A welcome sighting of the sun at the beach a few blocks from where our ship is moored.

Ahoy land dwellers! Today we docked at 1045 after motorsailing into the entrance of the port of Cadiz to our assigned dock location. After we docked, B watch was on deck duty and secured the Cramer by hanging and coiling any loose lines, securing the ladder to go onto land, and hosing down the deck. The rest of the ship got prepared for lunch and looked at a number of resources that gave information on the city of Cadiz. At 1130 everyone mustered in the main salon to hear the schedule for our port stop over the next few days. Captain Rappaport explained that we would be here until Wednesday morning and that two days out of the four would be dedicated to tours. Today was one of the days where we were allowed to explore some of Cadiz on our own.

I explored the old part of the city with several other crewmembers. We saw a number of boutiques, tapas restaurants, and landmarks that provided some history of the peninsular city, such as the city museum and the cathedrals. As I explored the streets, some of the buildings reminded me of Palma, Mallorca. For example, there were a number of cathedrals that were open to the public, streets were intersected by narrow alleyways that had shops from end to end, and a number of restaurants served traditional Spanish cuisine. One of the highlights of today involved eating churros de chocolate (fried dough with chocolate fondue) after dining at a tapas restaurant where several other crewmembers and ate calamari, ham and cheese, fried fish, sautéed shrimp, and potatoes with anchovies. Overall, it was a relaxing day with some rain and a lot of sunshine afterwards. I am looking forward to our tours as well as some more free time to explore Cadiz and the history that it has to offer.

- Sara

P.S. Hi mom and dad! I miss you both so much! Cannot wait to tell you about my advenutres is person. Love you both – Sarita