So, right now I am at the logistical Pre-Port presentation for Morocco and I am typing up my post for what we did in Spain. Before getting to it, however, I should say that we just received some shocking news in the middle of the presentation. Right after going over the port emergency, safety, and medical information, our assistant dean informed us that during the three hours that the fuel ship was alongside us, we never actually received any fuel. He said it was too rough to actually pump gas, and eventually had to go into port. So, we were told that they will try again tomorrow morning (yes, when we’re supposed to be in Casablanca) and that we’ll hopefully get to Morocco by sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening. Not the best of news, but we’ll have to deal with it. Remember the word, and for that matter, mantra of the voyage- FLEXIBILITY. After the pre-port meeting, we were fortunate enough to be able to watch the Super Bowl. Since we were still anchored right outside of Gibraltar, we were able to view a German broadcast of the game and didn’t have to use our little internet bandwidth to watch it with choppy video and audio. The game started at around 11:30pm our time and didn’t end until sometime after 2am. For those who saw it, and if you didn’t I’m sure you read/heard, it was one of the greatest endings to a Super Bowl ever.
I am now continuing to write this post on Monday evening (I haven’t finished/posted it yet, so understand that it was written at different times). Today (Monday) was essentially a second day at sea with nothing formal scheduled. We were successfully able to refuel early in the morning and are scheduled to arrive in Casablanca sometime tonight, although we won’t be allowed off the ship until tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I woke up late again (around 11:30), ate lunch, a bunch of us played some intense games of charades and Pictionary, took a nap, and had dinner. Nothing too exciting, but still another highly needed day of rest from the lack of sleep from Spain. During dinner, as we finally were arriving in Casablanca, the captain announced that we had to turn off the stabilizers for some reason for a few minutes. The following 5-10 minutes felt like a constant earthquake. In the dining hall, all the tables and everything on them were shaking drastically. The crew was holding onto the buffet tables so they wouldn’t fall over. And several people fell out of their chairs. Fortunately, there were no major problems and no one was hurt. (I thought it was a pretty cool/fun experience). After dinner, our conduct officer, a 25 year veteran of the LAPD and on his 4th SAS voyage, gave a presentation about how to stay safe in port. It was very informative and provided a lot of practical ideas to protect our valuables and our safety. After his presentation, there was an open mic night, in which many students played guitar, sang songs, and some attempted comedy. Overall, it was a very cool experience seeing how talented many of my shipmates are.
We are now docked in Casablanca. Tomorrow I plan to get off the ship in the morning and get on a train to Marrakesh (about 3 hours) with 2 other guys and a few girls. We are planning on staying two nights before heading back to the ship in Casablanca on Thursday morning.
Expect an update as to what we did sometime Friday or Saturday.
Now, what did we do in Spain??? This will be in my next post…
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