Vocabulary list 7

1. Mildew: A wet piece of clothing that is left around somewhere for a while and has not dried and has a bad smell.
2. Out Of The Blue: A random thought that come from the sky and has to do nothing with the topic.
3. Hesitantly: Saying or doing something for the first time and you find it awkward.
4. Hatch: A verb or a window on a ship.
5. Orientation: finding out where you are or getting directions of somewhere.
6. Chateau: (In France) a castle or fortress.
7. Thunderous: Making a loud sound.
8. Contradiction: When you jump on something that someone has said and start and argument mainly with your parents.
9. Faults: A failure of something or a line where an earthquake hit.
10. Preserve: To keep something in good hands so you can use it again.

10 Reasons Why Haiti Is Poor....

1. A bad Colonial past and slavery.
2. Haiti was the first black independent country in 1804, USA, England and France still had slavery and were afraid their slaves would want to go free. So they didn't buy any goods from Haiti. The result ended as Haiti got no money.
3. 1915-1938 Haiti was occupied by the USA and took over the financial income.
4. Power of the elite, not sharing, wealth and land.
5. Corruption: the elite were corrupt, no money nothing happens.
6. Human rights violations: resulted in a regime of fear.
7. French is the official language but only 10% speaks it and 90% speaks Creole
8. Ignorance and illiteracy, because of the language barrier.
9. Mis-education, education is free but very limited. 30% of kids start school but only 2% stay after 5 grade.
10. Soil erosion: Mountainous country, they been have cutting trees down for fuel, living and ignorance.

Update On Haiti Earthquake

On the 12-01-2010 there was an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter-scale. People from France, US, Brazil, Spain and members from the UN are helping the Haitians to recover from the disaster that occurred last week.

Humanitarian Aid is coming in to the capital Port-Au-Prince but is not getting distributed to the other villages in the rest of the country. The UN is distributing the aid very slowly while the Americans are distributing in large numbers by coming in a helicopter 10 feet of the ground and throwing the aid to the people on the ground. People miles away from the capital in despair are digging with their bare hands to get any resources from crushed houses. People are getting violent to get a hold of supplies for them selves and the injured.

Earthquake Destruction In Haiti

On the 12 of January 21:53hrs an earthquake of 7.0 on the righter scale hit the island of Haiti and it's surroundings. The Epicenter of the earthquake was only a few miles away from the countries capital Port-Au-Prince. The Focus of this earthquake was only 13km below the surface. Haiti is located between to tech tonic plates and that is why the affect was so terrible. After the big earthquake, most buildings barely made it, but after the many aftershocks the city got wiped out.

The impact of the earthquake was huge. Many buildings collapsed, the presidents palace got destroyed also many other important buildings were wiped out by the after shocks. People from all over the country are hurt, some even stuck under collapsed buildings. The major hit was in Haiti, but people in America, Jamaica and the Caribbean islands felt the earthquake too. They are now saying that the death toll is in the tens of thousands. I find it very sad that the people in Haiti are all suffering, and I feel very sad for all the children who have lost everything and everybody.

Countries from all over the world are helping Haiti to recover from natural disasters. Humanitarian Aid is being imported each day to help the people in Haiti. The Haitians are helping each other to get out of collapsed buildings and help all the injured.

New Years Eve

My family and I sailed from Langkawi to Phuket and arrived on New Years Eve at Patong beach, which is famous for its fireworks. We anchored the sailing yacht off Patong beach. We went to a sea food restaurant for dinner. You could buy fireworks every where and everybody was trying them out. So during our dinner we had a display of fireworks.

In Thailand people sent their worries away in worry lamps. Since 2009 was a roller coaster for us we wanted to start 2010 in the Thai tradition without worries.So we all lit our lanterns and sent them to heaven. Our worry lanterns flew away in the sky in between the exploding fireworks.

Around 11:00 we went back to the yacht. I was very tired so I asked my mother to wake me up 15 minutes before the fireworks which began at mid-night. I fell asleep straight away and woke up just in time for the fire work show. The fireworks were amazing, with fireworks coming from each direction. It was exactly like a battle between the fireworks that were lit on the left and lit from the right. I found the best firework show ever and would never forget it.

Yachting: Sailing From Lankawi to Phuket: Part 2

I didn't only have competent crew duties I also navigated, from island to island in the Andaman sea. My sisters also liked doing it so we rotated each day. There are three main things you have to use and find out while you are navigating:

1. Sea Charts
2. GPS
3. Course to Steer

• Sea Charts:

On sea charts you can see if there are any hazards in the water that you cannot see from above, if there are any rocks or hazards you have to tell the skipper where the hazards are. Depth lines is an other thing you can see on sea charts, you see when and where the water gets very shallow and very deep. You can see land and how far it can spread out.

• GPS:

When you are navigating you have to know your position the GPS tells you your longitude and latitude position. Once you find out your position on the sea chart you can give your skipper a course to steer. I check every 20min to see where we are, how fast we are going and to see how far we are from our destination.

• Course to Steer:

Once you find out your position on the chart you can make a course to steer. Sometimes the wind might not be with us causing some lee way, so you have to head up. The current sometimes will be helping us or be against us.

Yachting: Sailing From Langkawi to Phuket : Part 1

After the IODA Championships I sailed with my family on a 39ft sailing yacht from Langkawi to Phuket. I was a competent crew and had two important tasks :

1. Sail Trimmer
2. Mooring duties

• Sail Trimming:

I saw how the tale tails were and adjust if they were not right, pulled in the main sheet/ let out the sail and trimed the sail according to the weather conditions.

• Mooring duties:

I had to find a good spot to anchor, see if there are lines floating in the water, see if there are any mooring buoys, let out the anchor/ bring in the anchor, make sure not to drop the anchor on coral but sand and see if the anchor bit.