Sailing!

We're sailing! We left Durban, South Africa over a week ago now. If all goes well, we should arrive in Madagascar tomorrow!

It's windy out on the deck!

Due to some unforeseen delays, we sat at anchorage off the coast of Durban for several days. Those first few days were the roughest. Before our ship was the Africa Mercy, she was the Dronning Ingrid, a Dutch rail ferry, designed for short ferry runs.  Needless to say, she was not designed for long voyages in the high seas. Hence, even when we are anchored in one place, the ship gently rolls from side to side ALL the time! The moments when you forget you are on a ship are few and far between and happen almost exclusively while I am asleep. Surprisingly the pitching back and forth  started to diminish when we pulled up the anchor and were on our way.


Now that my body has had some time to adjust, I am happy to report I have found my sea legs and am actually enjoying the sail.  The view out the window is always beautiful and I have grown to like falling asleep in a rocking bed.

View from deck 7 port side

Last night I enjoyed the special privilege of going to visit the bridge. We got to see the navigation computers and maps, the sections of glass floor and the amazing view!

View from outside the bridge

It's been easy to keep busy while sailing.  In addition to teaching (which can be interesting when the ship is rocking), there have been a lot of crew activities: sock golf, talent show, piano concert, lots of communal jigsaw puzzles, and even whale watching!  It's whale migration season in this area, so I've had several math lessons interrupted by whales or dolphins (but I'm not complaining!).  I wish I had pictures to show you, but I'm not fast enough with a camera.  With a whale, you're lucky if you just see it's tail coming out of the water, but the dolphins will jump completely out of the water. It's amazing!

Tomorrow we will spend the majority of the day getting the ship docked in port and clearing immigration.  I'm not sure when we'll get to get off the boat, but I can't wait!