Does it count?

A few days after departing Ghana, we received the following notice:

Fuelin' up in Banjul, Gambia!

From the Staff Captain We will be bunkering for fuel on the following dates and will not be disembarking.  While bunkering, smoking is prohibited.

April 18 – Banjul, Gambia, and April 21 – Las Palmas, Canary Islands

First there was a collective sigh of sadness when we learned we would not be disembarking in these two countries. Next came the question “Do these countries ‘count?’” By count I mean, do these countries count towards our grand total for the semester?

I decided that if we were close enough to spit on the docks of these two countries, then I would add them to my list. It turns out we bunkered out in the harbors of both Banjul and Las Palmas so only a professional watermelon-seed-spitter could have hit the coast.  Nonetheless the two stops added a little excitement to our eight days at sea from Ghana to Morocco. We had lunch in Banjul on April 18, breakfast in Las Palmas on April 21 and were then on to Morocco!

View of Banjul, Gambia, from the ship.

Having breakfast in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

Las Palmas, Canary Islands.