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Published: November 6th 2007
Gunilla.1
Here she is, Gunilla!Hello everyone!
Welcome to my blog that I will use mainly during my journey with the ship Gunilla between the 10th of November until the 31 of January, but hopefully it will be used for more exciting trips! I will start by explaining some of the basic things about the trip as well as the ship.
As most of you know, Gunilla is a three masted bark that is 50 metres long (164 feet) and with masts of 34 metres (112 feet) (That we actually climb, all the way to the top!). The trip will take us to Cádiz (Spain), Safi (Morocco), Mindelo (Cap Verde), Salvation Islands (French Guyana), Paramaribo (Surinam), Georgetown (Grenada) and finally Cartagena in Colombia (see the map). This means that christmas will be celebrated on the Salvation Islands and new year in Paramaribo. We will stay in every port for 6-7 days.
During the period 1999-2002 I was myself a student aboard, but now I will work as a teacher as well as a watchleader. This education is a part of the Swedish gymnasium (16-19 year olds) and includes three different trips with the boat, each almost three monts, but with other destinations. The
role as a teacher will entail the tutoring of the students within social studies, history and Spanish. In the position as a watchleader I will teach the students how to set sails, due the maintenance work aboard and so on. Out on the sea this means first 8 hours a day of work (2 x 4 hours) as a watchleader plus the work as a teacher which will vary between 10-15 hours a week. When we´re in a harbour me and my watch will have one day of duty aboard and two days off to explore the surroundings!
On the 50 metre long ship 56 people will live together during almost three months. The students live in cabins with 3 or 4 students in each one, whereas the crew have their own cabins or live two and two. Since I´m furthest down in the hierarchy I will share cabins with the second chef aboard who is also the nurse (we have to share since we are the only women in the crew during half the trip...). The students are going to both study normal school subjects aboard as well as learning how to sail and in the end get a degree in sailing. The studying of the "normal" subjects will however be much more practical than in a normal school since if they want to study a rainforest, they just visit one! If they want to study the desert they take a tour on a camel out in the desert and so on. The best way of learning and the best way of teaching!
Enough of that, it´s just important to understand the base of the life on the ship in order to understand what´s going on. During the course of the trip, please contact me and ask me questions if there is anything you have questions about! Today it´s tuesday and the flight to Cádiz leaves early Saturday morning. I already feel nervous, but it´s a good kind of nervous. The kind that makes you feel alive! This is going to be an incredible adventure and for me the best and strangest part is to re-live this whole experience....
Anyways, enough information for now... The comming contributions to this blog are garanteed going to much more adventurous and exciting, so keep on reading!
Take care everyone!
Sandra - crossing the Atlantic for the third time slower than the speed of a moped...
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Ylva
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Inte dåligt!
Ser fram emot din mopedresa med spänning!!