Provinsions and Chatholic Sunday Sermon

Today the starboard watch was on duty, and early in the morning we docked at a container port to take on provisions for the Atlantic crossing. This was something we had all been looking forward to, as our supply of fresh food had started to run low recently since we had been anchored during the journey so far. Another good thing was that we wouldn’t have to handle all the supplies ourselves, since all the students were going into town for a Catholic church sunday service.

At the morning assembly, everyone was dressed and ready in their school shirts. After we struck the bell and raised the flags, the small boats began transporting students to another dock, since we were not allowed to go ashore where we were currently moored. Time passed, and it took a while to drive everyone back and forth. This meant that the provisions arrived before everyone had left. Those of us who stayed behind, of course helped out. Provisioning usually takes quite a while when items need to be rinsed, counted and stored in the right places. But the delivery we received today only took about 10 minutes to put away. Instead of 200 liters of flour, we had only received 20 liters, so there had clearly been a mistake in the order. You could see that the cook was unhappy with the amount of food and personally it felt very doubtful that it would be enough for the many days at sea ahead. Spoiler: the cook was allowed to do some extra shopping, and we received another delivery of provisions before departure.

Once the provisioning was finished, we were taken to the church. It was going to be interesting to attend a Catholic sunday service. We had been told it would be in English and that there would be gospel singing. However, when we arrived, it turned out to be in French. Even though we didn’t understand much, it was still an extraordinary experience with lots of singing. At the end, we were called up onto the stage where our teacher introduced us and explained who we were, since many people in the church were curious about us and what we were doing there. After the service ended, we went to the grocery store and bought our own supplies.

/Meja