Chaos in Marocco

Date: 12.12.2023
Position: Essaouira, Morocco
Geographical Position: 31° 29´N, 9°46`W
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 1597 nm
Ship: Pelican of London

Good Morning Ocean College!

This morning everyone woke up around 07:30 to pack our backpacks and get ready for the day we finally will see our Pelican again! After our last breakfast in Morocco, we started organizing our departure.

The room keys were collected and we met outside the Riad. We could feel the excitement in the air to get back home. Around 9:20 we arrived at the harbour of Essaouira, where our rib would take us to the Pelican.

The Moroccan fish harbor and market

The mood at the harbour was off the charts. Everyone was happy and feeling good. The scene, though, was slightly strange: Around 30 European-looking children with a few adults, loud German music (we definitely love Bibi & Tina), a fishy smell, way too many seagulls (at least three of us are in desperate need to wash our clothes at this point) and all that in a Moroccan fish harbour between fish-cutting men and shouting people to sell their fish.

A slightly confusing luggage loading

At first, we loaded the rib with our luggage to bring it back to the Pelican. Since we loaded around three times, every time the policeman who looked over our operation said we needed to load somewhere else 🤪

All of those sudden changes definitely led to confuse most of us.

Those Moroccan authorities!!

When we loaded our backpacks onto the sailing ship, the first load of ten people was supposed to get into the rib and be driven over to the Pelican. But after three people got onto the rib, a man from the Moroccan authorities told us to stop. The next three hours that followed, we heard yes and no and that we are allowed to get on the Pelican and then again that we are not.

We were told the rib would not be safe enough to drive us over (although it definitely is, since every stop without a harbour is accessed that way). After a while, the professional crew on the rib were told to bring back our luggage.

At that point, most of us were either laughing at the confusion and the dumbness of this act or sad and angry at the few men who made the decisions to make our departure out of Morocco so very difficult. In those hours, a few people were interviewed.

At around 13:30 o’clock, we were somehow allowed to go on our beloved Pelican.

Tidy and Shiny

Back on the sailing ship, the first thing that caught the eye of most of us was how clean our home was. The professional crew did a lot of restoration work on the ship while we were gone. The lobby (yes, that is the two by two metre large space in front of the mess room where the fire hoses are – this name is pretty ironic) is now rust-free!

The floor was clean and tidy as well as the green mile, which hopefully will stay like this longer than when we first came aboard. At the end of our day, we got a briefing about safety on the ship and got to unpack our bags.

An everyday partner

As you may have noticed in today’s report, the focus was on impressions and feelings during the day. Feelings and emotions are sensations everyone has during a day, which varies.

Since everyone is different, emotions may come forth differently, but all of them are worth being heard and understood. That’s why it is important that everyone on the ship is open to hearing others out and pays attention to their loved ones and crew mates.

A key in processing feelings and understanding them is communication with others. Even if it does not seem like it, other opinions and words can heal and hurt as well.

Feelings are just visitors – let them come and go (Tobi). Today is a good day to pay closer attention to emotions between the tiredness, changes and confusion. This opportunity is perfect to interview two of our Ocean College trainees.

Both Sophie and Friedrich summed up the day as exhausting with changing aspects. This led to both of them being tired and exhausted. But all in all, the day was an interesting experience to make and funny at some points!