A day at sea

It finally arrived!  The long anticipated day out on the Koreana, Yeosu' s biggest tall ship. And we couldn't have asked for a nicer day! The weather was absolutely beautiful- warm and sunny, and being in the water gave us a nice breeze that kept it from feeling too hot.

The Koreana

We set sail in the morning with about 35 of us foreigners, plus the captain and crew, who of course had to get a photo taken with us and their ship before we left. I'm actually quite glad that Stuart, (who organized this trip) didn't go for the full 50 people the ship could hold because I feel like that would've made the ship overly crowded.

We sailed around on the bay just outside of Yeosu and enjoyed the weather and scenery.

 

Around lunch time we stopped at one of Yeosu's many islands for about an hour,  and we wandered around the island for a bit, while others jumped off the back of the ship and took a swim.
Apparently the village on this island has a famous makgeolli (rice wine) factory, which we were supposed to be able to go see,  but the owner wasn't answering his phone, so that was cancelled. Nonetheless, a rather large number of bottles of makgeolli were loaded onto the ship anyway.

Just as we were about to leave the island, a bunch of Koreans wearing bright blue shirts came up to our ship and started talking to the captain.

Turns out they were from NBC, a Korean TV station, and they wanted to take some pictures and video footage  us and the ship.  So we delayed our departure for a bit and had our pictures taken while having to  say things like "I love Yeosu" and "Fighting". Then they had to film people jumping off the ship onto the water and others climbing up to the crowsnest.

When we got underway again, we sailed by another island, whose rock face is apparently a famous view in Yeosu.

After that, the crew put the one front sail up again and turned off the boat's motor. Since it wasn't really that windy,  we didn't really go anywhere fast at all. Well actually, I think we sat in about the same spot for at least an hour or so. Not that there was anything wrong with that mind you.

During this time, it got really quiet, as a lot of people fell asleep (or passed out, depending on the person and what they'd been drinking). We also had a paper passed around for those of us who live in Yeosu, as the captain apparently said that he'd register those of us who were interested in a sailing class for free! So we of course jumped at the chance, and we'll have to see if it comes to anything.

We pulled back into the harbor around 5:30, and everyone started to take account of how tanned or burned they got over the course of the day. I of course got a bit of a lovely tan! As we de-boarded the boat, the captain shook our hands, gave hugs and had photo ops.

All in all, I thought it was a wonderful day- I got to spend time with my friends, met some new people and enjoyed a beautiful day out on the water.

We were also informed earlier today that the captain is planning another outing sometime in the near future that will be an overnight trip and will cost significantly less (only 10,000₩) on the condition that we all make or bring a food dish from our countries. Hmmm....we'll have to see about that one... He must've really liked us to be offering to do this...

If you're interested in seeing more pictures from this particular outing, you can see them in the album I created on Facebook here.