Tall Ships...
ok faithful listeners, here was my saturday (sorry it took so long)
my awesome year continues
thanx to elainiac, lizzc, eain, bizzaroclark, and my mom (love you all for doing this for me), things were all set for me to sit on the Lady Washington as it did battle manuevers in the Long Beach Harbor. This was to be a "glad your getting better" gift. The Lady is famouse for having been the Interceptor in the recent Pirates of the Carribean movie. the only prob was i couldn't seem to arrange a ride down there. well, stubborn me wasn't going to let this chance pass; so, foot be damned, i drove myself. it wasn't too bad except when i had to push in the clutch. also, I can still feel every change of momentum in that damnable toe. but i made it there, and with the aid of a cane, i limped over to the docks
now as i am waiting to sign up, one of the female sailors makes sure we realize there are few spots left on the Lady and most of us will have to ride on the Hawaiian Chieften. She adds that the best pics of the Lady sailing will be from the Chieften. I ask what i have to do and i thought i had a reserved spot. she exhaustedly tells me that she thought she made that clear to everyone on the phone that you are not guaranteed any spot so i shut up and wait. upon getting up there, the other lady lets me know that i DO have a reserved spot on the lady. Now in front of me were these two families and the sons were both dressed with plastic swords and they were running around stabbing eachother in a cute, not so unbearable or annoying or knock ppl over and accidentally stab bystanders way as you might expect. i overhear that they want the Lady but there aren't enough tickets for both families to go and they do not want to separate the boys. all this coupled with the fact that elainiac was working on the Chieften, and she was why i was able to go, i gave up my spot and switched over. the family was thrilled and thanked me and i threatened elaine with a camera.
i hadn't had lunch yet and had almost an hour, so i headed over to the nearby pier. on the way i ran into one of my buddies from Whimsey Wear at faire (I think his real name is jerry, but i am so bad about names at faire) and he was there to check out the ships. so i dragged him to find food with me since i was limited in time and was walking kinda slow. i caught up with him a bit and had forgotten he had told me he was IN PotC cuz i couldn't find him when i saw the movie (not like i forgot George was in Big Fish when he told me last time i saw him how sad he was that he only got the secondary giant "Collosus"... but i digress) i realized i was looking for him among Barbosa's Crew since he told me he was a pirate. no no no. he was on Jack's crew. he had a shaved head at teh time and was next to the girl (not kira, the other one) most of the time so he dubbed himself the older brother of her. can't wait to look for him when i get my DVD back. well when we arrived at the docks again, his friends were waiting. i appologized for stealing him and met a few new ppl, including Louie, who was involved in the movie but i didn't catch how (I will look for him on jack's crew too). Louie was working on the Lady.
Time came to board my boat and i found a good spot that i would soon be told to move from as it was on the side that they needed to unhitch from the docks. So they asked all of us to move (and said they might ask for movement several times) this time to the port side. we cast off and head out to get good position on the Lady. Shortly after leaving the first "barrier" that surounds the area with the docks, motor went off and i watched a team go to work raising sails and i sat near the captain, Mike, and learned terms and asked one or two questions. the first mate, Craig, ran the crew with signals as well as commands and a laughed when i found out the Gunners name was Dan. the rest of the crew was elaine and BJ (who the crew called pip) as well as the girl who i talked to back when i was in line. i think there was another guy up front and the girl in the galley came out and worked as well.
the manuevers began and i seem to think we did better than the captain did. there was one point where our manuever brought us soo close to the other that it almost hit us and they were shouting for us to blow into our sails to go faster. suddenly you heard the hum of our engine for a minute and we pulled out of the way. the captain did one manuever that impressed me when he shivered the sails (turn them on angle with the wind so they don't catch wind) and doing a tight turn such that they went from chasing us to our cannons pointing right down their bow. now they had an advantage of two hand cannons as well as thier two cannons where as we had four main cannons. they were easier to aim and i laughed and waved when i saw that it was louie who was manning them. it was a blast. you could hear the cannon blasts bounce of the rock walls of the harbour. we had a good laugh when some silly sailboat sailed between these two tall ships firing cannons (granted we weren't firing live ammo but in the illusion of the moment it seemed funny). another laugh came when the first mate poked his head in the galley when one shot went off and the captain told him to return fire. now the lady was a bit far off and right off our starbord side was a replica of an early 1900's schooner and the mate took a moment of scanning it for guns honestly thinking how strange that THEY had fired on us (it was the Lady, but he couldn't see her). we ran out of ammo before they did so we had to make one pass and give them a target so they could clear their guns. i personally think that means we win but the captain was dissappointed with a few slow jibes and felt they needed work
well at one point close to the begining of the battle, i noticed elaine pulling two lines and they had asked a plain clothes guy to help so i went over and offered. now all of you ready to yell at me, relax. i had seen her pull and this pas a vertical line so my hips weren't really going to be involved. mostly upper body which is where i was strongest right now. so i grab a line and haul away. elaine asks me to stay on that side and help when they come over there cuz she was worried about me trying to get across the boat when we needed to jibe. the line i pulled was for the upper topsail. it felt great. matter of fact, after a couple of times, i noticed i wasn't using my cane anymore. i guess some acivity was all i needed. wish it healed my foot *gryn*
so on the way in, the captain was letting some of the kids steer. two kids got a lil too excited and i had to have respect for the captain (and a bit of jealousy with regards to how i would have had to handle the situation in some of my old jobs) he acted like a parent, an authority figure. he was firm but not mean to the kids. one almost cried as he told them how they would follow his rules or they wouldn't steer as this wasn't a playground but rather his ship. he got the kid to look at him and said he wasn't trying to be mean but never lost the firmness in his voice. the kid knew he meant business and nodded. he treated them with the same respect he gave his crew when he was mad about a partikularly slow jibe. that is the kind of boss i want. that is the kind of father i want to be, the kind of parent this world needs more of. in old jobs i would have had to smile and let the kid get away with murder, hoping the parent would step in but they never did. (oops, almost digressed, i will save that story for another time) Captain Mike had been doing this for 15 years, he said. the confidence showed. all the work, fresh air, the comradery as they went, and the thought of working for a boss like that made me listen close when they mentioned how you can volunteer.
so First mate Craig is the person who deals with volunteering and hiring for the Chieftan. i got details and talked to him about what he was looking for. my list of odd jobs in entertainment and teaching (karate) seemed to be exactly what they are looking for. also, he and i seemed to get along and he said that was also a big part of it as you are stuck at sea for two to three days at time with these ppl. he asked for my resume and i am going to talk to the doc about it and see how good this might be for me after i get over the initial therapy (when i can run and squat and move and lift again). it is a four month contract but you have to do about a month of volunteer (no pay but live on the ship and meals taken care of) before you get to the paid contract. *sigh* well i need to ask the doc before i even start getting my hopes up or even considering if this is an option. any californians would need to come visit me when i was in a nearby port and i think i would be writing a lot. GAH here i go, planning for the job way too soon. i guess i just really want to do this. would be funny if elaine did it too. she is my co captain on my pirate ship, The Skurge on friendster, so us bein mates seems fitting.
as i waited for elaine so we could catch a bite, she got a chance to be trained in furling. for those of you who are not familiar with this term... she climbed up the side ropes and stood on a rope that crossed along under the crossbars (not sure the nautical name) and tucked the sail in so it was weather protected. she was clipped in for safety but she said she still kinda freaked anytime one of the other ppl moved. she asked me how she looked and i told her all i had was a view of her butt (she is lucky i had used all my film or that woulda been on the friendster page). we then headed to the car and drove for food. we got turned around and going the wrong way several times and she was getting tired so when we found our way again she just dropped me off at my car. i figured we were gonna have dinner to chat but we spent all the time driving chatting so we still got to do the main part.
Elaine, one of my favorite ppl for oh so many reasons, thank you for this. i cannot put into words how lucky i am that you take the time to do things like this for your friends and i plan on doing all i can to return the friendship. you know if you ever need me, i will be there for you.
my awesome year continues
thanx to elainiac, lizzc, eain, bizzaroclark, and my mom (love you all for doing this for me), things were all set for me to sit on the Lady Washington as it did battle manuevers in the Long Beach Harbor. This was to be a "glad your getting better" gift. The Lady is famouse for having been the Interceptor in the recent Pirates of the Carribean movie. the only prob was i couldn't seem to arrange a ride down there. well, stubborn me wasn't going to let this chance pass; so, foot be damned, i drove myself. it wasn't too bad except when i had to push in the clutch. also, I can still feel every change of momentum in that damnable toe. but i made it there, and with the aid of a cane, i limped over to the docks
now as i am waiting to sign up, one of the female sailors makes sure we realize there are few spots left on the Lady and most of us will have to ride on the Hawaiian Chieften. She adds that the best pics of the Lady sailing will be from the Chieften. I ask what i have to do and i thought i had a reserved spot. she exhaustedly tells me that she thought she made that clear to everyone on the phone that you are not guaranteed any spot so i shut up and wait. upon getting up there, the other lady lets me know that i DO have a reserved spot on the lady. Now in front of me were these two families and the sons were both dressed with plastic swords and they were running around stabbing eachother in a cute, not so unbearable or annoying or knock ppl over and accidentally stab bystanders way as you might expect. i overhear that they want the Lady but there aren't enough tickets for both families to go and they do not want to separate the boys. all this coupled with the fact that elainiac was working on the Chieften, and she was why i was able to go, i gave up my spot and switched over. the family was thrilled and thanked me and i threatened elaine with a camera.
i hadn't had lunch yet and had almost an hour, so i headed over to the nearby pier. on the way i ran into one of my buddies from Whimsey Wear at faire (I think his real name is jerry, but i am so bad about names at faire) and he was there to check out the ships. so i dragged him to find food with me since i was limited in time and was walking kinda slow. i caught up with him a bit and had forgotten he had told me he was IN PotC cuz i couldn't find him when i saw the movie (not like i forgot George was in Big Fish when he told me last time i saw him how sad he was that he only got the secondary giant "Collosus"... but i digress) i realized i was looking for him among Barbosa's Crew since he told me he was a pirate. no no no. he was on Jack's crew. he had a shaved head at teh time and was next to the girl (not kira, the other one) most of the time so he dubbed himself the older brother of her. can't wait to look for him when i get my DVD back. well when we arrived at the docks again, his friends were waiting. i appologized for stealing him and met a few new ppl, including Louie, who was involved in the movie but i didn't catch how (I will look for him on jack's crew too). Louie was working on the Lady.
Time came to board my boat and i found a good spot that i would soon be told to move from as it was on the side that they needed to unhitch from the docks. So they asked all of us to move (and said they might ask for movement several times) this time to the port side. we cast off and head out to get good position on the Lady. Shortly after leaving the first "barrier" that surounds the area with the docks, motor went off and i watched a team go to work raising sails and i sat near the captain, Mike, and learned terms and asked one or two questions. the first mate, Craig, ran the crew with signals as well as commands and a laughed when i found out the Gunners name was Dan. the rest of the crew was elaine and BJ (who the crew called pip) as well as the girl who i talked to back when i was in line. i think there was another guy up front and the girl in the galley came out and worked as well.
the manuevers began and i seem to think we did better than the captain did. there was one point where our manuever brought us soo close to the other that it almost hit us and they were shouting for us to blow into our sails to go faster. suddenly you heard the hum of our engine for a minute and we pulled out of the way. the captain did one manuever that impressed me when he shivered the sails (turn them on angle with the wind so they don't catch wind) and doing a tight turn such that they went from chasing us to our cannons pointing right down their bow. now they had an advantage of two hand cannons as well as thier two cannons where as we had four main cannons. they were easier to aim and i laughed and waved when i saw that it was louie who was manning them. it was a blast. you could hear the cannon blasts bounce of the rock walls of the harbour. we had a good laugh when some silly sailboat sailed between these two tall ships firing cannons (granted we weren't firing live ammo but in the illusion of the moment it seemed funny). another laugh came when the first mate poked his head in the galley when one shot went off and the captain told him to return fire. now the lady was a bit far off and right off our starbord side was a replica of an early 1900's schooner and the mate took a moment of scanning it for guns honestly thinking how strange that THEY had fired on us (it was the Lady, but he couldn't see her). we ran out of ammo before they did so we had to make one pass and give them a target so they could clear their guns. i personally think that means we win but the captain was dissappointed with a few slow jibes and felt they needed work
well at one point close to the begining of the battle, i noticed elaine pulling two lines and they had asked a plain clothes guy to help so i went over and offered. now all of you ready to yell at me, relax. i had seen her pull and this pas a vertical line so my hips weren't really going to be involved. mostly upper body which is where i was strongest right now. so i grab a line and haul away. elaine asks me to stay on that side and help when they come over there cuz she was worried about me trying to get across the boat when we needed to jibe. the line i pulled was for the upper topsail. it felt great. matter of fact, after a couple of times, i noticed i wasn't using my cane anymore. i guess some acivity was all i needed. wish it healed my foot *gryn*
so on the way in, the captain was letting some of the kids steer. two kids got a lil too excited and i had to have respect for the captain (and a bit of jealousy with regards to how i would have had to handle the situation in some of my old jobs) he acted like a parent, an authority figure. he was firm but not mean to the kids. one almost cried as he told them how they would follow his rules or they wouldn't steer as this wasn't a playground but rather his ship. he got the kid to look at him and said he wasn't trying to be mean but never lost the firmness in his voice. the kid knew he meant business and nodded. he treated them with the same respect he gave his crew when he was mad about a partikularly slow jibe. that is the kind of boss i want. that is the kind of father i want to be, the kind of parent this world needs more of. in old jobs i would have had to smile and let the kid get away with murder, hoping the parent would step in but they never did. (oops, almost digressed, i will save that story for another time) Captain Mike had been doing this for 15 years, he said. the confidence showed. all the work, fresh air, the comradery as they went, and the thought of working for a boss like that made me listen close when they mentioned how you can volunteer.
so First mate Craig is the person who deals with volunteering and hiring for the Chieftan. i got details and talked to him about what he was looking for. my list of odd jobs in entertainment and teaching (karate) seemed to be exactly what they are looking for. also, he and i seemed to get along and he said that was also a big part of it as you are stuck at sea for two to three days at time with these ppl. he asked for my resume and i am going to talk to the doc about it and see how good this might be for me after i get over the initial therapy (when i can run and squat and move and lift again). it is a four month contract but you have to do about a month of volunteer (no pay but live on the ship and meals taken care of) before you get to the paid contract. *sigh* well i need to ask the doc before i even start getting my hopes up or even considering if this is an option. any californians would need to come visit me when i was in a nearby port and i think i would be writing a lot. GAH here i go, planning for the job way too soon. i guess i just really want to do this. would be funny if elaine did it too. she is my co captain on my pirate ship, The Skurge on friendster, so us bein mates seems fitting.
as i waited for elaine so we could catch a bite, she got a chance to be trained in furling. for those of you who are not familiar with this term... she climbed up the side ropes and stood on a rope that crossed along under the crossbars (not sure the nautical name) and tucked the sail in so it was weather protected. she was clipped in for safety but she said she still kinda freaked anytime one of the other ppl moved. she asked me how she looked and i told her all i had was a view of her butt (she is lucky i had used all my film or that woulda been on the friendster page). we then headed to the car and drove for food. we got turned around and going the wrong way several times and she was getting tired so when we found our way again she just dropped me off at my car. i figured we were gonna have dinner to chat but we spent all the time driving chatting so we still got to do the main part.
Elaine, one of my favorite ppl for oh so many reasons, thank you for this. i cannot put into words how lucky i am that you take the time to do things like this for your friends and i plan on doing all i can to return the friendship. you know if you ever need me, i will be there for you.