What I learnt from it was that there are ups and then there are downs. It sounds simple but on land there is so much going on you sometimes forget that things will change and nearly always get better. This time last night I had my head over the side contemplating jumping in that safety boat or crawling back to my bunk to never come out again…but I got over it.

These past two days have shown me how important a team has to be, especially in these kinds of situations, but also how strong a community we already are. Everyone was and is so supportive, genuinely caring and thoughtful. All of us together have only been here for about two weeks but already the students have started to refer to the Amistad as ‘home’ and as a ‘she’. So even though this past day while I was experiencing it was horrible and tough, I learnt from it. This afternoon, we anchored at Sambro Harbour with its beautiful scenery: the typical Canadian site consisting of lines of Pine trees, and we began to talk about Frederick Douglass and the books on slavery we are looking forward to read and discover. That, to me, was why its important to get through those times.

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