Spain Was Insane

Setting sail for Spain on this leg of our journey went much faster than past ones due to the quick five day sail but also the anticipation and excitement of seeing our families upon arrival. It has been 47 days since last seeing them and it was definitely a difficult first 30 days with learning everything here, but more importantly I have gum in my sheets and Mom is bringing me new ones.

Our sail legs are pretty much routine now consisting of alternating schedules of various watch duties, galley, studies, cleaning and maintenance, idle hands calls for help on deck and free time wherever I can get some. Some schedule days are definitely better than others depending on how much free time I get in my days combined with how much day watch I am assigned. I still look for any opportunity to go aloft wherever possible but also enjoy my night watches. Depending on my role at night I am able to learn from maritime staff about celestial bodies and navigation, which is very interesting, especially in the dark night skies we get here. Galley isn’t so bad either but I am still trying to get used to cutting up onions, as touched on in my last blog post. I had a great idea to wear snorkel goggles while I cut these vegetables up hoping that this would keep my eyes from tearing up. The end result was me cutting up onions with my goggles literally filling up with puddles of tears. Not sure why this didn’t work but I do need to find a solution for this because we aren’t running out of onions anytime soon.

Another Day At The Office

Flaking a Rope During Parent Sail

The crew on board still try to make our journeys fun and break the monotony of our routines even on the shortest legs of our journey. This leg we were treated to a murder mystery where the faculty and maritime staff were the actors, and we also had a Halloween party. If you are wondering, I dressed as a sexy reindeer and for those that heard about the dance party we had before I arrived as a sexy fireman…I think people here may be sensing a trend that I am sexy.

The day of arrival in Malaga, Spain was full of excitement and as we sailed into  port we could see all of our parents. They were as excited to see us as we were to see them. The next days in Malaga consisted up catching up with Mom and Dad, touring the town, eating, laundry and a much needed hair cut. It was also nice to be able lay in an actual bed for an afternoon nap and have a long hot shower daily. One of the highlights of this port was being able to take our families out for a sail. With the skies rainy and gloomy we sailed out at 8 knots and dropped all the sails. It was nice to be able to demonstrate to our parents what we have learned and for them to witness what we have to go through even though it was just in a short period of time.

Mom & Dad in goofy Parent Port T-Shirts

View From The Moor Fortress above Malaga

Bull Fighting Ring in Malaga

Malagueta Beach in Malaga

With our last full day at port, Dad arranged a day trip to Gibraltar. I missed this point when we passed into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic and assumed we would be sailing through at night again so I would miss it again, so it was awesome to see how close this point is to Africa. It was a great day of sightseeing and history. A total population of 30’000 people live in this British colony and all of their education, employment and housing is provided which makes it sound like a pretty good place to live until you realize you are literally living on a rock. We saw St. Michael's Caves, the famous Barbary Apes and the Siege Tunnels. The Siege Tunnels were quite cool as this rock has 28 kilometers of tunnels within it and had cannons/guns installed inside it during the wars as a strategic point of entry into the Mediterranean.

St Michaels Caves in Gibraltar

Barbary Apes of Gibraltar

Rock of Gibraltar

The port was relatively quiet with not a tonne to see but it was more about seeing our parents again which was awesome but more importantly having our parents here for a much needed recharge and pump-up with laundry, food and a sympathetic ear. I am looking forward to Morocco next and some different culture, Europe is beautiful but it is all much the same with not a lot of culture differences.

Adios,

Easton

eleedahl@gmail.com