Ahoy there maties… I would love to do this post in character but I simply don’t have enough time right now. So if you don’t mind, this will be a improve e-mail like post chronicalling my times at sea. (and in hawaii) So here we go…

The first week for those who wern’t there was really amazing, we were attached to the dock, with our families to hang out with, and go to dinner with (cheaper )… Ya know, it was sorta like we were staying at a hotel away from our familes for only the nights. Laidback, sailtraining, food, sleep, no night-watch, basically a really really easy week. Boy, we had no idea what was in store for us.

First day at sea… We had left the day before in the afternoon and had sailed out of the harbor in extremly calm seas until we went to sleep… The next morning, I woke up at 3:45 ready for my 4:00-6:00 night watch… You couldn’t try to explain how much throwup was on the side of the boat… It was nasty. I had a pretty bad stomach ache, but I didn’t throwup… I was probably the luckiest person on the boat, well, me and a few other people… Around 2 other people. Out of 48 students. Everyone else basically was attached onto a saftey rope leaning far over the leeward side heaving their guts out… I guess it was good that we woke up in the middle of stormy weather. Well, not a storm but the first day was the worst of the entire 3 week sail. Funny how that happens eh? Anyways, the day went on in a blur for everyone… I know that I slept through most of my classes and didn’t eat very much… I knew I woulda thrown up if I hadn’t taken those precautions. Other people wern’t so fortunate…

Moving on, the first week on the sail was great, a few dolphin sitings (yea they swam with the boat, I got a bunch of pics of them jumping.) and I think we had 1 whale siting. No wait, there was two, and one of them was jumping. Yea, a freeking whale jumped. It was insaine. (unfortunatly no pics, it was too fast)

School is great overall, but alittle laid back compared to last year. Social studies is probably my hardest class, in the sense of the amount of homework. And second to that is Math 30, but only later on in the course when we get onto harder material. The stuff we are going over right now is what I did in 9th grade. Possibly before that. But I need the credit, and I am taking a harder course next semester. So it shall work out. Philosophy sucks in the sense that its more history and almost no discussion. Plus we do stupid stuff like a project where we had to make our “island” which basically was a mystical place which embodied our values and our personal ideas on a great place. Eh, whatever. Photo Journalism is the best though, because they did select my website to be the official class afloat underway website. Indeed, as of Western Samoa my beautiful website will be online at http://www.classafloatunderway.org. So please do check it out if you can.

Moving on once again, the second and third week of the sail to Hawaii was pretty much, wake up-work-class-eat-work-class-eat-freetime-sleep. There was a few funny events, like we had formal night which was fun… And that same night we got to smash a pinata. The best part about the pinata… Jackson hit himself in the balls with the stick as we were using a very long broom handle… It was possibly the funniest thing in the world. Brenden (one of my good friends, he is a great movie maker… Has all the equipment) made a video which was made up of about 5 different angles of Jackson plus a sweet slow-mo shot at the end. Its pretty beautiful.

Eh, apart from that… There was alot of work… I am a master rustbuster, I can climb the mast in under 3 minutes and I can eat forever, and ever, and ever, and ever…….

Anyways, we get to Hawaii… Wow, we were ready. The second we were released everyone left to their various things. I went strait to the nearby starbucks to redeem some of my beautiful starbucks card and get some internet. Apart from that, between when I got to Hawaii and right now here is a rundown of what I did:

• Went to the tourist filled crappy beach. Funny thing, the water there was clearer than north-shore (the more local filled beach)
• Went to a awesome thai food restaurant with 5 other people… $140 later, I was full. (split between us all)
• Went to Coldstone… Had a love it sized icecream. Yea, I wasn’t able to finish that. But wow, it was good.
• Got some passport photos for the US government. I hate passport photos. With a passion. From recent experience I will probably have to redo them… Oh well, I shall deal with that later.
• I went to northshore, which is the ultimate local beach. Unfortunatly I went to the worse beach. There is aparently two, and the one I went to is like the local-family-gathering-crappy-beach. It even had a tiny overpriced town. It wants to be the next tourist town. Sorta messed up. But, on the flip side we had a great picnic (pinapple -> 75 cents) and saw a beached sea turtle… We didn’t know if it was dieing or resting… But it didn’t look very hot. Cool little tidbit, the sea-turtle was about….. 3 feet long. And about 2 feet wide. I will upload pics latah, it was insaine.
• We went to Pearl Harbor… With Cousin Good-Lookin. Yea, he was freeking awesome. A true Hawaiian. The whole thing wasn’t too bad. But still, took out half of one of my days in port.
• We went to a freeking awesome bay today to snorkle. Lots of fish, and sea life. I SWAM INSIDE A FREEKING SCHOOL OF XL-FISH. AND I MEAN BUBBA! It was awesome. I am glad I brought my gear. Paul broke my Mask strap however, but he offered to buy me a new one at our next port. I don’t need it till then anyways so its all good.
• Also, Brenden brough his freeking amazing HD-camera… Which is worth more than my computer. And its waterproof case. Yea, we got some amazing footage
• Finally I am here, writing this post for all of you to experience some of my adventure…

But you wont understand completely unless you have experienced life on a tall-ship. Its the most unique and amazing trip… Life… everything that someone could ever have. I want to thank my family and my friends for giving me this opportunity.

Anyways, to continue with the thank-you’s, I would like to make a couple shout-outs.

Mom and Dad and Trish, thanks for everything… I know I have talked to you, but seriously, I could never thank yall enough for making me into who I am. Without you guys I may have skipped on this experience. I love you guys so much!
Granny, you are a amazing person… I don’t think I could ever express the gratitude that I have for your contribution. Without it I may not have been able to partake in this experience. I will be sure to phone you and Uncle John next port as I barly had time to phone my family this port. So I shall talk to you about everything in Western Samoa.

Claire, Travise, Hannah, Courtney, and all my other friends… I am not sure if I could express my thanks if I had a million years to thank y’all. For those who I didn’t send e-mails or talk to this port, trust me, I thought about all of you. Hopefully next port I will be able to connect with more of yall. Thanks for everything, you guys are great.

Jason. The Jason on the ship is white. Apart from that, I miss you. So very very much. Like… Crap, I wish we could hang out. I want someone to just sit with just like talk to. Someone that I know really well… And that I know will listen. No-one on the ship is close enough yet… So yea… I could try and explain how much I want to thank you for being my best friend, but it would be fruitless even to try and say that. So I wont.

To my older friends (but only slightly older, ladies ) I want to thank you all for being great. All of you are great people and influenced my life in many ways. Everyone of you has a quality that I strive to have.  You all embody my ultimate-role model…  So thank you for being a part of my life.

Anyways, I believe I have yakked on for long enough and I only have 15 minutes t’ get aft t’ t’ ship. We be actually leavin’ tomorrow due t’ a complication with t’ pilot. But we be denied shore leave tomorrow due t’ us requirin’ a certain amount o’ class hours. So this be essentially t’ last contact with t’ outside world I will have for t’ next 22 days. So thanks for readin’ and its time t’ cast off for me.