Friday, April 16, 2010

Oiling the Chains

Well, the smell of pine tar has officially seeped into my skin and stained all my clothes. This first week of work has been physically challenging, dirty, tedious, and so much fun!!

My days begin with a wake up call around 7:15, but usually I am up a few minutes earlier with the smell of Donald’s cooking (today it was homemade cinnamon rolls!). By 7:30, we make our way over to Cape Chidley for breakfast with everyone since Chidley has a much larger galley. All of the cooking is done on Zebroid, but dishes and eating take place on Chidley—it’s a bit confusing! Cold cereal and coffee are always served at breakfast, but we also enjoy blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon, porridge, and bagels! We all wash our own dishes quickly then head over to the dock in front of Zebroid for muster.

Mustering on a ship is very important, and we do it twice a day to make sure everyone is on the same page with what needs to be done and that we all start and end the day at the same time. Sometimes Captain Moreland comes to musters, but it is usually run by the first mate, Mike Moreland, who is the captain’s nephew. We all get assigned jobs with an AB (Advanced Boatman) leading us. They will also be leading watches once we are at sea. The AB’s on Picton are Meredith, Sophie, Cirie, and Kaitlinn.

The work I have done this week has been varied. On Monday, all the trainees watched as the Picton was taken to dry dock, but we weren’t really allowed to help that first day. After lunch, we split up into groups and read the entire handbook, went through important orders, and practiced knots! So far I’ve mastered the eight knot, reef knot (a square knot), bowline, rolling hitch, double sheet bend, clove hitch, cow hitch, round turn two half hitches, sheepshank, and have practiced many more. In our downtime, usually after lunch or dinner, many of us practice knots in the Batcave and listen to music.

Tuesday, the trainees of Zebroid began the day with domestics, which means that we clean our ship, Chidley, and the warehouse. Domestics are done every morning to make sure the ship stays clean—they are incredibly important because sailors are dirty, dirty people! I swept and mopped the galley and the companionway, chatting with Donald the whole time. Donald is from Grenada, so most conversations have to do with how cold it is here in Lunenburg! After domestics, we got reassigned to different jobs. I ended up organizing books in the warehouse for the rest of the day. We are bringing thousands of books to the children of Pitcairn Island and French Polynesia, but we have to organize them all into different age groups, and them bind them together into small bricks of books so that the children can help us carry them off the ship. It’s a very big job!

On Wednesday, I was in a group led by Meredith. We spent the morning locating the boat falls, which hold the skiff we take with us aboard the Picton. We rigged up all of the blocks and lines. When we could no longer be of any help, we began cleaning some of the pots and pans that will be in the galley onboard by toting them up and down the steep steps that lead to the deck of the Picton. It was kind of nerve racking climbing those rattling steps! After lunch, I got assigned to oil the anchor chains. Picture me holding a mixture of tar and oil in an old paint can, wearing ripped, dirty jean, a flannel shirt over 4 other layers, and a hard hat. I looked awesome. Oiling the anchor chains was definitely a fun job and I got incredibly dirty! It was nice to be able to sit out in the sun, and when I got back, I noticed my cheeks and nose were quite rosy! In the afternoon, we were supposed to go out and do a lesson in small boats, including rowing, sailing, and outboard motor boats, but it was too windy for the first day, so we had a short lesson inside the dory shop, learning a bunch of different rowing commands that I recognized from my crew days! After Wednesday, I was chilled to the bone, so I opted out of the outside dinner and got a big bowl of soup with Tammy from the Banker instead, and caught up on some emails. I also took my second shower!

Thursday was sort of a special day for work because I was on galley duty! Everybody must complete a shift of galley duty every couple of weeks and help prepare and set up the three meals that day. Kate (my new friend from England), Tammy, Brad, and I were the galley team, and we had to report at 6:15 which meant waking up at 6! It wasn’t actually too hard waking up since we’ve been going to bed between 10-11 every night. We put on the coffee, put out the trash, went over to Chidley to set up and—the power went out!! We fumbled around for flashlights, but all of our preparations had to be done in pitch black! Most of breakfast was eaten in the dark as well. I guess the power on Chidley goes out frequently when you plug over 3 things in at a time—and the lights, coffee maker, and hot water maker did the trick! Between meals, we did some other little projects, like coiling and organizing lines in the warehouse and working in the galley on Picton, scrubbing shelves and locating items in the hold. We got lunch on that day, which was tacos, potato asparagus soup (which was soooo good), and salad. Between lunch dishes and preparations for dinner, we mostly stayed around Zebroid and Chidley in the afternoon (Picton on dry dock is about a 10 minute walk away, up a hill!). Although, we did have to go over for a few minutes to haul up the anchor! It takes about 10 people at a time to move the windless, and we substitute in for each other every few minutes. It was like doing 150 squats in a row, taking a short break, then doing another 150 squats! In the picture, I am on the right, in the red jacket with the yellow hood!


We got dinner on with no problems or power outages (rice, beef stew, scalloped potatoes, spice cake and ice cream!) and enjoyed the rest of our shipmates. At dinner, we met a couple, Marie and Leroy, who are actually from Pitcairn Island. They now live in Albuquerque, but traveled up to Lunenburg to meet us and deliver some items that we will bring to Marie’s family on Pitcairn. Marie’s last name was “Christian” and a descendant of the mutiny! I’m not exactly sure how Leroy got there—Marie said he was sent there for something so I was a bit confused, but they met and moved off the island in the 1970s. I asked Marie what it was like living with a couple hundred people (there are even fewer now) on Pitcairn to living in New Zealand and then America. She told me it took almost two years to adjust and she still misses a lot about Pitcairn. Marie and Leroy will be here the next couple of days and I look forward to speaking to them more. I learned that on Pitcairn, to say, “How are you?” you say “whattawayou” (spelled phonetically J), so I will have to remember that!

After dinner, cleaning up, and getting out of my work clothes, I crashed in my bunk and fell asleep around 9:00. Today is now Friday, the end of the first work week (although I think we might do about a half day of work tomorrow). At the moment, the Picton is leaving dry dock, so the trainees have the morning off. I am sitting in a coffee shop, sipping on a latte (just getting my fill before we leave in a couple weeks!). I have to be back at Picton’s dock around 11:30 to help put on some chafe gear before lunch. This afternoon we are all doing a massive cleaning of Picton so people can start moving on tomorrow! Although, the people who will be living in the Batcave (usually the younger girls on the trip, so definitely my living quarters) will remain on Zebroid for a couple more days because they are doing some work back there. I am fine with that plan because there is heat on “Hotel Zebroid”!

More to come in a few days…feel free to email me, too! I love getting emails from home. My email is joannalaingclark@gmail.com. This way, I am more likely to respond individually, too. For the next two weeks, I will be able to check my email almost every day, but after that, I will be off the grid!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

First Days in Lunenburg

Dad and I arrived in Lunenburg around 11:30 Friday morning. After a long drive through St. John and Halifax, it felt good to stretch my legs, but that also meant it was time to say goodbye! We unloaded my suitcases (which, luckily, turned out to be just the right amount!) and I boarded my temporary home for the next week or so, the lovely Zebroid. The Picton Castle is being hauled out of the water Monday morning for inspections and some work, so the trainees and professional crew are living on two different ships, “Zebroid” and “Cape Chidley”, which I think are both some kind of trawlers. One of my bunkmates, Liam, said that “if rust were cool, Zebroid would be the coolest” and I think that statement is appropriately descriptive of Zebroid’s aesthetics.

I was one of the first of the trainees to arrive, but many more of my bunkmates showed up later that afternoon while I was helping do some work (tarring the rigging—messy!!). In the “Batcave” with me are nine others. Mike from PA, Dan from Niagara Falls, Brad from Boston, Joanie from Seattle, Lorraine from Texas, Michael from Minnesota, Adrienne from Alberta, John from England, and Liam from England. Cape Chidley houses more of the trainees, who are in double bunks with huge closets, but we like our 10-person Batcave! It will make adjusting to life and space constraints on the Picton a bit easier, I think.

Friday night, Mike, Dan, Liam, Brad, Joanie and I all went to the Banker (a bar just up the street) to hang out after dinner and came back to the ship around 8:30 only to be persuaded to go back out to the bar to enjoy a “Crème de Gert”, Garrett the bartender’s specialty. We all slept soundly the first night!

This weekend we have had off, so it has given us a chance to explore Lunenburg, pick up some gear, and get to know each other! On Saturday, Mike, Dan, Liam, Brad and I walked around Lunenburg for a bit after breakfast, checking out the drugstore, post office, ATM, and other useful places. Then, we purchased our rigs (knives and marlin spikes) at the Picton store, and, after a long walk to the hardware store to purchase some line, we spent the next couple hours making lanyards for our tools. Lanyards are especially important when you are working aloft so that you do not drop a knife on someone who’s on deck!

On Saturday afternoon and into the evening, many other new trainees showed up as well. After a delicious dinner from Donald our cook, we once again headed up to the Banker for a couple of pints and TRIVIA night! There were quite a few teams, but Tammy (a trainee who I had met on my interview), Dan, Brad, Tina (another new arrival) and I made an amazing debut at “Pubstumpers” and won! Our team name was the “Terrain E’s” and the other trainee team was the “F N G’s”, who placed 2nd. We are thinking about joining forces next Saturday!

Sunday was an adventure day for me. Brad, Liam, and I decided hike to a lighthouse that was a ways away. We had to bushwhack through some tough terrain to get there, but we made it and got some cool photos. We also discovered our route to Panama (out of the harbor and turn right). I had fun learning all of Liam’s Englishisms (I now say “bollocks” about 5 times a day!) and we all had a lot of laughs.

Around noon we headed back to the ship for lunch, which was something delicious again—Donald always knows exactly what I am in the mood for! After lunch I decided to do some exploring on my own and went on a run to a place called Blue Rocks, which is a beautiful area with flat rocks that go straight to the ocean (a bit like flat rock point in Rockport, but even flatter!). The whole run was about 12 kilometers and I definitely was hurting the next day!

(Brad and I looking wistfully out to sea)

By Sunday evening, most of the trainees had arrived. Now, there are 27 of us. I believe that there will be 38 total for the first leg of the voyage, but some people will be meeting us later this month in Lunenburg and some in Panama. Chibley, the ship’s cat and 4-time circumnavigator, has chosen my bunk as her favorite and sleeps with me every night! She runs the ship so it is good to be on her good side. She is very smart and if she overhears you say something about her she will spite you!

In a couple of days I will update you all on my first week of work (right now it’s Wednesday—sorry this post took so long!), but all is well and I am working hard and enjoying getting to know everybody here. The past two evenings we have all played ultimate Frisbee games down at the school, which has been a blast! We are all getting dirty from the work and are showering less frequently, but I already know we have a great team and we will all work well together.

Miss you all and I send my love J

PS: check out http://www.picton-castle.com/voyage/captains_log/ for the captain's log and see a pic of me at the first muster (I'm the short one). My photos will come but I haven't had too much time to shoot because of all the work! But below is a picture of the Picton at dry dock. (Note the size of the man standing on the ground!)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Countdown to Lunenburg...


7 days to go! Next Thursday, I drive to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to begin my 4 & 1/2 month adventure living aboard the tall ship "Picton Castle". I will be a trainee crew member helping to sail the ship around the world, her 5th circumnavigation!! I am participating in the first leg of the voyage, which begins in Lunenburg and stops in Panama, the Galapagos Islands, Pitcairn Island, the Gambier Islands, Tahiti, and Raratonga. The ship will continue on without me around the world (Figi, Indonesia, Cape Town, Namibia, Bermuda among other places), but I need to be back for school in the fall!

There will be 50 crew members aboard the ship, about 38 trainees and 12 professional crew. Most of the crew are between 18-30 years old, but there is no age limit so some older trainees will be participating as well. The only requirement is that you are able to work really hard! We will be put on watch throughout the voyage, usually 4 hours on and 8 hours off around the clock (which means if I am on the 4-8 watch, I am on watch 4pm-8pm and 4am-8am!) When we are on watch, we will be steering the ship, painting, varnishing, hauling lines, climbing aloft, standing lookout, plotting our position, and doing anything else to keep the boat heading westward!

The ship herself is a 179-ft square-rigged barque with a riveted steel hull, clear oiled-pine decks, steel masts, wooden & steel yards and she carries 12,450 square feet of canvas sail! There are 175 lines that come down to deck for sail handling and I have to learn all of them in the first couple of weeks! Luckily I have a handbook that I can review in this upcoming week so I am not totally useless when I get there.

This next week will be spent packing...and repacking...and repacking...because I am a chronic over-packer but I cannot for this trip! I have seriously limited space in the "bat cave" (cabins in the very stern of the boat) which consists of a small wall locker and perhaps some space underneath my bunk. So this will be quite challenging.

I am also trying to figure out communication (hence the beginning of the blog...). I will probably have internet in ports and I will be bringing along my laptop to keep up with some written account of the trip. I will post entries & pictures when I get to port (which may not be for two-three weeks at a time!).

Goodbye until Lunenburg!