This island is so amazing! I would love to come here again. There’s so much to do and we had so little free time here. Class Afloat decided that we should have a huge amount of organized port program and very little time off. It was exhausting.

Also made more busy by the lice crisis. I say lice crisis because of the stress. Unwarranted stress because there’s nothing life threatening about lice but there was panic from the office and some panic from the students (though they dealt pretty well with it overall). We ended up treating every head on board and the students are meant to be combing their hair every day for nits. Cooperation has been mediocre on this and they continue to share everything and rubs their heads together so I predict more lice in the future 😩. I’m hoping that the more I make it their responsibility to deal with the more they will realize that they have to change their behaviours. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Enough about lice!

For port program we went hiking as a group of 63!

We also went to the whale museum. They have a section about the history of whaling in Madeira and a section about the current state of the oceans. They also have an area where they deal with marine mammals that have been stranded and die on the beach.

We also went up the cable car and then took these crazy wicker basket sleds down the mountain. They are driven by two guys who stand on the back and “control” the sled with ropes.

It was Nuts!!!

On our one day off we rented a car and drove around the island. It’s very steep here. I’m glad I wasn’t driving! Our intrepid bosun Shala was the driver.

There was also the European triathlon cup and World Paratriathlon cup happening. All kinds of super fit people were running around training. I watched the elite women race, it was so exciting!

I hope to be back to Madeira some day