Sailing, Sailing!!! Farewell Salone and hello international waters! Last night Danielle and I did stowaway watch.  Basically you walk around the deck and make sure no one is trying to climb on board.  You get a huge flashlight and a walki talki and an awesome yellow vest.  Chitra, one of the Gurkah's came and let us shoot his sling shot (what they use in case someone is trying to climb on board) to shoot at the containers.  It was really fun!

And today we set sail!! yay!!!

Drills for the lifeboats that have been on the dock side of the ship for the last 10 months

Lining up to say goodbye, all the landrovers are on deck 8, it's very crowded up there.

Loading the gangway

Our neighboring ships

Our parking spot for the last 10 months...looks kinda empty without us there

As we were starting to sail away, a canoe came paddling along and the man in the boat was waving his paddle  and saying 'God bless you! God bless you! Thank you for coming to Sierra Leone!'  A lovely farewell and memory to have of our goodbye to Salone.
I went up to the bow around 5 and watched the sunset with a bunch of people who were up there as well.  It was so gorgeous.  I saw dolphins, jellyfish, flying fish (really cool) and a lovely sunset.  Then some guys came up with guitars and we started singing worship songs.  Such an amazing experience!
Being on the ship while it's sailing kind of feels like your drunk.  You have to focus on walking in a straight line and not bumping into things.  To me it feels like pressure is being pressed on you and then it lightens as the ship rocks and sways.  It's really not that bad though.  It's really exciting to be out here.  Please pray for safety while we sail.  Also, for the guys who are standing watch.  The galley staff is providing the bridge and the engine room with cookies and trail mix throughout the day/night to help brighten their day/night.

In other news, the last 5 boxes of packages from the IOC finally arrived!!! they were packed full with mail and packages for the crew.  Carol, our wonderful PO lady spent the night weighing and sorting all the mail before we sailed today.  You can't weigh anything while we sail because the rocking of the ship gives an inaccurate read.  I got two Christmas gifts! Before you get mad, i was given instructions it was ok to open both of them from the people who sent them.  One was from an old roommate, Heather, she sent us candy canes! we shared them tonight while watching Return of the King.  It was quite enjoyable.  Can't wait to make peppermint hot chocolate! The other gift was Christmas movies and music! yay! I've already had many requests to borrow the movies :)

It's been a pretty darn exciting day.  Christmas gifts, leaving Sierra Leone, sailing.  On Thursday we sang a song that struck me as very fitting for our farwell from Sierra Leone.

"Greater things are yet to come, Greater things are still to be done in this city"

That is so true, God has many great things for that country, and they are still to be done.  God bless you Sierra Leone.