Category: boats

So I remembered that I was supposed to write to people telling you guys what’s going on, so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do. I took an uneventful plane ride to London Gatwick. During the layover in NYC I caught up with four other crew members for the plane ride over.

When we arrived to the Amistad in Falmouth UK we had about two weeks with the old crew and the new crew. The idea was the program and boat could be handed over, rather than it simply being a ghost ship for an hour then taken over by a 100% fresh crew. It was a neat experience, and ended up being really really easy because we had so many competent sailors on board for the first two weeks. But even then, I got tired of the same old crew so the arrival of the students in Liverpool and the departure of the old crew was a welcome change. I love having the young-ins around so I can teach stuff to them, and suck their interested energy into my own work.

So we have nine crew members and six students who all stand watch. We also have a cook, captain and engineer. So a word about this “watch system”. I didn’t really know what to expect because I’ve never been in an official watch in the watch system. So how this works is that Amistad runs on a three watch, Swedish style dogged schedule. A day consists of two 12 hour blocks. The day block is 7AM to 7PM (0700-1900) and is divided into two six hour watches. The night block is three watches from 1900-2300, 2300-0300, 0300-0700. The three watches go one after another around and around. If you play it out, once every three days you get the two day watches off where you can really sleep, read in, write a letter, or do that project you’ve been dying to do. It’s a neat system, and although I do think it’s a little tiring to be in all the time, it’s great to be awake or asleep at weird hours of the day and also wonderful to be working with two other teams to keep Amistad underway and on course 24 hours a day in definitely.

Since the beginning of the trip, we’ve been in Falmouth, Liverpool and now Bristol UK. It’s been cool being at all these different ports and really going places. I’ve become pretty good friends with some of the crew members on board, specifically the engineer named Barry. He and I like to talk about technical stuff and the finer points of pretty much anything. My other good friend Ella is on a different watch than me so we don’t get to hang out too much as usually when I’m on, she’s off and vica versa. But regardless, it’s nice to be around friends onboard.

There are still many ports in our future, and a yard period when we get to spend some time in Portugal. I’m really looking forward to that one… I can go find a little coffee shop to hang out in on my days off and other than that, simply enjoy a nice routine scrape sand paint and varnish. Just like old times this past winter.

I will send another note later on to all of you, until then, adios, Drew

Tuesday, 28 August 2007

I feel like we’ve been going for about two weeks now. It’s been a while since I pulled out of Falmouth with The Amistad, and half as long since we picked up our students. I’ll say, it really is wonderful having the six students aboard. Their new energy, curiosity, and personal challenges really remind me how much fun life aboard a ship can be.

There have been a bunch of other boats going by, and I often wonder how life aboard those ships might be. Certainly my thoughts vary from time to time due to my own motion sickness – but I’m sure the crew on those ships don’t have the same experience as we do.

These close quarters, a traditional rig, wooden ship, a doctor, six college students, and two twenty something year old bosses. All of us are here for some sort of interesting reason, very few of us “sorta fell into it” as this isn’t the sort of thing where that happens. It’s a special type of person that lands a job, or a student bunk aboard Amistad.

On a medical note, there have been a few challenges with sea-sickness. I was sick for two days, and it was one of the more miserable times I’ve ever had to endure. Each time, it seems like the worst thing imaginable! When a few of our students got sick, I spent a little time doing my best to make them comfortable, and a little of my time simply reassuring them. For those of you who don’t know, sea-sickness is worse than simply puking a lot, dry heaving, and finally followed by making the full body puke faces in a cold sweat. Curled up in a fetal position wearing nothing by my underpants, I doubt my decision to come aboard Amistad, my competence as a sailor, and am covered in a heavy blanket of self loathing. This gives true meaning to the term “trial by fire”. My point is this: when my students get ill my heart really goes out to them. Of course, even having said that, you’ve got to take that with a grain of salt because these are 18 year old college students always looking for the path of least resistance.

Now looking forward to the rest of our trip – we have many miles ahead of us, and more fascinating ports of call. I can feel the potential for a real kick ass crew. All the old crew needs to do, is bring all the student up to competency with Amistad and we will be able to set and strike all the sails, anchor, dock, and the whole bit. By the time we get two Sierra Leone, the entire crew will look like totally different people. I suppose the sea does that to people.

I think about my family and Alison all the time, and I look forward to seeing them soon in one of these far away places.

Aloha and thanks for reading,

Drew Kerlee