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. =)