Day of Freedom, woot!
First off, just want to post a link where people should be able to find small blogs from the shipmates for the boat I'll be on, the link is below and I will be working the Second Session on Pine.
http://extras.actionquest.com/updates/
This morning all of the shipmates left, with the last round of them leaving around 11 to get to the airport and fly home. I've gotta say, for knowing what I was signing up for it was an intense 3 weeks, although I think I'll be a bit more prepared for the second go round (which starts in 2 days, egah). It's been a really fun experience, and I did get pretty close with some of the shipmates and with the 2 staff who were also on my boat. In some cases my saying I was close to them meant I was within strangling distance and I definently considered it, but somehow I made it without either burning down the boat while cooking or decking one of the deckies.
It sounds odd but I'd be tempted to come back and do the program as a shipmate, since they seem to have a really great time. There's a program called SeaMester (lots of punny boat names... I think all the staff and sailors have an odd sense of humor), where you get college credit for marine biology and such, and you spend basically a semester sailing on one of the huge boats taking courses and traveling all over the place, depending on the program. Plus as a shipmate they get to do all sorts of fun activities, while being staff I'm usually under water and racing around in a dingy to take the empty tanks to Manic (yes, our compressor boat is called Manic Compression... the names don't stop).
It's fun though, learned a lot about sailing and cooking on a moving vessel and just how much energy and trouble 13 year olds have in them on a daily basis. On a terribly scary note one of the staff referred to me as the nurturing one of the lot on our boat... think I need to be meaner and put some fear into the next lot....Really cool points were visiting the Baths, we did a hike up the highest point in the BVI, and I got to do a night dive on the Fearless with the staff (an old fishing boat, which was especially cool at night and supremely awesome since I wasn't trying to herd shipmates underwater). I think my favorite dive has to be the Rhone which was the last dive for the Barracudas and my open water students, a storm pulled up just as I was taking them into the water and after I got to tell them how the captain had locked the passengers in the cabins during a hurricane so they wouldn't mutiny, and that most of the bodies were never found and buried. It was a really awesome dive though, just a huge wreck and the fish and corals were amazing, plus now I actually know about the places I'm supposed to take people diving so I won't be winging it when the students ask about them. Plus the staff are generally a hoot and being in a flotilla means I get to see students from other boats and not just my own. For the 4th of July the resident Brits pranked the majority of the staff who are from the US by swapping all the dingies during the nights (small inflatable motor boats for taking the yoots to shore and such). On the same night random tea bags were scattered all over the hammocks the British staff were sleeping in, and the Canadians on staff just sorta sat back and got to laugh at everyone. Pirating plans were already devised for how to prank the directors during the 3rd session... poor guys.
I'll be teaching the same age group in the second session though, I think I get 3 more Barracuda's and will be teaching some Open Water as well. Living with the youngest is fun since all of them have personality and energy, and a not some of the drama found with the older groups... but it's also a heck of a lot of work to try and get them to clean the boat after a meal (and somehow every meal gets scattered everywhere, without fail)... plus they're just dirty in general... The other 2 staff and one of the shipmates have already been diagnosed with ailments, 2 being staph infections, which we fondly refer to as MRSA and AIDS although no one has picked up those yet... I keep finding random injuries that i don't know how I've gotten, but I think I'm still clean (knock on wood). It's fun though, they really ran the boat and we kicked some butt when we had sailing races, plus when it came time to get the organic food off the boat for end of session clean up we conveniently threw it overboard in the direction of another boat... Ironically Banana was the boat we engaged in battle with, and just about any fruit but a banana was thrown at them.
Will try and update more later, plus put some photos on facebook at some point. I hope everyone is doing well and be sure the check out the updates and photos on the website. =)