Extra sleeping hours

The door opened and the room filled with light. As my brain and body slowly came to life a happy and excited girl tried to wake us up. She told us that we had arrived to the Dominican Republic and that we even got 40 minutes extra sleep this night.

Since we have the 12-04.00 watch we went to bed att 4.30 in the morning today. On a regular day at sea we would’ve been woken up at 11 o’clock so when our rondman said it was 11.40 I got very happy. On this boat where you’re not allowed many sleeping hours you get really exited with 40 minutes extra sleep. I jumped out of my bed and got dressed so I could go and eat lunch and since we now are in harbour we all eat together.

Right after lunch we had a line up where our captain talked about rules we had to follow during our time in the Dominican Republic. I have to admit, I got a little bit scared by everything he told us, I think we all did. Students in this school before us have been mugged out on the streets and thats why we now have to be back on the boat early and stay in big groups when we’re out and about. We even have an area that we need to stay inside off because it is too dangerous and risky outside of it.

When the line up was over we finally got to stand on steady ground again. Even though it only took us five days to sail from Grenada to the Dominican Republic, the feeling of walking on a street was almost the same as the one I felt after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The weather here today wasn’t the best, very cloudy and not that hot, so we decided to just walk around in the city and see what it had to offer. We walked on the main street of the area that we are allowed to be in and it had a lot of tourists and souvenir boutiques. After a while we got tired of walking and therefore we found a cafe with wi-fi so that we could talk to our parents and friends at home. Now when the trip is coming to an end most of us are homesick and really enjoy talking to our families.

At 6 o’clock we had to be back on the boat so that the crew could see that everyone was okey and alive. We ate dinner at home and right after we had three more hours of free time before we had to be back. We went back to the main street again and finished where we started before dinner. Thirsty as we were we went to another cafe for some beverages and that ended with us forgetting the time so we needed to run back to the boat.

Right now when I’m writing this I’m sitting on deck with a friend who is writing a Spanish blog. Tomorrow I have watch and therefore I need to sleep soon because unfortunately there will not be any extra sleep for me tomorrow.

Klara Kyldahl