It’s actually incredible to think that Class Afloat was able to go to Russia. Many students were looking forward to that port.

Let me explain to you how the customs in Russia were as they looked very Russian. You have to imagine 8 Russian military people who came in the boat in rank. They inspected our visas one after another and we had to wait on the deck in the cold. After looking at our visas, they inspected the boat with a dog. So, it was a very interesting experience.

St.Petersburg is very magnificent. There are very big buildings that are ancient and nice churches with golden ornaments. Some of the students went to visit the Orthodox Church and said that it was so nice and interesting. Some students went around St.Petersburg by bike and had a lot of fun.

For the port program, we went to the Summer Palace and the Hermitage. It is the old palace of the Romanoff family and now it’s an art museum. They say that if you spent 30 seconds looking at every piece of art in the Hermitage, it will take you one month to see them all. And what is nice is that it is right in the centre of the city so the location is incredible.

For my part, I spent a day at the spa, having a nice massage and experiencing the Russian bath. It was a very nice experience. You pass from a sauna to freezing water then to a pool at body temperature. After that, you feel so alive. A very fun part of the Russian spa is that inside the spa you get whipped by branches and you get to wear a Russian traditional sauna hat that you fill with ice. Then after the spa, we went to eat a very nice meal: subway so yummy!!!

I went to the Peterhof palace. He was the first Emperor in Russia and his palace is so big with beautiful gardens full of fountains and magnificent alleys. I think you could spend days there too, to see everything.

I found Russia very interesting, for an old communist regime, I expected it to be more communist than it was. First, there were many fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and Subway and everyone had a phone and the service worked very well.

Russia was one of the cheapest ports I went to, so it was very nice to go in restaurants but not a lot of Russians can speak English. There is a big population of people from Mongolia who came there to work so its very multicultural. You can find restaurants of all kinds.

It was quite cold so if you go there one day, do not forget you warm coat and hat. For my part, I bought a traditional Russian hat made with real fox fur and I can say that it keeps me very warm at night during night watch. I will keep a very good souvenir of Russia.

As we slowly motored out of the port of St. Petersburg, we passed by hundreds of huge housing blocks where hundred of thousands of people lived squished together. Block after block after block, every building looked the same; grey, ugly (personal opinion) and big. It was a huge contrast compared to the super fancy inner city of St. Petersburg where everything was made to look gorgeous and impressive. But because of the high prices in the main city, many inhabitants of St. Petersburg live in those housing blocks built in the time when the USSR still existed.

It was a very important moment for me to see both sides of the super impressive city of St-Petersburg. The city was built to impress other nations of their immense wealth while the actual inhabitants where left outside. We wanted to stay longer to enjoy the culture some more but because Russia was hosting an icebreaker festival, we had to leave.

As soon as we wanted to set our sails to continue our journey to Estonia, we got news of a big storm with winds up to 70km/h just ahead of us.The crew decided to anchor in the cover of a small island until the storm passed. I remembered the last time, when we were caught in a huge storm, where we didn’t have the luxury of anchoring behind Hog Island, a time were we couldn’t see the horizon because the huge waves blocked our view.

It was the feeling of being truly powerless, the feeling of not being able to do anything, the feeling of being in the hands of nature. It makes me realize where, we as humans, have come from and where we are today, how disconnected from nature we really have become. Nature is not only sunshine and rainbows. No. It also has a destroying part but that is the perfect balance: one has to experience both to really experience nature.

While at anchor, we experienced something magical: snow at sea! It was around 6pm when the watch started to notice little itty bitty snow flakes falling on their noses. The brisk cold combined with the fresh flakes reminded many of Christmas chills that weren’t experienced during the hot Christmas equator crossing. As we all came back from the frosty breezeways, we were welcomed with Frank’s famous seasoned steaks.There were no leftovers. Finally, to wrap up the first day at anchor, most people got to catch up on missed sleep because of anchor watches.

After the storm had passed, 1 day later, we continued our short journey to Estonia. Sadly the winds were not on our side so we had to motor the whole way to Estonia. When we arrived shortly after, we could see the beautiful city Tallinn lightening up the pitch dark night. It was a beautiful view, from the famous TV-tower, where the former citizen fought for their independence, to the newly built skyscrapers that lit up the sky. We were all wanting to go to explore the old medieval city of Tallinn but school had priority so we anchored one last time for a day just in front of the unique city. Before we had shore leave the next day, we could enjoy a beautiful sunset one last time.

Something really cute happened whilst we were in Poland.

I will always remember Easter in Poland. We had a ship wide easter egg hunt that morning. Lots of chocolates for everyone, thanks to Joe’s mother. It made us feel a little bit closer to home. Later that day, I had gangway. Now, Gangway in Poland was really wild: we had crowds of people coming up to look at the ship since it was a holiday weekend and people were off. There were many other ships to look at, our home was at the end of the pier. Some people even tried to come aboard. It was intense at times. Usually, Gangway can get pretty boring, but not this time, my buddy and I had people constantly coming up to us asking questions. The best part: the Stanmore speaker was out blaring music from the breezeways. I quickly took over and played my own music for all to hear. The sun was shinning and the weather was warm on a beautiful afternoon. I was barefoot.

Some of our students were tossing a football or kicking a soccer ball around on the grass in front of the ship. In High School, I played flag-football for two years, and I haven’t touched a football since. So I picked it up, and some of the girls and I were throwing the football for a few hours. It was great, and they were great too. It was especially great letting out some of that pent up energy from the last few months. We’d been having many long sails until the one to Poland. I don’t think I have done that much exercise since the girl’s basketball game in Senegal. Barefoot in the grass, laughing out of breath because, well, we have no cardio anymore. The music being just right. The smell of the galley wafting up onto the pier. The crowds of happy families. I will always remember that moment.

The next day, as I recall, was the day we went to the Stutthoff concentration camp. This was a port-program that seemed a long time coming. Because this experience was different for all of us, I will refrain from making general comments. The bus ride over was quiet, most of us were sleeping. I know I was reading the Book Club book, one about concentration camps in Poland, Night, Cody’s pick I believe. We kept quiet throughout the introductory videos and the tours, making our way around the camp, to slowly end up back in the bus. No one seemed to be in a rush to be anywhere, for once. The air was heavy. Charged with dialogues we mean to have but rarely do. There really isn’t much more to say, I believe. Once again, however, Class Afloat gave us a first hand experience that equips us for better conversations on the topics of the world. It was a very emotional and educational day. I am glad to have gone through it with this group of people.

In contrast however, I noticed something silly. Our history with bus rides goes back to at least Funchal. The term “Class-A-Coach” was coined in Morocco. I remember how every time someone had to pee, whatever little convenience store was near had a line up going all the way outside, much to the dismay of our tour guides. The same thing happened in Suriname. What can you expect: we love to snack, and it is not all that often that they are so readily available to us. Anyways, as we got on the bus in Poland, our guide happily announced that there would be a rest stop where we can get our snacks. It made me laugh: I suppose our educators learned by now and decided to finally schedule a time in our itinerary solely so we could stock up for the ride back to Gdynia.

While motoring into the city of Copenhagen, we were greeted by one of the largest bridges in the world connecting Malmö, Sweden with Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out, not a single cloud in the sky and there was no wind. Even though we were all focusing on studying for the upcoming exams, we tried to enjoy the sun as much as we could. We had mixed feeling about Copenhagen as it was our last port, so everyone wanted to enjoy it in all its colours, however, simultaneously, everyone was stressed out because of the upcoming exams. Cody came up with the brilliant idea of doing our port program in the second oldest amusement park in the world so everyone could enjoy themselves at least for one day.

We made fast into the centre of Copenhagen just next to a beautiful little garden. On the other side of the river, we could see a huge and interesting modern structure, the opera house.

Passing by the huge bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark while enjoying the weather.

On the second day in Denmark, it was time for our amazing port program. As we entered the big gates of Tivoli Gardens, we were greeted by a beautiful atmosphere. All of the buildings were made in an antique style. There were huge gardens with thousands of different flowers and plants. The park had many different sections, one was inspired by Arabic architecture, the other by Chinese and European, but they all had one thing in common: they were all beautiful and surrounded with plants. The park would have been worth while just to experience the beauty of the gardens but at the end of the day, we went there for the rides. There was one that brought you up into the skies where one could overlook everything, and since the park was located directly in the city centre, the view was breathtaking.

There was also this one rollercoaster where one could experience the ride with a virtual reality headset and fight evil along side a traditional Chinese dragon, pretty impressive. And finally, there was the flying planes. You were sitting in a small plane connected to a huge metal arm, which could rotate like a gyroscope, but as if that wasn’t enough, it also accelerated so fast that one experienced more than 5 G’s which means that you get pulled into your seats with a force 5 times grater than our earth’s gravitational field. It was so strong that some of my fellow students couldn’t withstand the pressure and passed out, others just had to throw up afterwards. All in all, it was by far the best port program. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, we all were allowed one free spin at the lottery wheel for a chance of winning a huge chocolate bar. Of course our group won the main prize.

Alex Denmark blog

Our group winning a huge GULD chocolate bar.

On the second last day, we could experience the U.S. COAST GUARD passing by to anchor just ahead of us. The huge and impressive tall ship made our 70 m long ship look like a kid’s toy. As if the beautiful white, blue, red body of the ship wasn’t impressive enough, they put up the biggest USA flag I have ever seen. It was so big, we could have used it as our course sail. On top of that, the ship had red blue and white lights installed to light up the masts during the night, an impressing spectacle.

Alex Denmark blog 2

U.S. COAST GUARD Flexing with its oversized flag.

On the last day, many people stayed on the boat to study while others continued to explore the city through heavy rain and winds. Most went out for a final diner to celebrate the end of this fantastic year. All the second semester “boys”, including myself, decided to go to a fancy restaurant. After we emptied our bank-accounts in the way of an expensive city, we scraped our last coins together, got a tasty ice cream, and went on an electric scooter ride to experience and enjoy the city one last time in all its beauty. We liked the city so much that we were tempted, really, and I mean, really really tempted, to sneak out in the middle of the night at 2:00am one last time and go for a nice bike ride in the lit up city of Copenhagen, but of course, that would be against the rules, so we decided not to. Copenhagen was a beautiful city and the perfect place for our last port of Class Afloat.

On our way to Poland, Class Afloat as a collective was tired, both student and teacher crew. During the first days of the sail, it felt to me as if we’d lost motivation to do work. Looking back, I realize it was a big change from being in London, one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world, to being on the ocean, where the only human contact we had was confined to our ship.

Part of it was also because we enjoyed London so much. It was the first time in a long time that we were in a city that big—the biggest city we’ve visited yet—and it was eye-opening. We enjoyed the luxuries of paying with tap everywhere, and having the wifi to contact family and friends. The abrupt change of having those luxuries to boat life was also why the general mood was so low. However, students and crew who loved to sail found that they were ready to be at sea again, because they felt that ports were too hectic. Those optimistic sailors kept the boat running during those first days, even though we were motoring for the most part as the wind was against us.

Some of us caught bad colds in London, even stomach flues, and were tortured with that for a good portion of the sail. I felt lucky as we sailed away that I was healthy, and felt sympathy for those who were coughing their hearts out. That night, however, my sympathy quickly turned to empathy. I noticed a little nauseous monster trying to intrude on my sleep. I tried to shake it off, but it was still there when I woke up for watch. I was on the verge of puking, but after night snack, the little monster somehow went away. The chocolate cookies must have been really scary. Many Floaties weren’t as lucky as me, for their sicknesses persisted all the way to Poland.

On day three of the sail, we found out we were anchoring for the night. I thought it was because we were going too fast. It was a total surprise to hear that we were going to Kiel the next day! With that, our first surprise port of the semester, the gloom was lifted from the ship, and the mess buzzed with excitement once again. Students scattered to get their work done on time for port, and teachers did the same. Even though we would only be in Kiel for a few hours, it was enough motivation. The excitement of the surprise bonded us, and that day, we felt like a true community.

In Kiel, as we piled off the ship, a familiar bearded face greeted us. It was Sammy! Our former AB from first semester. Running to greet him, the first semester students could barely contain our excitement. Even more so, we were glad to see our favourite bromance, —Sammy and Adrian—reunite.

On day four, as we sailed away from Germany, everything felt normal. It felt like the beginning of the year sails again, when students were excited to start new sails. The normality, however, was disturbed by an announce calling for Nick, our beloved Greenhand. The Captain announced on the loudspeaker in a peculiar tone: “Nick, please report to the bridge, or else bad things will happen.” Many of us didn’t think much of this, because people were called to the bridge all the time. Sometime later, I realised that I could see land again. In fact, we were back in Kiel! Confused, I went outside, and there stood Nick, exactly where we left him.

Floaties ran outside to greet him, laughing harder the closer we got, as we could see the pained embarrassment on his face. Curious spectators of Kiel gathered around on dock to see our majestic home dock. We slowly motored toward shore, and as soon as Nick stepped onboard, we motored out. It was the most cinematic moment of my life. It was hilarious. With that, we knew that it was going to be a good time for the remainder of our sail to Poland. Accompanied by brilliant sunsets and calm winds, it was indeed.

With our food stores diminished after 18 days at sea, we passed through the locks and under bridges into London where we left in the masses to explore. We arrived on the 6th of March, gaining an extra day of freedom on the town. That evening was spent eating delicious food and, as always, buying snacks to be eaten immediately.

The 7th was an extra exciting day for the ship, because of the long awaited return of Stephanie who had taken a leave of absence due to a playground accident. Alice, Ingrid and I accompanied Brie to pick her up at the airport. On the Tube ride we decorated welcome home signs with nautical themed drawings to hold up at the airport. After joyful greetings we headed back to the Vessel, Alice and I lugging Steph’s huge sea bag weighing over 50lbs.

Though all of our stay in London was wonderful, my favorite day was the 10th. This was for a couple reasons but the biggest was seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The day was much warmer and sunnier then it had been so far, which helped put us all in a good mood. We were also very excited about the play. We started out by spending a little more time than usual on our appearance. We all had on some Harry Potter clothing, and I was in my new long wool coat I got from the thrift store (which is the coolest article of clothing I own). We went straight to platform 9 and 3/4 so Julia could get a picture going through the barrier.

The platform was packed with muggles and new witches and wizards going to Hogwarts or buying their supplies for the school year. After watching several muggles attempt to enter the platform, we headed to quench our thirst at Twinnings tea emporium. The smell of the shop was mouthwatering and caused us all great longing for a nice cuppa hot tea. The walls were lined with boxes of tea and tins of biscuits. There were golden mugs and beautifully coloured tins. Directly outside the shop standing like a silent sentinel was the oldest statue in London: the Temple Bar dragon who guards the city gates! At this point we had to hurry to the theatre to pick up our tickets and get a bite to eat before the show started.

This was another reason it was my favourite day, we got sushi for half price and were able to eat it on the steps while watching the locals go about their business. And then finally it was time! All day my excitement had been growing and now it was overflowing, especially when we arrived at the theatre. Over the door there was a huge sculpture of a boy in a black nest with raven’s wings on it. Inside the theatre the architecture and decorations were very impressive. There were carvings of cherubs and gold plating on all the banisters.

Julia and I were seated in the balcony, and from our seats we had a clear view of the whole stage. Now I was giddy with anticipation for the play to start. And it finally did and for the next 6 hours I was on the edge of my seat. I loved everything about the play! The music is one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard, good enough to rival that of Lord of the Rings. The special effects looked just like real magic and made me feel like I was at Hogwarts in the thick of it all. And of course it wouldn’t be as good without the fabulous actors all of which did an amazing job with their characters. When the play ended I was in raptures of delight which only got bigger when we were able to meet and get signatures from the cast.

London was definitely one of my favourite ports and I can see myself living there for some time later in my life. The ease of travel and the attitude of the locals made me feel welcomed to the city. That with the culture of the arts gave me quite a lot to see and do. I also really like tea and digestive biscuits.

Written by Class Afloat Student Mairead O.

The boat was slowly making is way in the river, getting closer every minute to the mythical city of London. The dry cold of the English Channel and cloudy weather of the United Kingdom made us even more eager to arrive to destination. Different docks and even bridges opened up for us. We finally docked inside London. What could have been better?

Having five days to visit a place filled with art, culture, history and good food by ourselves was making everybody incredibly happy. It is so cool to be able to travel with your friends, especially in a place with so many options and opportunities opened to us. We can go out to the movies, Harry Potter fans can watch the famous play The Cursed Child, or we can simply roam around in the street where the great people of this world walked.

The streets were crowded with thousands of people from all over the world; politicians, workers, students, and tourists. I could hear many different languages like German, French, Mandarin, and Polish. This great diversity, characteristic of London, pleased us especially because of the amazing food. In Chinatown, I enjoyed a good dish of fried noodles. I did not dislike the fact that London is known for having the best Indian Food in the world either. Moreover, I drank as much coffee as I could. I really missed good coffee on the boat and the smell of fresh coffee is my favourite smell in the world.

While visiting the British Museum, I got amazed thinking of all the history behind each artefact. I saw Egyptian statues that were built thousands of years ago by great Pharaohs and a three meters long painting filled with meticulous details. I continued walking and saw hundreds of art pieces, statues, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and watercolours. The best part in all of this was that it represented only a small portion of London’s art collection. I could still spend days in that museum, and admire and understand new things. Just a corner away from the British Museum, I entered a small art gallery founded in the late 1930’s. This old apartment building was filled with bright light and diverse art styles such as impressionist paintings and watercolours. There was one particular art piece that stood out to me. This painting portrayed a grey, stormy sea with a small sail boat heeling dangerously. Because of this year of sailing and going through all these storms and hard weather, I could not only see the painting, I could feel it.

I also visited the famous Camden market. It is an old stable turned into a huge market filled with cafes, food trucks, thrift shops, and bookstores. Basically, everything I like reunited in one place. I lost myself in the small alleys, meeting friendly store owners. I even discovered a small tea shop hidden in the back of a cute second-hand bookstore. The small room was filled with colourful vintage sofas, old paintings and pictures, and ancient wooden tables. I was served a scone with the traditional cream and jam with a cup of English tea in an old porcelain tea cup. In addition, during that day, the sun had decided to finally come out! A sunny day in London just for us! We laid down lazily in parks around London. The flowers were starting to come out. Just lying on the solid ground after weeks at sea was a treat in itself.

I think that what I liked the most of this city is that you don’t even have to enter a museum to learn. While wandering around in the city, I admired the 16th century architecture of a beautiful cathedral and an apartment building built during the art deco movement. Then, I saw a huge ultra-modern skyscraper. A few buildings away there was an old distinguish tea shop. With a bunch of friends, we walked along side of the Canal admiring both sides. I remember all the movies and TV shows like Harry Potter or Love Actually that took place in London. I remember how envious I was to walk in this beautiful city.

I did, as a good tourist, go see the Buckingham Palace to give my respect to the Queen. I admired the famous guards with their funny hats walking back and forth endlessly. It seemed really strange from my perspective. They just spend all day seeing thousands and thousands of tourists taking pictures of them all day long, fascinated.

To London, I am not saying good-bye but see you later. We shall meet again.

We successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the second time and arrived in London! We arrived two days early at Canary Wharf, so we had one school day with an evening of shore leave and a full day of shore leave extra. All of the students were very excited to have one more day of shore leave to explore the city.

On our first day, many took the tube, the underground, to the center of London. With my specific group, we walked around Westminster, and saw Big Ben and the eye of London. Then we found ourselves in Greenpark next to the Buckingham Palace. We arrived just in time to see the changing of guards, which was very impressive. The ceremony started with the King’s Guard’s Orchestra leading the way across the Royal Mall road to St. James Palace. They were then followed by Kings’ Guards on horses, on bicycle, and on foot while holding machine guns in their hands.

Picture of the gates of Buckingham palace on the first day of the port. You can see the detailed put into the Lion and the Unicorn on the symbol itself.

The guards were dressed in a red uniform and fluffy hats, while the officers wore fancier uniforms with pins, broches, and patches all over them. As they marched on, the crowd was getting bigger and bigger and the guards were now being watched by hundreds of people. When they arrived, the King’s Guards holding the machine guns changed places with the other ones. The music of the trumpets and drums were loud, as was the crowd, as they finished the ceremony. When the song ended, the people became silent as the guards went into the building and the crowd began to return to their normal Sunday afternoon.

The next day was our port program, which was a scavenger hunt around the city. All the students divided themselves into 16 different groups. Every single group had a list of 80 places, things or actions to do in the city. So, our shipboard director gave us an unlimited Oyster card (giving us access to all forms of public transportation) for the day and a curfew for the hunt, and we were off. With my team, we first went to Mayfair where we found the number 1 phone box and the Piccadilly Royal Academy. We then continued walking around and saw a street dancer and because one of our tasks was to interact with street entertainers, we started dancing with him. People kept stopping and watching us having fun and not caring about what everyone else was thinking. After 3 minutes of dancing with the guy, we had accumulated a big crowd of people that were joining in, and it became a big party, the highlight of my day.

The statue in the middle of Trafalgar Square in front of the National Portrait Museum. You can also see on the side the view of a double red bus, typical of London.

Afterwards, we went to Covent Market where we walked through stands filled with the most random things such as jewellery to food, forks to postcards, and knives to wooden boxes. As our last stop, we went to Trafalgar Square to visit the National Portrait Museum. We then left the square to go to the eye of London for the end of our scavenger hunt, where one of our first semester student, Thomas Steip was waiting for us. We met up with some of the other students and went out with him to Chinatown, bought some fortune cookies, and ate them all in a typical red double bus. A great day for the books.

On our other port program day, we volunteered at the Canal and River Trust Organisation whose goal it is to maintain the dock and also the environment of the whole area of Canary Wharf. We helped them rust bust, paint old fences, and sand bollards off the dock area.

This port was important for some of the students because their family members were there. Alumni students came to visit the boat and we had an open house. People saw many shows including The Cursed Child, Mamma Mia, Women in Black, Hamilton, Phantom of the Opera, and even Drake! Also because of those shows, we had a curfew of 12 AM, which many of the student crew enjoyed because we wouldn’t have to worry about being late or missing anything that was at night.

Hamilton, Bermuda was the port people were looking forward to most this second semester. Everyone was so excited to see his or her parents after sailing for one month. After ten days of sailing from Havana, we were finally entering Hamilton. Every single student had a position to make the entrance more exciting. As we entered, you could see the large group of parents waving and screaming at their children.

For the entrance there were maximum two people in each side of the square sail. They needed to line up with the person that was on top for it to look organized. Everyone was in their Class Afloat uniform ready to receive his or her parents.

When we finally docked, students got off the boat to greet their parents. Megan talked to all of us for about ten minutes before letting us go out as a family to explore Hamilton. For the evening, Class Afloat reserved a soccer field for our parents and us to play for ninety minutes. Parents had fun with their children and it was a great way to get to know the others. Also, at the port presentation before arriving to Bermuda, they recommended that we go to the beaches. The main reason they told us to go to the beaches is because there, you can find pink sand and sea glass beaches! Not in many places you can find this types of beaches.

“Horseshoe Bay” is one of the most recognized beaches in Bermuda since it is the third most instagrammed beach in the whole world! The beautiful view of the ocean with clear sand and big rocks was more enjoyable with less people around.

This is Gibb’s Lighthouse, about twenty minutes away from Hamilton. The location of the lighthouse is perfect to see Bermuda from a highpoint.

Since we were with our parents, transportation was much easier. A plan many of the families had was to go to “Dockyard”. It was a thirty-minute ride and on the way there were many places you could stop by such as lighthouses, beaches, secret beaches, and view points. The ride there was really nice, the road was right by the ocean you could see many different boats and all the houses were painted in pastel colors.

Just before getting to Dockyard there was this small beach. Surrounded by trees and rocks, a perfect place to relax.

Dockyard is a place for most of the boats in Bermuda. Around, you can find many good restaurants. One thing about Bermuda is that they eat a lot of fish; each day they had “the fish of the day”. The day I went there the fish of the day was Rockfish. I ordered in a restaurant that had the form of a boat and it came with beans on the side; it was really tasty. At Dockyard you could also find a marine place were you went to see the dolphins behind a glass. Lastly, they were a couple of museums around but the one I found more interesting was a museum full of forms of transportation from the past. You had to pay five dollars to enter, if you are interested in that kind of stuff, it is worth it!

This is the mall located in the middle of Dockyard called “Clock Tower Mall”. Inside they were many locals that sell souvenirs, ice cream and other goods. It’s bigger than it looks!

Everything closed really early so as we got back to Hamilton exhausted, we enjoyed once more the beautiful view. The day was almost over and it was time to say good night to our parents and go have a good sleep to be ready to explore more tomorrow.

After a 14 day sail and 2 days of anchor, the small community of our magnificent vessel was impatient to discover the Azores. Many of the students went to the grocery store to replenish their empty snack bag. The nights on board are getting cooler, so I bought a cozy blanket. The second evening, I packed provisions for the expedition planned the next day. I woke up early and after a good breakfast with a glass of fresh creamy milk from a farm nearby, our group of 14 trainees made our way to the ferry.

We arrived thirty minutes later to the lovely island of Pico. We discovered the gorgeous landscape of the island as the taxi took us to the bottom of the highest mountain of Portugal, Mount Pico. I felt like if I was transported in the British grassland with the contrast of the bright green lawn and cloudy grey sky. Some small walls made of volcanic rocks divided the lands into equal sections. We could see the shapes of the countless cows in the horizon. In fact, the island hosts three times more cows than the number of habitants. We started the hike determined to accomplish our goal of reaching the top of the volcano. As we climbed, the temperature got warmer and when we passed the clouds, the sun started to burn our delicate skin. Unfortunately, nobody had sunscreen and we all ended up with tomato red faces. At twelve, we made it to the top and were rewarded by a delicious meal and a breathtaking view. There was even some snow at the top of the active volcano and we made a snowman. We came down and got steaming cups of hot chocolate in a small cafe near the ferry.

The fourth day, we started our day with provisions. We met the new cook’s mate, Carrie, and organized all the fresh food for the next sail. We finished for lunch and Cody ordered pizza with a thick layer of melted cheese. After everyone was allowed to go, I made my way to one of the five cheese factories on the island with Julia, Mairead, and Felicity. We had the chance to taste many samples of the dairy product. That cheese was the tastiest I’ve ever had. I was pleased to be informed that the island would soon start exporting their products to Canada. We were able to look around the factory and ended with the best part: the baby cows. We all fell for those adorable three-weeks-old babies. Some of them were playing around and others were sleeping in the grass. We took some pictures with our new friends and Julia even had the chance to pet one. The view from the cheese factory was beautiful. We could see the ocean and even Mount Pico that we had climbed the day before.

After our photo-shoot with the cows, we decided to stop at Peter Sports Cafe, a restaurant near the port where most of the sailors go for a drink or to eat a good dinner. We took a table and ordered a nice meal. The place had a cozy ambience and some good music. It was decorated with flags and stickers from countries of every continent. I ordered shrimp with creamy pasta and garlic bread. After a long time at sea, it’s always pleasant to get some good food with friends. For dessert we had a great variety of choices like chocolate cake, apple pie, Pastel de nata, and many more.

We then went to the shop of the restaurant and got a nice shirt like the majority of the Gulden Leeuw trainees. Finally, I stopped at the best ice cream place called Gelados do Atlántico Açores that was sadly closed the first three days of our stay. There, I ordered a waffle with decadent ice cream.

During our visit in the Dominican Republic we worked with the Foundation Mahatma Ghandi. Mahatama Ghandi is a community volunteer Organization. The organization is called Mahatma Gandhi because they follow Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of self empowerment, leadership, justice, equality and peace. We spent three days in a community around Las Terranas painting houses, building playgrounds and integrating with the locals.

On our first day we spent hours fighting bedbugs, making sure that our sea chests were empty and all our clothes labelled before being mixed up with other people’s clothes in the laundry. When we finally got off the boat it was raining, and I was really tired. I felt like just going to bed, but I made the effort to move my feet towards the big bus waiting for us just outside the port. I fell asleep on the bus and suddenly the bus came to a halt: we had arrived! We got dropped off at a restaurant where food was all prepared for us.

Students rushed to grab plates. We could not take our eyes off all the food in the big buffet. After eating a lovely meal, Jose the founder of Mahatma Gandhi gave us a speech about the work we would be doing the next couple of days in the different communities. After his speech we set off on a hike to a waterfall, which is the second most visited tourist destination in Dominican Republic. After some time, we could hear the water spray. When we saw the waterfall we were astonished by how big and beautiful it was.

Some students went for a swim in the cool pool of emerald green water at the bottom of the waterfall. When we were done taking pictures and swimming, we hiked to a view point where we had a picture perfect view of the waterfall with green lush mountain tops all around and the sun setting in the horizon. The view was beautiful!

We now had to hike down and it was getting dark! On the way, we met many obstacles such as muddy paths and rivers that we had to cross blind as bats, something was bound to happen. Some boys took the initiative to carry people across the river. I got a piggy back ride across the river and as I thought it was all good, we were told to wait because Emma had fallen on the way and had sprained her ankle. Cody ran to get help and somehow he managed to find a horse. We were all waiting in the dark, hungry and concerned, when suddenly Emma appeared behind us riding the horse. We all cheered when she came riding into the crowd!

After all that excitement we went to have pizza at the beach in Las Terrenas. We were all hungry so we were happy to have a whole pizza of our choice. I had the vegetarian pizza and it was really good. After pizza, we met our hosts for our home stays and then we headed out in small groups to the different villages. My group went to the village Barbacoa, and we were about 7 girls and Ms. Siobhan.

The next day in the morning we had breakfast at a local little place called Picapollo Comedor. We had bananas, papaya, toast with ham and cheese, and juice. After breakfast, we set off to paint peoples’ houses. When painting, the locals helped out as well so we got the job done very fast. When we were done painting we had lunch at Picapollo Comedor and then Maria Victoria (the person who was in charge of us) took us to the beach. The beach was beautiful, with crystal clear water shimmering in the sun and a long coastline with fine sand. It was nice to swim, especially after sweating so much that it felt like I had just taken a bucket shower! After swimming, Maria Victoria gave us snacks to eat and the founder/president of the organization drove us back.

When we got back, we changed out of our soaking wet swim suits and then we went for dinner. After dinner, Siobhan invited us for ice cream at a little local place. The lady at the shop gave us several big scoops of her pink strawberry ice cream in large cups. While eating our big cups of pink ice cream we went to the basketball court where we played basketball with some boys from the village. We were not very good compared to them but we still gave it our best shot, and it was so much of fun! I could not stop laughing! People were watching us and cheered every time one of us scored or when one of the boys did a really good move. It is definitely one of the most memorable experiences from our stay in the community. I enjoyed just hanging out with the local kids which were around our age.

On the last day, we had breakfast at Picapollo Comedor, the little local place where we had been eating every day, and then we went to the basketball court to help build a play ground. We painted together with the local kids. When we were done painting we had different colours of paint all over us. We helped each other to get clean with paint thinner but some of it we just couldn’t get rid of. When we were done with the playground, we went to our rooms to relax before going back to the playground for a dinner-party to celebrate the work that had been done.

A lot of people from Class Afloat joined us and all the kids we had worked with came as well. We had some traditional food; we ate rice, soup, potato and fish. For drinks we had coconuts which we opened after drinking them to eat the meat as a desert; it was all super tasty. After eating we danced some bachata and it was a lot of fun. I tried to move my hips like you are supposed to, but I was nowhere close to being as good as the locals. I felt like a robot.

I spent the rest of the night talking to the kids using sign language that I made up and saying some Spanish words in between simple English sentences. I used a lot of sí, no and no lo sé. I wish I knew a bit more Spanish.

I think it is cool that the kids built their own playground and it is impressive how the whole community came together. All the kids came as well to make this project happen. However, a lot of the time I found myself looking at people doing work while eating a lollipop. I wanted to be helpful but they did the jobs so much better and in the end it is their playground, not mine. However, I did get a lot out of spending time in a community and getting to know the people there, and I really enjoyed playing basketball with the boys and dancing bachata with my friends and the little kids.

The next morning we said goodbye to all the kind welcoming people that we had met during our stay in the village and then we headed off to town where we meet the others. Together we had a big traditional lunch and then we had some shore leave where some went to the beach whilst others went to go get ice cream. I had really good hazelnut and cherry ice cream. It was nice to end the trip with a good cold ice cream next to the beach.

Cuba… May I ask, what are the first things that come to your mind when you hear “Cuba”? Most likely, it is probable that you are picturing long stretching eternal beaches and a forever shining sun like I did before my journey here in Cuba. Of course, I did believe that Cuba had more than just these features, but what I saw here swept me off my feet. Yes, it has all these things, but so much more…

When I first stepped foot in Havana on January 14th, I cannot deny the fact that I was quite surprised. The first thing that struck me was the architecture of the city which took my breath away. I was surprised by the beauty of the buildings that were still standing after everything the country has seen.

Through its colonization by Spain, its role in the African slave importation, its independence, its impressive technological development, its Revolution and much more, Cuba has been influenced by various foreign cultures and has built its magic around it. The details present in the architecture and the different colours of each structure incorporate the rich heritage of a diverse population now unified. It was absolutely beautiful.

On our first day, we jumped into buses and went on a tour organized by the government to learn more about Cuba. What the tour guide was saying was informative, but we could barely pay any attention as we were captivated by the landscapes, the people walking in the streets, and the rhythm of life there. After the tour, we had the opportunity to go explore Havana by ourselves. Most of us walked around trying to open our eyes as wide as possible as if we believed that we could see more by doing that. It was captivating. It seemed like the people there were walking at a unique pace, at their own rhythm. I went to bed with the feeling I had learned so much about this distinct country only by observing the people.

The next morning, most of us woke up around eight o’clock and breakfast was served across the street in a little restaurant. There, there was a piano, and many talented students played lovely melodies throughout breakfast. After, an optional tour was available and I took part in it. Honestly, this was the best tour of my life! The activity was led by an economist and there we learned about the Revolution, about how people live their lives under a communist government, and about everything that concerns the every day of a typical Cuban.

My whole perspective about Cuba shifted. I feel like what I know now about Havana is very little and yet, it is enough for me to realize how uninformed I was . There is so much more than just sandy beaches, shining sun, and salsa music! In fact, this place is beautiful because of all these things but fundamentally, because all the people work together for the better, to build their communities: there is an essence, a fire, a sustainable energy that propels, that keeps on progressing, and that expands their culture.

Let’s look at music for example! It happens, sometimes, that we believe we know something but in reality, the knowledge we possess represents a tiny fraction of the thing itself. In the past, I have heard many South American artists and multiple songs reflecting Cuba’s traditional music, but what I heard here in Cuba, what I felt, was nothing that I’ve experienced before. Musicians were releasing their magic everywhere, bringing light and joy to every being. It was heart-lifting. The energy here, the very aliveness of Havana is like the wind, something that cannot be seen but can only be felt, and we felt it.

My friends and I really wanted to experience the life of Cuban through music. On our last night in Havana, we made it our mission to dance to every melody we could hear, wandering with excitement in the streets. We must have burst into more than a dozen different places: restaurants, live music areas in the streets, and dance scenes! I felt like I was part of the people there. Us four girls would enter a restaurant and grab a person by the arm that was sitting to bring them to dance. We laughed so much! And the people there too! They were surprised and the musicians seemed to play with even more intensity. Every heart was filled with joy and that is what Cuba is about: spontaneity, courage, colour, music, happiness. That night was one of the best nights of my life and we shall forever remember it.

The next day, I woke up at 6 o’clock to watch the last sunrise in Cuba for this voyage. The sky was a bright red-orange colour, old Havana stretched in front of me in its beauty and from the seventh floor of our apartment building, I could see, slowly, the entire city waking up. The day went by so fast and little did I know, I was back on the ship saying my goodbyes to this inspiring, amazing, and up-lifting country.

In the end, Cuba made many of us realize how easy it is to be guided or influenced by preconceived thoughts when entering a new place. This country has so much more to offer than what we are told and I believe, the only way to overcome that barrier is to go out there, to observe, to experience, to jump in, to be guided, to be open, and to learn. The best way to discover this place, Havana, or any place, is to put aside everything you though you knew and to simply live in the moment. In the end, if there’s anything that I would encourage anybody to do while traveling would be to just see it!

We had a beautiful sail from Dominica to the Dominican Republic. We sailed into the Dominican Republic on a beautiful calm morning and were welcomed by dozens of Humpback Whales! It was a truly amazing sight and we very happily ran from class hearing the excited calls of “Whale”. It was a truly breath taking sight and a perfect way to begin our stay in the Dominican Republic.

On our first day in the Dominican Republic we packed our bags ready for our homestays and began our Dominican Republic experience with a hike to the Limon waterfall. It was a half day hike and we all enjoyed the waterfall swim and walk back, with a pizza dinner by the beach in Las Terrenas driving us on. We arrived in Las Terrenas and split into different groups to enjoy pizza by the beach. The pizza was delicious and with full bellies and happy faces, we were ready to make our way to our homestays. We were all split up into different homestays staying in groups of two to ten.

While in our homestays (between being fed way too much delicious food) we helped out in the community painting colourful houses. It seemed like a small job but it was a way in which we could get involved in the community and give a little back. It was also a great opportunity for us to get to know our homestay family even better as they joined us to help with the painting of many of the houses. We all had a vastly different experience within our home stays. The experience that I had is one I will truly never forget.

Some of our painting was not very easily accessible and required different measures to reach the spots that were high up.

Throughout my time in the homestay I had the opportunity to get to know my host family very well and got to experience many knew things. The homestay that I stayed in with three other students was amazing. We instantly felt as if we had been adopted by the parents and son, meeting the extended family throughout our stay and feeling truly part of the family. There was not a moment that we didn’t feel welcome and never a minute that we had hungry tummies.

On our last night at our homestays we got together with students from other homestays and enjoyed a Dominican dinner at the local basketball court with many local children too. We ate lots, danced a bit and had heaps and heaps of fun. Although there was a language barrier between the children and us it made no difference to the amount of fun we had. The smiles on our faces and the children’s when we were dancing together and having piggy back rides is something I will truly never forget. It was the people of the Dominican Republic that made it such an amazing stay.

One of the most powerful parts of my time in the Dominican Republic was the time spent getting to know the people of the Dominican Republic. They were so welcoming and always introduced themselves to us. As many of them spoke very little or no English it would be guessed that it would be nearly impossible to communicate, but the people there were different; they welcomed us with big warm smiles. No words were needed and this made the relationships even stronger. Many of the family members of our homestay also could not speak English and, even though we were leaving having spent very little time conversing with them, I felt like I knew them so well. Even just a hug and a reflective moment when leaving showed the depth of our relationship and the sadness of leaving.

Having said a sad goodbye to our homestay families on the last day, we then spent the afternoon in Las Terrenas. We had one last buffet lunch and then spent the afternoon exploring and enjoying the beach. Catching the bus back to the ship preparing to sail out the next day, I reflected on the amazing time that I had and remembered the amazing people that made my experience great. The Dominican Republic is definitely a place I would consider returning to in the future and my homestay an unforgettable experience that I will hold dearly in my heart.