arrival, it was evident that this was not like any port we had been to yet. The cement dock was crumbling, brown water surrounded the boat, garbage was everywhere and barbed wire surrounded the dock. To top it off, we had four security guards hired to "guard" the boat, yet we were told not to trust them and not to let them onboard. Our stay consisted of a visit to the LCB school, which is a self sustainable program. There, we helped them in their gardens and built garbage cans out of plastic bottles. After a game of basketball, we all arrived back at the Gulden Leeuw where we showed the students our daily tasks, how to harness up and climb. The next day we were introduced to the SYTO school, which assists with the AIDS Hospital. These would be the students we were paired up with for our home stay. Our day consisted of working gardens at the hospital and round table discussions about governments, education and culture/lifestyle differences before heading to our overnight stay. Upon arrival, I instantly missed my small uncomfortable bunk.  Our residence was a small apartment with 15 people living there, not including how ever many children were there. In our room we were told there was normally four people that slept in that room  (two in the bed, one on the floor and one on the balcony) so I guess now there would be six with myself and the other Class Afloat student.  Our dinner of rice and fish balls(?) was laid out on a sheet on the floor as we watched a soccer game, I can only imagine that this was more of a prepared meal than they normally have. After the game and a quick tour of the neighborhood, we settled down for the night with three in the bed, one on the floor and two on the balcony. Although the living conditions were something that I have never seen before with not much to do, I will say they were good hosts since they allowed us to sleep in the bed, fed us a meal they probably couldn't afford and took us into a home that had no room for any more people.

This is not a country where you become overly confident and are always aware of your surroundings. With the local vendors, this became very real as I was approached by three guys overwhelming me to buy a shirt. Luckily, I was paying attention and realized the one guy pick pocketed my phone and I immediately wrestled it out of his hands.

The last day of our eventful port stay was spent visiting Gori Island, which acted as a slave trade depot at the height of the slave trade. They say this was the last piece of African soil many Africans stepped foot on before boarding slave boats towards the New Worlds.

We are set for our long 2-3 week Atlantic crossing as we head to Brazil just in time for Christmas and the unknown of what lies ahead as we cross the equator and the sailor traditions that go with.

Bye for now,

Easton
eleedahl@gmail.com

Islas Canarias

It was an uneventful sail and a quick one as well, which was full of school work and routine chores. We did have a talent show (using talent loosely), a 50’s diner night which included burgers and a game of Sock Assassin. The only other thing,  is I had earned my snack bag back, although much smaller than my original one I promptly lost snack privileges again….sigh. Since the bag was so small I couldn’t quite fit the few snacks I had in it, so I filled my pockets of my Foulies (storm wear) which hangs in a separate closet. Somehow they decided to search and found many culprits and we all lost our snack bags, but at least I wasn’t as desperate as some that were storing peanut butter and jam jars in their gear.

After our 3 day sail we arrived in the Canary Islands, specifically La Palma. This island is cool being only 50km long by 15km wide and is basically one big volcano. One end of the island is the Los Tilos forest, which is a rain forest and is chilly and humid, where the south is hot and dry. Much of the days were spent hiking the volcanoes and spending time on the black sand beaches.

As much of the island is a World Biosphere Reserve it is really unique and also has laws regarding night time light pollution. The island has a number of observatories, which we got to visit and have an evening view of planets and various galaxies, which was very interesting.

La Palma is beautiful and ended up being a relaxing few days where I could continue to finish some of my English Literature Othello project and complete my Marine Biology lab on low versus high tide organisms. Another short trip and we get to Senegal, which will be interesting due to safety concerns and our home stay.

Chat soon!

Easton

 

Happy Hump Days!

Upon saying goodbye to our families and feeling recharged and fed we set sail for Morocco. This was the most anticipated port of all throughout this journey because of the upcoming drastic change in culture and port program, which involved a desert trek and camping in the Sahara.

The sail was good with only four full days at sea and a new schedule. This new schedule gets me a few hours of break per day, as long as there are no idle hands calls for deck work. It is nice to have the opportunity to catch up on homework, but so far I have become a fantastic napper.

Day 61and 62 were perfect examples of the adversity and range of emotions we go through routinely here. These were eventful days at sea, which was strange as the waves didn’t appear massive. The boat was extremely rocking back and forth a lot, which caused a few injuries on board including cuts, bruises and some head knocks. While trying to cope with the boat movement I was tasked with sanding and staining the bench and aft table (back of the boat). Once the sanding was done I had to wipe the dust off and then stain the whole thing which was unbelievably stressful. It began with spilling stain while pouring it and having to go clean it quick. Next was spilling some stain on part of the bench where stain should not be and I tried to clean it but couldn’t. Every time I would set the stain down it would spill and I would have to run and clean it, this happened like 5 times. I was going crazy and was so relieved when finished. I was then tasked with Deck Leader responsibilities, and was ordered to take up all four square sails at start of watch and I commanded it perfectly and it was actually fun. However, this is a place where emotions go from highs to lows quickly. A bunk check was announced mainly to look for hidden food and offenders would lose their snack bag privileges and food in them. I was confident I didn’t have anything other than some Christmas gifts. I ended up being an offender which was very disappointing, I had 4 Rice Krispies bars in my daypack back that I did not know about as I haven’t touched that bag since last port. These are the rules that anger me, and because of it I am losing all my snacks that my parents brought from home and now I have no snacks to bring on our 4 day port program which sucks so much. The rest of the day was uneventful until Captain needed people to go aloft to gasket the course (big sail). It was very windy and we were heeling a lot so barely anyone would go. It took an hour, which is fairly quick for 4 people. Usually we have 8 people to do the course as it is very difficult and heavy even with no wind pulling it down. We did a great job and it felt like something from Pirates of the Caribbean with the weather. Once on deck, Captain called us up and said he was extremely happy and said we did a great job. He gave us oranges as a reward. It felt good to get a complement from him and I definitely appreciated the snack.

We arrived in Agadir with much excitement. The soccer game was on and Morocco had just qualified for the 2018 World Cup. The streets were full of people yelling and dancing, it was pretty cool to see, especially since we just set foot on land.

Our port program was a four day trek into the Sahara desert, which would also be our first days sleeping off the ship in 64 days and in real beds, not that I am counting. Our first stop on our journey was at a local clothing store. Mainly for the girls to get headscarves due to the Islamic culture but we all ended up with traditional Moroccan pants and turbans or headscarves to try and immerse ourselves into the local culture. The Islamic culture is evident based on social status even when shopping. Even though I consider my bartering skills top notch and could speak fluent French with the shopkeeper, my pants should have been 150 Dirham but since I was considered young, my price was 300 Dirham. Our stops on the way consisted of a pottery “factory”, an Islamic library with writings on elk skin from the year 300, a blacksmith and a carpet making shop. A full size carpet takes almost a full year to complete by one person and it is sold by the store for only $120. The rest of our trek included a 7km camel trek, hiking, watching a desert sunset in silence, camping under the stars while listening to traditional music and dancing under the stars. I honestly thought I was going to die of hypothermia while trying to sleep, we were told to dress accordingly because it gets cold at night but I really had no idea.

This port has been a definite highlight to the year so far between the culture and desert activities.

Au Revoir,

Easton