...In the Airport, waiting to go home. Our flight from yesterday was cancelled due to crappy weather where I'm from, so I rescheduled it for today. Thankfully there was no extra charge on that. Plus my checked bag was free...so I'm pleased with that.
I had a good time on Lynx, but I really want to get home and see my family, and get back to the swing of that life. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I'm sure that'll come. I'm getting better ideas now than I had before. We'll see...
Anyway...
I'm going to keep on keeping on for now. Our flight is almost ready to board, so I have to go.
Ciao!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Bungs...Last Post of the Night
Here's what the bungs look like...the newer looking ones are, in fact, new. The older looking ones that blend into the deck are older. Did I go into enough detail?
Pictures of Pinrail
These are two different rails, but the first picture shows what the last one looked like before I scraped, sanded and oiled it. I'm rather proud of it. =) The other two pictures are of me oiling it...the easy part of the job. No pictures of the blood, sweat, and annoyence that went into it.
Random Stuff.
We went on a daysail today. We were supposed to have one tomorrow, but since no one signed up, we're just going to have dockside tours and regular maintainence, like every other day of the week. I miss regular sailing. I don't mind maintainence and staying in port for awhile, but going on transits is rather addicting. Once you start knowing what you're doing while you sail on one of these ships, it's tons of fun. Up until that point, it's stressful and scary, but you get past that. =)
In maintainence, we've done a lot. Lynx got really beat up over the summer as they didn't have a lot of time to stop and work on her, so there's tons of work to do. I've helped scrape out and replace over 1300 bungs (plugs that go over copper screws in the deck), which took the better part of a week. It involves starting at the foredeck (front deck) and working your way aft (back), tapping every bung, until you find a hollow sounding one, and then digging out the bung, and scraping out the green corrosion until you get to the red screw. Once you've done this to the whole deck, you vacuum them all out, then you take new bungs, dip them in epoxy, and pound them into all the holes. After the epoxy dries, you take a chisel, and knock of the half inch that's sticking out over the deck, and then scrape it down until it is level. Then you sand them down.
It sounds rather boring, I guess, but I didn't mind it. It's actually rather fun, other then not being able to feel your finger from all the tapping. =P It was a lot better than the other job I had been assigned to...scraping and sanding the main pinrail. I'll post a picture of it later. It looks good, but it is sooooo mind numbing. I don't want to think by the end of the day. All I did was scrape off dead wood, resharpen scrapers, and sand for one straight week. On the postive side, I got to oil her, so now it looks kind of hot. I wish I had taken a before picture so you had something to compare it to.
They have me working one of the anchors now. I'm scraping again, but this is more satisfying. I feel like I'm getting somewhere with it. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it before I leave. I want to see how it looks repainted.
My fingers are starting to get cold, so I should go below and read or something. I have duty tonight, or I would be wandering town. Oh well. Now you all know what I've been doing for the past three weeks. =)
In maintainence, we've done a lot. Lynx got really beat up over the summer as they didn't have a lot of time to stop and work on her, so there's tons of work to do. I've helped scrape out and replace over 1300 bungs (plugs that go over copper screws in the deck), which took the better part of a week. It involves starting at the foredeck (front deck) and working your way aft (back), tapping every bung, until you find a hollow sounding one, and then digging out the bung, and scraping out the green corrosion until you get to the red screw. Once you've done this to the whole deck, you vacuum them all out, then you take new bungs, dip them in epoxy, and pound them into all the holes. After the epoxy dries, you take a chisel, and knock of the half inch that's sticking out over the deck, and then scrape it down until it is level. Then you sand them down.
It sounds rather boring, I guess, but I didn't mind it. It's actually rather fun, other then not being able to feel your finger from all the tapping. =P It was a lot better than the other job I had been assigned to...scraping and sanding the main pinrail. I'll post a picture of it later. It looks good, but it is sooooo mind numbing. I don't want to think by the end of the day. All I did was scrape off dead wood, resharpen scrapers, and sand for one straight week. On the postive side, I got to oil her, so now it looks kind of hot. I wish I had taken a before picture so you had something to compare it to.
They have me working one of the anchors now. I'm scraping again, but this is more satisfying. I feel like I'm getting somewhere with it. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it before I leave. I want to see how it looks repainted.
My fingers are starting to get cold, so I should go below and read or something. I have duty tonight, or I would be wandering town. Oh well. Now you all know what I've been doing for the past three weeks. =)
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Look, Ma! I'm flying!
...Or not. That would be silly. Flying isn't encouraged on boats. Going aloft, however, is. Here is a video of what is like to be on the foremast of Lynx. It doesn't really do it justice, but I wanted to show you all what I could. I was strapped in, as I show in one part of it. The only time you're not strapped in is when you're climbing the shrouds...so around 75 feet of climbing. I was about 79 feet in the air right there. We have to go up the foremast everytime we set the fore topsail because it has to be loosed before it is set, and furled after it is taken in. I strap in everytime I'm able to. Just because I like going up there doesn't mean I excercise stupidity. =)
(The video is private, so you can only go to it if you have the link. I loaded it through a friend's account. I zoom in on him at the end. Sorry that it is sideways. I didn't realize that until after it was taken.)
(The video is private, so you can only go to it if you have the link. I loaded it through a friend's account. I zoom in on him at the end. Sorry that it is sideways. I didn't realize that until after it was taken.)
Friday, November 5, 2010
Dolphins
Pictures of some dolphins that were swimming next to the port bow of the Lynx. My camera isn't quick enough to take any really good pictures of them, but these are the best ones. In the top photo, the one jumping out of the water is a baby dophin, and in the bottom one, it is swimming next to a bigger dolphin. It was really cute. =) I've seen a whale breach before, too, but I didn't have my camera on me at the time. Saturday, October 30, 2010
Chestertown, Maryland
Hey...sorry that I don't post that often. Normally I don't have a lot of time to, or I can't find Internet, or I'm doing something other then spacing out. It's amazing how easily one find they can live without a computer when they have to. =P
I'm in Chestertown, Maryland, as my title implies. I have the afternoon off. Normally we get full days off, but we're kind of tight right now. It's all right, though. It's all part of the job.
In case anyone hasn't heard, the boat is going to end up in St. Augustine, Florida for the winter. I'm kind of excited I get to be there for the first part of winter instead of northern Michigan, honestly. I'm not a fan of the cold.
I don't know what is like back at home, but we've been traveling through the Chesapeake Bay, and the colors are amazing. Everything here is so beautiful. The buildings are also very neat too. There are quite a few that date from the 18th century. It's not something you see where I'm from, so I have to gawk at times.
My boat took part in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, and we took 3rd for our class. That was pretty amazing, considering it was her first time in it. Running the boat through the night during it was pretty intense. There was a lot of sail handling, and running them up, and taking them down. It was worth it, though. We hit over 13 knots, which equals almost 15 mph, under only sail power. It was one of the fastest the Lynx has ever gone, and definitely the fastest I've ever gone on a boat. It was cool to be a part of that.
In case if you didn't hear, I've been a deckhand for almost the past month. They had a new cook come on around the 5th of October. It wasn't because I was a horrible cook (at least, I don't think so...=P). They were planning on having Matt come on in Chicago, but he wasn't able to, which is why they grabbed me. I knew it was probably going to happen. I miss being cook, but I think what I'm doing now is a lot less stressful. And Matt is an AMAZING cook. He's really laid back, and not much phases him, and all of his meals have been great. It's a good thing being a deckhand is hard work and burns calories, cause I come close to overeating at most suppers. I haven't had anything I don't like.
Being a deckhand was quite a shift from being cook. As cook, you pretty much know your schedule, and what is going to happen for you. As a deckhand, you have no clue. You totally have to listen to the captain and first mate, and know where they want you and when. I'm still learning all the lines for raising sails. I'm starting to get them down a lot better, though. The first part as deckhand was hard....there are so many lines, and you have to know what each one does, and where it goes. I was so tired at the end of each day, just because I didn't always know where to be or what to do. Luckily for me, I had a really good teacher (Katie Walker, who is, unfortunately, not on the boat anymore. Her contract ran out.). I'm understanding everything a lot better now, though. I still don't know everything, but kind of knowing what I'm doing makes it all a lot more fun.
Since Erie, where I last posted, we went to Montreal, Canada, then out the Saint Lawrence Seaway, down to Boothsbay, Maine where we did some repair, then to Baltimore and the start of the race, over to Portsmouth, Virginia, and then to Cambridge, Maryland, and now to here, Chestertown. That doesn't seem like a lot of places to me in that time frame, now that I'm looking at it, but we had other stops in between, and going out the St. Lawrence took 10 or 11 days. Longest I've ever gone without a shower is 8 days, on that stretch. You get used to it, but you don't like it.
I have pictures of some stuff I'll post. I went aloft yesterday and took some of the area. There was a gorgeous sunset. I wouldn't mind living around here. It reminds me of Michigan in terms of looks.
That's all I can think of for right now. If anyone had any questions or anything, ask my mom for my email, and I'll try to answer them when I can. I'm much better about checking that when I can, than getting on here. =)
I'm in Chestertown, Maryland, as my title implies. I have the afternoon off. Normally we get full days off, but we're kind of tight right now. It's all right, though. It's all part of the job.
In case anyone hasn't heard, the boat is going to end up in St. Augustine, Florida for the winter. I'm kind of excited I get to be there for the first part of winter instead of northern Michigan, honestly. I'm not a fan of the cold.
I don't know what is like back at home, but we've been traveling through the Chesapeake Bay, and the colors are amazing. Everything here is so beautiful. The buildings are also very neat too. There are quite a few that date from the 18th century. It's not something you see where I'm from, so I have to gawk at times.
My boat took part in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, and we took 3rd for our class. That was pretty amazing, considering it was her first time in it. Running the boat through the night during it was pretty intense. There was a lot of sail handling, and running them up, and taking them down. It was worth it, though. We hit over 13 knots, which equals almost 15 mph, under only sail power. It was one of the fastest the Lynx has ever gone, and definitely the fastest I've ever gone on a boat. It was cool to be a part of that.
In case if you didn't hear, I've been a deckhand for almost the past month. They had a new cook come on around the 5th of October. It wasn't because I was a horrible cook (at least, I don't think so...=P). They were planning on having Matt come on in Chicago, but he wasn't able to, which is why they grabbed me. I knew it was probably going to happen. I miss being cook, but I think what I'm doing now is a lot less stressful. And Matt is an AMAZING cook. He's really laid back, and not much phases him, and all of his meals have been great. It's a good thing being a deckhand is hard work and burns calories, cause I come close to overeating at most suppers. I haven't had anything I don't like.
Being a deckhand was quite a shift from being cook. As cook, you pretty much know your schedule, and what is going to happen for you. As a deckhand, you have no clue. You totally have to listen to the captain and first mate, and know where they want you and when. I'm still learning all the lines for raising sails. I'm starting to get them down a lot better, though. The first part as deckhand was hard....there are so many lines, and you have to know what each one does, and where it goes. I was so tired at the end of each day, just because I didn't always know where to be or what to do. Luckily for me, I had a really good teacher (Katie Walker, who is, unfortunately, not on the boat anymore. Her contract ran out.). I'm understanding everything a lot better now, though. I still don't know everything, but kind of knowing what I'm doing makes it all a lot more fun.
Since Erie, where I last posted, we went to Montreal, Canada, then out the Saint Lawrence Seaway, down to Boothsbay, Maine where we did some repair, then to Baltimore and the start of the race, over to Portsmouth, Virginia, and then to Cambridge, Maryland, and now to here, Chestertown. That doesn't seem like a lot of places to me in that time frame, now that I'm looking at it, but we had other stops in between, and going out the St. Lawrence took 10 or 11 days. Longest I've ever gone without a shower is 8 days, on that stretch. You get used to it, but you don't like it.
I have pictures of some stuff I'll post. I went aloft yesterday and took some of the area. There was a gorgeous sunset. I wouldn't mind living around here. It reminds me of Michigan in terms of looks.
That's all I can think of for right now. If anyone had any questions or anything, ask my mom for my email, and I'll try to answer them when I can. I'm much better about checking that when I can, than getting on here. =)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Post I wrote on Word.
(9-8-10)Well, I’m sitting in my galley right now, waiting for my meat loaf to be done, typing this out on Word, because I don’t think I’ll be able to get to internet for another couple of days. I was going to try writing something out in Charlevoix, but their internets were not liking my computer.
I guess I’ll start from the beginning, and go from there. Grant and I got a ride down to Chicago on the 28th from Mom, where then we met up with our boat, The Lynx. The second we were on, we were put to work. Later Alex, one of the deckhands, commented, “Yeah, yesterday you guys didn’t look scared…and you didn’t looked shocked….you just had this look like what the [heck] did I get myself into?” That summed it up pretty well. It was a system overload at first.
I got rather lucky I guess, in that I was given a lot of quick training by their fill-in cook, Laurie. Grant was just thrown head into it, learning as he went, on the hour long sails. It was great to have Laurie train me for that one day. She also made me a menu, and bought groceries, which was a huge help, since I wasn’t sure how much everyone was eating at that point. She was also really patient, answering all my questions, some that I repeated numerous times, trying to get it into my head.
The galley in basically like a normal kitchen, equipment-wise, but everything is a little smaller, as the galley is about 10’x4’. It is really cramped working in here, and I have hugely minimal counter space, so I clean up behind myself a lot. (Hugely minimal…*smile*… I just realized how funny that sounds.) I like it a lot, though. It is a fun job. I have a tiny sink, and a tiny fridge and a tiny freezer. Thankfully I have another thing down below that can be converted into a fridge or freezer. I’m currently using it as a fridge. (It’s called a ‘reefer’ on the boat.)
The thing that’s not normal is the stove. It’s not a regular stove at all. It runs off of diesel, which fuels a flame in one part of it that heats up the rest of the oven. The stovetop part is like cooking on a wood stove, as it has the same top, but thankfully the heat is more consistent. If I want something to get done sooner, I slide it to the left side of the stove, because that is where there is the most direct heat from the flame. If I want it to take it’s time, I move it to the right side, where the flame is farther away. The oven is small. I can just barely fit two 9x13s in it, and that’s it. And when there’s one pan on the top, the bottom pan becomes more like a warming area than a cooking area. The back of it also cooks things faster than the front (closer to the flame, again), so I have to rotate whatever I’m baking.
I have my own bunk to sleep in, next to the galley. Besides the officers, I’m the only one who gets that. All the deck hands and the engineer sleep in the fo’c’s’le (short for ‘forecastle’, as I just learned) at the front of the boat. A couple of the deckhands tease me about having the condo. It’s all in fun, though.
Everyone on here is really nice, and helpful. I’m currently cooking for 9 crew, and one guest crew, but we’re going through a crew change once we get to Erie, so I’m not sure how many I’ll have to cook for after that.
We rode the boat back up to Charlevoix, and I got seasick one day when there were 3-6 foot waves. It kept me from making lunch, but everyone was nice, and said that they didn’t mind, and kept telling me that they hoped I felt better soon. Isaac, the engineer, finished making what I had started, since I couldn’t go below without puking. I never want to smell chili or chicken with sharp cheese again. Yuck. The waves got better, though, and I was able to make supper without a problem.
Nothing really exciting happened in Charlevoix. The weather was rough, so we weren’t able to do any of the day sails on Saturday or Sunday. It was alright, though. We also got kicked off the dock, because the dock master was afraid that we were going to pull the whole dock away, which was rather ridiculous. In order to do that, we would have had to pull away about 10-15 other boats that were pretty big too. But whatever. We chilled in a cove of Lake Charlevoix, and I didn’t have to make food while the boat was underway.
Sunday we left Charlevoix, and made it all the way to the other side of Michigan, near Detroit by 8pm on Monday. It was in a town call Algonac, or something along those lines. I felt nauseous on Sunday, and asked Grant to make lunch, as I couldn’t with feeling really yucky. Lunch was mac and cheese with veggies, so it wasn’t hard. Grant started to feel a little weird down there, too, though, so he asked another deckhand, Katie, to finish it. She did. I felt better again by supper. Then on Monday, the same thing happened. Me and rough weather don’t get along on a boat around lunch, I guess. I always felt better by supper.
In Algonac we took a whole day (yesterday) off kind of to clean up the boat and relax a little. I didn’t have to make supper because LeeAnn (the firstmate who is acting as captain to gain experience) ordered pizza. That was nice, because after lunch I had no responsibilities. I read a book, and dozed off a little.
And now we’re underway again. I know we passed Detroit around 9:30, and it’s 1:20 right now, so I’m not sure how far along we are. We might be in Lake Huron, but I don’t know.
And that’s all I can think of. I’ve had a really good time so far. I would have pictures, but I forgot to get my SD chip while I was in Charlevoix, so I have to buy a new one when I can.
And….today is Eli’s birthday! Yay! He’s 13 now. =)
I guess I’ll start from the beginning, and go from there. Grant and I got a ride down to Chicago on the 28th from Mom, where then we met up with our boat, The Lynx. The second we were on, we were put to work. Later Alex, one of the deckhands, commented, “Yeah, yesterday you guys didn’t look scared…and you didn’t looked shocked….you just had this look like what the [heck] did I get myself into?” That summed it up pretty well. It was a system overload at first.
I got rather lucky I guess, in that I was given a lot of quick training by their fill-in cook, Laurie. Grant was just thrown head into it, learning as he went, on the hour long sails. It was great to have Laurie train me for that one day. She also made me a menu, and bought groceries, which was a huge help, since I wasn’t sure how much everyone was eating at that point. She was also really patient, answering all my questions, some that I repeated numerous times, trying to get it into my head.
The galley in basically like a normal kitchen, equipment-wise, but everything is a little smaller, as the galley is about 10’x4’. It is really cramped working in here, and I have hugely minimal counter space, so I clean up behind myself a lot. (Hugely minimal…*smile*… I just realized how funny that sounds.) I like it a lot, though. It is a fun job. I have a tiny sink, and a tiny fridge and a tiny freezer. Thankfully I have another thing down below that can be converted into a fridge or freezer. I’m currently using it as a fridge. (It’s called a ‘reefer’ on the boat.)
The thing that’s not normal is the stove. It’s not a regular stove at all. It runs off of diesel, which fuels a flame in one part of it that heats up the rest of the oven. The stovetop part is like cooking on a wood stove, as it has the same top, but thankfully the heat is more consistent. If I want something to get done sooner, I slide it to the left side of the stove, because that is where there is the most direct heat from the flame. If I want it to take it’s time, I move it to the right side, where the flame is farther away. The oven is small. I can just barely fit two 9x13s in it, and that’s it. And when there’s one pan on the top, the bottom pan becomes more like a warming area than a cooking area. The back of it also cooks things faster than the front (closer to the flame, again), so I have to rotate whatever I’m baking.
I have my own bunk to sleep in, next to the galley. Besides the officers, I’m the only one who gets that. All the deck hands and the engineer sleep in the fo’c’s’le (short for ‘forecastle’, as I just learned) at the front of the boat. A couple of the deckhands tease me about having the condo. It’s all in fun, though.
Everyone on here is really nice, and helpful. I’m currently cooking for 9 crew, and one guest crew, but we’re going through a crew change once we get to Erie, so I’m not sure how many I’ll have to cook for after that.
We rode the boat back up to Charlevoix, and I got seasick one day when there were 3-6 foot waves. It kept me from making lunch, but everyone was nice, and said that they didn’t mind, and kept telling me that they hoped I felt better soon. Isaac, the engineer, finished making what I had started, since I couldn’t go below without puking. I never want to smell chili or chicken with sharp cheese again. Yuck. The waves got better, though, and I was able to make supper without a problem.
Nothing really exciting happened in Charlevoix. The weather was rough, so we weren’t able to do any of the day sails on Saturday or Sunday. It was alright, though. We also got kicked off the dock, because the dock master was afraid that we were going to pull the whole dock away, which was rather ridiculous. In order to do that, we would have had to pull away about 10-15 other boats that were pretty big too. But whatever. We chilled in a cove of Lake Charlevoix, and I didn’t have to make food while the boat was underway.
Sunday we left Charlevoix, and made it all the way to the other side of Michigan, near Detroit by 8pm on Monday. It was in a town call Algonac, or something along those lines. I felt nauseous on Sunday, and asked Grant to make lunch, as I couldn’t with feeling really yucky. Lunch was mac and cheese with veggies, so it wasn’t hard. Grant started to feel a little weird down there, too, though, so he asked another deckhand, Katie, to finish it. She did. I felt better again by supper. Then on Monday, the same thing happened. Me and rough weather don’t get along on a boat around lunch, I guess. I always felt better by supper.
In Algonac we took a whole day (yesterday) off kind of to clean up the boat and relax a little. I didn’t have to make supper because LeeAnn (the firstmate who is acting as captain to gain experience) ordered pizza. That was nice, because after lunch I had no responsibilities. I read a book, and dozed off a little.
And now we’re underway again. I know we passed Detroit around 9:30, and it’s 1:20 right now, so I’m not sure how far along we are. We might be in Lake Huron, but I don’t know.
And that’s all I can think of. I’ve had a really good time so far. I would have pictures, but I forgot to get my SD chip while I was in Charlevoix, so I have to buy a new one when I can.
And….today is Eli’s birthday! Yay! He’s 13 now. =)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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