My volunteer in Barcelona

Maritime Race Weekend attracts runners from around the world. Last year, for example, we had eight countries represented on the start line.

RELATED: You’ve likely never seen a race medal like this before.

With a global audience, sometimes emails come in languages that I cannot read. Last week, there was an email written in Spanish. I’ll admit, the only Spanish words in my vocabulary were learned from episodes of Dora the Explorer. Basically, I can count to five and say ‘hello’. I tried to use Google Translate to decipher what the runner was asking, but still couldn’t figure out if they were looking for a job or wanted to register for the marathon.

Luckily, my friend Kofi lives in Barcelona and is fluent in three languages, including in Spanish. To my delight, he confirmed they wanted to register for Maritime Race Weekend and had questions about travel to Nova Scotia and options for accommodations. The runner also requested my reply be written in Spanish. Oh oh, now what do I do? Kofi came to the rescue again. He translated my answers into Spanish, which is good because I don’t think my keyboard even has the fancy accents needed. I’m anxious to see if they register.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I might be the captain of the ship, but the pirate crew keep us sailing.