Brest, France

Brest, France was a resting port for me. With our extremely busy routines, we are so exhausted at the end of the day. I spent the time just to hang out on the ship, clean my trunk and locker, nap and catch up on homework. It was really nice to lay back a bit and relax.

In the city of Brest itself, there was not that much to do on foot. We did manage to occupy ourselves somehow though ... Oh, la nourriture française, comme c’est délicieux! YES: French cuisine. We ate an outrageous amount of pain au chocolat and croissants de beurre. It also became a lunchtime tradition to pick up some baguettes, cheeses, meats, cherry tomatoes, peaches and chocolates to go out for a picnic in the park. I will NEVER get tired of French food!

Our port program was a BLAST. We went to a sailing club and rented Hobby Cats (Catamaran sailing dinghies) and raced them around. For the crew of a fully-rigged tall ship, you would be surprised how inexperienced we were when sailing the dinghies. By the end of the afternoon there were several capsized boats and many soaking wet, tired and cold teenagers.

Brest was all in all a really great port with lots of food and fun!

Swim Call! - October 2, 2011

Yesterday brought a fun surprise for the Sorlandet crew. As soon as we were dismissed from math class, the Captain came on the P.A. and announced our first official swim call! There were screams and cheers as we all ran to our bunks, quickly changed and mustered on deck in our suits. We were anchored right outside of Brittany, France and the water was C-O-L-D. We dove off of the boat deck (deck raised above the main deck) into the icy water. We continued to canon ball off the ship into the water for a little while and finished up with a nice hot shower. It was SO MUCH FUN! Thank you Captain.

Oh, Cornish Pasties!

Coming alongside the dock in Falmouth, I was lucky to be on lookout at the bow and so got to be involved in docking (sometimes you find yourself down below for classes and when you eventually surface on deck you find yourself in a different part of the world - it’s a weird feeling).

Falmouth is a seaside village much like Salcombe where we spent a vacation with friends from London. As I walked down the streets, I had flashbacks of visiting England - I wish you were here mum and dad!

The houses are painted pastel colours and the cobbled streets are cluttered with little shops and cafes. Our shore leave was spent wandering the streets eating Cornish pasties (delicious and mouth-watering pastries filled with soft potato, roast beef and caramelized onions) as well as having Cornish whippy (the most delicious and creamy soft ice cream in the world!).

We bussed to Penzance where we learned about a sustainable carbon footprint reduction project called Transition Penwith. It is an initiative whereby towns work towards being environmentally conscious and leave little impact on the planet. After an interesting lecture, we headed to the Bosavern Community farm for an amazing, organic meal that was one-hundred percent grown on their land. We ate thick slices of home-baked, whole-wheat bread, heaping bowls of to-die-for vegetarian chili, fresh green salad and tea. And, to top it off, we had massive slices of coffee cake for dessert.

The next day, we visited a local public high school. It was the craziest high school I’ve ever seen. They get tons of government funding and because of that everything about the place was really impressive. There were topnotch facilities for every subject area, professional sport fields, fancy uniforms and a prefect and school “houses” system just like in Harry Potter! My favorite part though was the rock wall that went up the side of the school’s main building - SO COOL! It was also really neat to have the chance to talk to students our age and learn about what life is like for teenagers in England. We ended off the day with a trip to the beach. White sand and bright blue water – paradise! We had so much fun!!

Back on the dock where our ship was moored, another tall ship arrived. It was another tall ship called the Frederic Chopin with a bunch of Polish high school students on board. We showed off our respective ships and had a tug-o-war, relay racing and rowing competition against their crew. Team Sorlandet won (of course) and to resolve any tall ship tensions we had a dance party on their main deck. Everyone had a good time. 

A Day in the Life

I really cannot believe that it’s October already. Our one month  anniversary aboard the Sorlandet has come and gone and time continues to fly by. In my blog posts so far I have described our adventures in port but I haven’t even begun to tell you about our time at sea. Although I must stay true to the rule of “what happens in international waters stays in international waters”, I will let you in on some of the ship's day-to-day news. However, firstly let me share what daily life aboard entails.

Every second day we wake up for P.E. class at 06:30 (on non-gym class days we get to sleep in until 07:15!) and head up to the boat deck for our daily physical activity. We do punching sequences, yoga and mini-dance parties during our allotted P.E. time. The best part is doing core workouts because if you time it with the waves, you can do a sit-up without expending any energy at all! On the other hand, the tree pose in yoga is quite entertaining especially considering that standing on both feet is challenging at the best of times.

After these intense workout sessions we head down for a 07:00 breakfast. Cold breakfast is served everyday with cereal, milk, apples, oranges and yogurt. It is survival of the fittest and our portions are closely monitored. If you happen to be last in line, none of the good stuff is left. Within seconds the peanut butter jar is empty ... we learn to be quick!

At 08:00 it’s time for colours. Colours is our morning assembly. The crew, faculty and students all muster on deck for ringing of the bell, daily notices and raising the flags. If you are late for colours, you are given two hours of early bird watch the next morning from 06:00-08:00. Ouch!

During colours, our sleeping quarters are inspected. Every morning we have to dismantle our bunks as well as fold and put away all the bedding. If you're the last one to reach the bedding lockers, it takes some skill and patience to shove everything in. The bosun (foreman of a ship's crew) was not happy when we broke the door. Failing inspection (that is, if the area surrounding your bunk zone is left untidy) is the worst! If you fail twice in one sail, you receive port suspension and you are left behind onboard while everyone else gets to spend a couple of hours exploring a new city!

After colours we have cleaning stations until 09:00. That’s right, we clean the entire ship from top to bottom EVERY DAY. We are assigned to stations such as cleaning the heads (toilets and showers), scrubbing the decks or doing the ship’s laundry. There is always work to be done aboard a tall ship.

From 09:00 to 18:00 we have classes, day watch and free time. On average, we have four classes a day, two hours of watch and a couple of hours of free time (including a lunch break). In addition to P.E., I am taking Sociology of Community, Seamanship, English, Math and Political Science. I have never before been in a moving classroom where the white board is swinging, the teacher is sick and lying on the ground and students are occasionally running out of the room to throw-up. However strange this might sound, it has become normal to us floaties. Day watch is basically just working up on deck. We furl sails, clean, hold physical watch positions or… clean. Free time is not that free. We sleep, eat or do homework.

Dinner is at 18:30 until 19:00. Carlos our cook and Jill the cook’s mate are AMAZING! Despite rationing and limited fresh supplies the food is always absolutely delicious. After dinner, we have club meetings, social time (barely!) and more studying to do. Lights out is at 23:00 and night watch begins at 20:00. The secrets of night watch will be released later. After a long and busy day, we head to bed. Zzzz….