Going Down?



If you  have been reading our blog you will have read about Andrew's hard work on the ship's boat motors. So it was pretty exciting when we were able to go out in them. Our first was a night trip on the rescue boat. Above I am looking pretty special in all my safety gear. No gear, no go!

We are parked alongside the side of the Africa Mercy in the rescue boat. This vessel would be used for rescue situation such as man overboard. Hopefully it will never be used for anything but fun! It was pretty spooky as we headed out past the breakwater into the open seas. With just a very small light inside the boat to illuminate our way the moonless evening wrapped itself around us. The salty ocean sprayed in our faces. What a thrill!

Going down-yikes!

This is one of the Africa Mercy's smaller lifeboats. I don't think I would like to be stuck in one of these for any length of time! They are equipped with seasickness meds but still..... Lucky for us, as a family, we are allocated to one of the larger 150 seat lifeboats that are covered.


Ready to go for our early morning spin in the lifeboat, as you do!

Andrew loves to take the helm. He is pretty good at operating the boats now and takes great pride in their upkeep.

One of our youngest crew members, one year old Daniel or should I say "Captain Daniel"?

Andy and Jess.

Me (Jodie) with the wind in my hair......my bed hair!

Local lads out fishing. Everyone was very friendly and most curious to see the boat full of white people (or yovos as we are called in Togo) in all their life jackets. What a sight we must be for the locals. Then again we saw a few sights ourselves as it turns out that fishermen are not shy about standing naked in their canoes!

Going up!