TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 10th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

10th of June 2009 - Felix

Our course is: 017
Wind direction: 3/ SSW
Speed: 7.5 kn
Temperature: 28°C
Lat: 29°32 N
Lon: 65°13

Today I had galley, that meant no watch for me. We had cereals and oatmeal to serve for breakfast. The Canadians finished their exams today, and most of us are also done with their schoolwork. Later during the day we had a swimcall. It was the first swimcall out in the open ocean for the South Africans and we were all excited. We had a lot of fun jumping off the bowsprit and swimming in the middle of the ocean.

After the swimcall me and a few others just layed in the sun on the mizzen deck.

This evening after dinner we had le CAFF, the Class Afloat Film Festival, which started after we had a small debriefing about the time on the ship and what the challenges for the South Africans and the Canadians were. At le CAFF a couple of students presented videos they took by themselves. They were very funny, especially the one from Antoine and 2 teachers, about Zombies on the Concordia, in which I played one of the Zombies. The day was really cool and I had a lot of fun.

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 9th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

9th of June 2009 - Bryan

Course: 010°
Speed: 8.8knots
Wind direction: 4/ESE
Temperature: 26°C
Lat: 26°27.8N
Long: 65°51.79W

Today was another usual day aboard the ship, only now, so close to the end of our voyage, many of us are thinking of the excitement of going home and the sadness of leaving CAF.

The sea was a gem-like blue today, the sun shining and the music was playing. The South Africans had class as usual while the rest of the students had the oral exams... SO glad we don't have to do our exams! In our free time, either we socialized, slept or helped out on deck to get everything ready for our much anticipated arrival in Bermuda.

Helping involved 'rust busting', grinding and priming, while I was allowed to go aloft and tie wire around all the shackles that didn't have any on. It was a great job, but I'm sure if my mom saw, she wouldn't approve of the precarious positions and the ways in which I was held up either by just a hand or just dangling attached to a piece of rope...it was great! And even better was that it gave me a workout at the same time!

Other than that, it was an ordinary day, but in the evening, the Design class presented their portfolios; which were basically their impressions, memories and what they got out of CAF.

Some were funny, some more serious and moving, but all was incredible! A lot of us were crying by the end, but they were definitely worth watching.

So it was an awesome day and everyone is making the most of their last few fleeting days. I only wish this trip was longer, even though I am excited to get back home...

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 8th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

8th of June 2009 - Asekho

Speed: 10,5 kn
Wind: East 3
Longitude: 065 52 w
Latitude: 21 30,4N
Point of sail: broad reach
Sea: 3

Today we started our day the normal way, but at colors the Captain made an announcement about the program of Bermuda (International Tall Ship race). After colors, I had cleaning station and went to class. The day started slow until I had my day watch, today we had a party during day watch while Bryan and Brandon were burning in the galley. Gustav, Monde and Shane were painting the ship during day watch and they immediately stopped when the party started because me and Axel were entertaining them by our good dancing moves. People started coming out to watch us and we enjoyed it. After that I had my free two hours before my navigation watch. In mine I was with Gustav and Shane, who was doing well in helming and our speed raised. I again chilled for two hours then had my night watch and went to bed. This was a good day for all of us because of the news we had in the morning.

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 7th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

7th of June 2009 - Brandon Schoor
(no logbook for 2 days, only getting new one tomorrow)

Today was another school day on the ship but it was exams reviews for the Canadians but normal school day for us. This meant we had more free time because everyone only had one hour nav. watch and one hour day watch so that was cool. All of the team members enjoyed this day because everyone used their free time to catch up on some sleep and so did I and I'm looking forward to another day on the S.V Concordia...
Since it's the last few days for the team SA on the Concordia some of the team members are so excited to get back home and some does want to go home but they also don’t want to leave behind what they have now and that's how I feel and a few others but we enjoying every moment since its going to be our last...

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 6th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

6th of June 2009 - Monde

Latitude: 21 11.67 n
Longitude: 65 20 31 w Temperature: 28 degrees ,
closest port is the Virgin islands
Our average speed is 8. 1 nautical miles

Today was an interesting day. Yes, we did the same watches but at different times, it's preparations for examinations for the Canadians, so the schedule is slightly inconsistent. Another intriguing part about this day is that it's the long awaited Miss Concordia. You could see it in the companion way, the boys were being pampered, the make up was daring especially Gustav's.

Some did look a bit horrific like my dear friend Asekho - no offense but he really looked like a mime artist or a crocodile with make up, but he did pay it up by his provocative dancing moves that dazzled the judges and made the deliberation on who will be Miss Concordia a bit difficult. I cannot go on without mentioning Brandon or should I say Belinda his girl's name. We were all honored with princess names, mine was Mona Lisa. Belinda was yet another highlight with his belly dancing and crude shorts that disturbed especially judge Mr. Hurley. As for me, I came on second place with Asekho. I must say I looked fierce all thanks to my German glam squad .

The night was divided in 4 sessions: there was evening wear, interview, bathing suit and talent. I think all of these were fully executed by the girls for the night, considering that none of us had any practice in that field, well except for Mitchel, who stole the show but however I thought they gave it to him because it was a bit personal to him but hey no hard feelings. We ended the night with some high adrenalin sailing maneuvers as we took advantage of the good mood we all were on.

Its now 9 days till home, it' s insanely unbelievable! It all went so fast, it's sad for the amazing people we met, but it won't be the last time we meet and certainly not the last for us the South African team.

It has been a bon voyage - Thank you Cape Windjammers!

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 5th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

5th of June 2009 - Chrissy =)

Our position details as announced at colors this morning...
Latitude.. 12º 37.3' N
Longitude..062º 17.6' W
Speed..7.0 knots
Temperature.. 29 ºC
Nearest Coast.. Caribbean Islands

Today was a great day that was different from other days aboard the Concordia as we got a new routine schedule. The other Class Afloat students have exams coming up and therefore we have other class times for exam review and oral exams. Now, instead of having our usual schedule for a whole 5 day cycle, we have a different one each day, which is hung up on the notice board (mostly a day in advance).This means that we have different class times than before and different nav. and day watches with different people than we usually do.

In the morning we all had 2 hours of class which started right after cleaning stations and were followed by day or nav watch right after, for some students.

After lunch we had an abandon ship drill which went really well! Everything worked out as fast and efficient as it should in a real emergency so we can all feel safe that if the ship were to sink, we would at least all know how to get on our life-rafts quickly.

The afternoon was relaxed but you could feel that today was the day before Miss Concordia. You could see excitement and anticipation in some guys faces but also pure dread in others! Many people started preparing for the great night tomorrow and did something which some of the guys never thought they would do - they shaved their legs. Many South African students were planning to participate but not all of them were quite so sure about what they were doing. Monde, Asekho, Gustav, Brandon and Bryan spent the evening getting ready. This meant getting your outfit planned, thinking about a talent to show off, mentally preparing for an interview and the most dreadful task of all for the boys, which was shaving their legs. It took a bit of convincing for most but in the end they all had the guts to shave the leg hair they had been growing for about 17 years (except for Asekho, whose leg hair was nowhere near visible anyway). Bryan was a very brave guy to let Andrea and me shave his legs and get rid of the fur. After bringing that sacrifice, the next steps were to varnish his nails - bright red and pluck his mono brow. We planned the outfit he would wear for the evening wear and swimsuit wear and brainstormed ideas for his talent. By now the boys were ready to get some beauty sleep before their great night and their managers and make-up artists needed a break from the stress, so we all went to bed, ready for what the next day would bring!

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 4th June 2009 - Leg 5 Trinidad to Bermuda

4th of June 2009 - Shane Barnes

Our current course is 350, speed is 5.7, the wind comes from 5 ENE and we have traveled 165nm in the last 24hrs.

We are still docked in Port of Spain. At colors it was announced that we will leave right after colors and be under way again but as it turned out the pilot did not arrive at 10am because of some paper work that needed to be sorted out before he could come on our ship and steer us out of port and then we would be off to Bermuda! My watch group took care of the gang way which is our new docking station and it was kind of easy but doing it while you are being cooked alive by the sun is in fact quite exhausting. The pilot did not arrive until 2hours later and we finally left Port of Spain and it took us probably till lunch when we were fully out of the harbor. By now I was tired and felt sea-sick while I was sitting in class after lunch for 2hours and right after that, I went to sleep. I would have slept till the next day was it not for class again for an hour and dinner. After that I slept again till my watch from 23:00 till 2:00am and my watch group did the seamanship constellation project, which was pointing out and giving details about a star – mine was the Eagle (Aquila).

Then at 2:30am I finally went to bed.

Head of School Update - Trinidad

Dear Friends and Families,

I have not yet heard from the vessel but the crew should be in Port of Spain as I type after enjoying time ashore in Tobago yesterday. The vessel will be in port until this evening and will then head for Bermuda.

Cheers,
Kate

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 3rd June - Port of Spain, Trinidad

Exploring the Port of Trinidad - 3rd June 2009 - Bryan Castle

This morning we arrived in Trinidad at the Port of Spain. First impressions are always important, and by the looks of things we were in store for another Walvis Bay type of area, but we were so wrong. The city itself was extremely clean and very well built up. There was a lot of new, big buildings that generally dominated wherever you would look, but they were not the ugly ones, they looked modern and attractive.

Once we were allowed to go ashore, we split into our groups and except for those unlucky enough to have port suspension, the first thing we did (most of us anyway) was to go find food! My group went to Subway after finding ATM's so that we could get a bit of money. Subway was phenomenal, foot long subs with so much great toppings on...chicken, peppers, sauces, salad, ham, veggies and so much more! And there was a lady who was really friendly and was talking to us, telling us about Trinidad and all that. Then we went for ice cream, it was so good! After that we went exploring the city and found internet and phones. It was great being able to speak to our parents again, even if it was 10 pm in S.A.

Other than that, souvenirs were bought, more food was eaten (we couldn't get enough!!) and we all had a lot of fun.

After my group (Gustav, Patrick, Claire, Sarah, Rachelle, Monde and myself) had done our grocery shopping, just outside the shop, a man called Marcus walked over to us and we began chatting. He was an ex-active USA marine and was involved in a group of ex marines who would walk around the streets seeing if anyone needed help, especially tourists, and take them to places, always keeping us in the assurance of safety, as they had a reputation wherever they went. He took us all over the city and showed us a lot, informing us about all the important landmarks and features. The last stop was Mahatma Gandhi Square where there was a statue of Mahatma (aka Brandon) and there was a homeless man who Monde and Rob had a long conversation with. He was surprisingly knowledgeable and had a freaky funny laugh. He was a part of a program that Marcus ran which tries to give all homeless people food, a shower everyday, clothing and hopefully eventually shelter. Monde felt really connected to him, and was obviously sad when we had to leave, otherwise we wouldn't have been back at the ship in time.

Once we had said bye to Marcus and thanked him for his help, it was awesome having someone like that with us, especially at night in a strange town. When we were back on the ship, most people who had laptops were on them because internet was available from the port. So everyone was up late, talking or chilling and one by one we began going to bed.

Trinidad is an incredible place and the people are all so friendly, it is definitely somewhere I want to come back to in the future! Everyone had an amazing time, but we are all looking forward to our final leg of the voyage...

Today was also Felix's birthday!!!!!!!!

TEAM SA LOGBOOK - 2nd June - Tobago

2nd of June 2009 – Port Tobago - Asekho Mdaka

Today we started our day early as 5am in the morning for sail maneuvers because we were going to anchor at Tobago. Me and my cabin mates came late as some had few hours of sleep. We started dowsing and setting sails. As I was doing the sail maneuvers, my mind was still in bed while my body was there and that made me function slowly.

After we were done with sail maneuvers, we had colors where we were told that we will get shore leave early today. After colors, we had a big spring deck clean and went to a meeting straight after that. People could not wait to go and explore.

When I arrived on land with my group, we went to change money, but the exchange was closed and we had to change money with a guy on the street. Being Cape Townian we knew what can happen in street exchange, but we decided to take the risk. After that we went for a tour in the streets in the island. We did not take a long time and we thought of food.

We went to the beach and stayed there for the rest of our free time. While swimming, one of the locals called us for a game of soccer and we wasted no time. We split ourselves and started playing. We got tired and stopped playing to take a swim.

Gustav thought of a good idea asking the bosun John to come and fetch us where we were swimming as we saw other boats coming in. John had no problem with it and for that matter we enjoyed ourselves swimming with the new 1st mate and 2nd mate Evan. When it was time to leave, they asked us to come with them but we told them that we had already arranged with John. When we saw the Zodiac coming in and going we started to have fears as we thought that John might forgotten us but things went well.

When we arrived, we had sail maneuvers as we were about to leave for Trinidad. I left early as I had galley day. Afterwards, I went to bed. Everyone was fine, but tired after the day.