Preparing for Morocco

Date: 26.11.2023
Position: Lisbon
Geographic position: 38°40.9’N 9°12.9’W
Etmal: 0 nm
Total: 1151 nm
Ship: Pelican of London

Information and Cleaning

Yesterday, Fabia informed us about a spontaneous trip to Morocco that will take place this week. Our bus is booked for tomorrow morning, so we have to pack all our stuff today.

In today’s morning meeting, Ben, our captain, explained how we have to leave our cabins. Everything – and by everything, he really means everything, including our organizers, clothes, and anything else we brought on board – has to be stowed away in our bags on our bunks so the professional crew can work in our cabins to repair the ventilation system and other components.

It’s crucial that our cabins are tidy so the ship can maintain its hygiene while we’re away. Because hygiene is always important on a big ship like the Pelican. So we started our weekly Happy Hour. One watch cleaned all our cabins, including the walls, floors, and toilets. The other two watches cleaned the bridge area, the Poop Deck, the Well Deck, the Mess room, the Saloon, and the upper and lower Alleyway.

Packing and Preparing

The chaos began after lunch and an amazing Pathway Presentation from Lena. All the things we need for our trip to Morocco have to fit in our hiking backpacks, which we got from the bilge.

Many backpacks had mold on them, and we started to wash them on the Well Deck. To make the packing a bit less stressful, we packed in two groups: first the lower bunks and then the top bunks. While one half began packing their stuff, the others had free time and some tried to help in the Galley.

There was a lot to do because we had to pack lunch for 40 people. Some started slicing baguettes, others made peanut butter and jam sandwiches. After another handover in the Galley, I, myself (Eva), and the others who helped out were able to start our packing. Although only 2/3 of the people were packing their stuff per cabin, it was still difficult to sort out all our stuff. Especially because they were mostly organized in shoe organizers. But with some loud and motivating music, we were nearly finished when David (our new 1st mate) came to look at our cabins.

Evening with Kaiserschmarrn

Even though the Galley and the Mess-men had an incredibly hard day, they still granted us the wish to have some „Kaiserschmarrn.“ After this special dinner, we realized that some of the backpacks that were stored in the showers were completely wet.

The main problem was that our showers turn on if you push a button. This button was pushed by the weight of the backpacks. After the first shock, we still managed to dry all the clothes. This was way more difficult than we thought because only one of the two tumble dryer was working. Luckily, some of us were not as tired and offered to stay awake a little bit longer to dry the wet laundry. At nine o’clock, we all had to be in our cabin because the day tomorrow will start at five o’clock in the morning.

We were all really stressed and tired, but we are super exited to traveling to Morocco tomorrow.

P.S. An Elise Voss: Ich hoffe das Du gestern/ heute einen schönen Tag hattest und mit Deinen Freunden schön gefeiert hast. Liebe Grüße und Küsse.
Dein Friedrich