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