New Friends, Old Friends, and Learning to Splat
Sam, Tommy, and Shane
DJ and Angelica
Hawaiian Chieftain with her stunsails set. The stunsails are the sails that extend outward like wings. She's still missing her largest sail. When she gets that repaired, she will be able to set a huge wall of sail!
Adam, Kyle and Tommy. Friar sits in the foreground.
The crew labors to lower the course yard to the dock for painting.
Have you seen this T-shirt? Three guys splayed out in bizarre poses on the floor or over the back of a chair. Upon close inspection, they appear to be passed out where they stood, sat or as they walked. The caption is "Irish Yoga."
Just posted new photos and VIDEOS on www.myspace.com/jenshan. Check them out to hear the minstrels that played on our very pleasant transit from Westport to Aberdeen Washington, and to see some of the work we did the week after that. We completely downrigged the foremast, which means we took it down to deck, took all the masts and yards to the dock to paint them, and then lifted them back into place and re-did all the rigging. We also replaced the middle section of the mast and the main hold hatch. Guess I didn't take any pictures of that.
So today is July 3rd, my first full day off, and also the first day in about two weeks that I have been caught up on my purser duties. Thank god to be free of all those $1 bills! I am sitting in a diner in Aberdeen, chosen specifically for its wi-fi access.
Today is Shane's last day (sad face). Shane is definitely someone I want to know both on and off the brig. Since she lives in Portland, this is possible. What about her? She's in the Air National Guard, and she's a jet engine mechanic. She's named after Shane McGowen of the Pogues. She's into that folk-punk kind of stuff. Lot more about Shane that interests me, but not that I will post.
K.I. left a few days ago. That's Kim, who joined the Chieftain when I did. Sigh.
Sam Riggs leaves next week. I will definitely miss her too.
On a happier note, the new steward is named Molly, and I will enjoy working with her. Molly used to be the steward on the Chieftain, so she knows how to be a steward, but has never sailed on the Lady, so she is not new to tall ship sailing, but is new to our rig.
We have a whole bunch of new people from this weekend--four, in addition to Molly. Turns out that the entire summer is going to work like that, with batches of new people turning up every two weeks. It's because of the Evergreen program, where fifteen Evergreen State College students signed on at once for a two week program in the spring. When they left, a bunch of new people came on, including me, Shane, Sam, and other returning volunteers, but also including the two week trainees. So the whole summer will roll that way. That's cool, though. New crew includes Adam, Angelica and Helen, Evergreen students returning to the boat for the summer. New two week trainees include Don and Will, a father and son from the midwest. WIll is about 16, a bit A.D.D., and he seems to have singled me out as particularly interesting. It's actually a little uncomfortable.
Funny line: A passenger recently remarked to Elmo the Engineer that the Chieftain was nicer than the Lady. Elmo replied, "Yeah, the Chieftain is like camping out in an RV. The Lady is like camping out with a leaky tarp and a wet sleeping bag." Now that we have replaced the main hold hatch, maybe that will be a less true.
Hey! Here's a new thing I got to do: I got to "splat." When we dock, we need someone on the dock to tie our mooring lines to the cleats. If we don't have someone waiting on the dock, we need to send someone on the splatline, which is like a rope swing from the end of the forecourse yard. Yes, that's right. Someone has to do the tarzan swing over to the dock, and I have now been the one to do that twice. Excellent!
Next blog will include a couple of photos of the crazy public art in Aberdeen.