Shore leave - Cleveland

I didn't find Cleveland to be the greatest city, maybe it was the areas I visited but it wasn't my cup of tea. In our crew "goodie bags" we got a free one day transit pass, a ticket for the aquarium and one for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (those of you who know how much I'm into music won't be surprised I skipped the last). 

I did use my aquarium ticket though. It was a pretty straight forward venue - follow the path and see everything.   

Lion fish

This guy, who looks cute but is poisonous

Turtles with crazy necks

And a walk through tunnel with sharks and other critters swimming around. 

The transit pass came in handy for getting there,

As did my feet. 

I made it to WalMart a couple times to help get provisions for the ship. Fun but kind of weird to be picking out say, 10 boxes of cereal for people some who are strangers, some who you know. What kind to choose? Will people like Cheerios or Rice Krispies better? We already have lots of flakey cereal which no one seems to like so stay away from that!

One of my goals on shore leave is to call home. Thanks to wifi set up for the tall ships festival I was able to do that quayside with my iPhone and Facetime. I also enjoyed finding a cupcake bakery and a small cafe for a tea and (more) wifi. I didn't enjoy the lack of postcards and stamps. Will have to work on that in our next port, Bay City. 

Getting Ready for Port

I just saw this didn't upload when I wrote it. So sorry for the delay, or for reposting, whichever is applicable! On this trip coming into port means the start of another tall ships festival with lots of people coming to see Sorlandet. Naturally we want to show her off at her best so there's extra work to make sure she looks great. 

Because this port (Cleveland) is also our first port in the States we had to go through customs and coast guard inspections. So the inside of the ship needs to look amazing too. (The public open ship tours don't include the living quarters so while still clean, they aren't as crazy neat and clean as the deck areas.) I was on galley duty the day we arrived and came back from a volunteer meeting to find this list of extra cleaning to be done: 

 

Fun times! All this cleaning was for just one of the areas the galley staff is responsible for. Luckily it's a small area and now it looks amazing, organised and cleaner then normal (or it did two days ago, things have probably changed since then). 

I have a sneaky feeling I will be on galley duty the day we return to Canada as well… 

Sailing Along: Cleveland - Bay City

Day 1, Monday:

What an eventful 24 hours to start off this leg of the trip! We cast off around 10:30 with our regular group of volunteers and pro crew plus 35 new trainees. Their first day on board is always a busy one. There are safety drills, familiarisation rounds, rig training, learning to stand watch and a lot of "stuff you need to know" things going on as well as the regular running of the ship. Our first day was also the start of a race organised as part of the Great Lakes Challenge. Unfortunately a change of wind at 11:58 meant we weren't able to cross the start line on time (12:00-12:20) so we aren't participating. Neither are most of the ships, only 2 made it across the line in the appointed time. That's ok though, we're doing our own thing now and will still make it to Bay City on time. Because the race takes place under sail, not motor, we had lots of sails up (12? 15?) and the motor off. After four days of festival this made the maritime crew very happy! 

For most of the day we enjoyed nice weather, sunny, a bit of wind, etc. then during the evening things got exciting! Wind! Rain! Lightening! As the storm approached we were dousing sails asap. Even with most sails doused we roared along at over 9 knots for a bit. It took two people to hold the helm to course and we all were getting wet. Despite this the maritime crew were smiling more then ever - now this was sailing!  Some of the trainees didn't look quite as thrilled with the weather but after sailing with this group for a few weeks I trust their judgement and know our safety is their foremost concern. Not to say I wasn't happy to stand down, have a warm shower (yes, we have those on board), put on dry clothes and snuggle into bed. 

Day 2, Tuesday:

The next morning the weather had calmed down and we started motoring up the Detroit River, under the Ambassador bridge and through to Lake St Clair which is an amazing shade of aqua, almost tropical. 

At the end of the river, coming into Lake Huron I was on helm. I helmed under my first bridge - kind of a big deal as they need reliable helmspersons on then due to the exact course we need to take. One of the ABs was my stand by and gave me a hand with some fast helm turns so I wasn't completely on my own (which I am very thankful for!) 

Day 3, Wednesday:

Lake Huron has been beautiful. We had sails up this morning before going under motor as we came into our anchor spot for the night. There were plans for a swim call but the water was too rough so we had lots of time to enjoy a BBQ on deck (twice in a week!). 

Glossary - Pro Crew

Kind of obvious but just to clarify:

Pro Crew: people paid to be on this ship. Other then the maritime crew the pro crew is made up of a cook, cook's mate, medical officer, and 3 program staff (who take care of trainees and volunteers). 

Maritime Crew: the people paid to sail this ship. I've heard the maritime crew, if the had to, could sail/motor this ship on their own. Among the maritime crew there are different positions and ranks. 

First off, the officers. There is always an officer "on watch" and they have navigational certificates as well as sailing experience. In order of rank the officers are the Captain, Chief Mate and First Officer. 

Also on each watch we have an AB (able bodied seaman) on duty. The 4-8 watch has 2 ABs. Not sure why, my first sail there was only 1 but another AB joined so there are 2 now. The ABs are the lowest ranked of the maritime crew and do a lot of the physical work: cleaning, sail manoeuvres, maintenance, etc. as well as organising all the volunteers and trainees as far as work to be done while on watch is concerned. 

Other then these positions we have a chief engineer (obvious what he's here for) and a bosun (kinda like an amazing maintenance man for a ship). 

Our pro crew come from around the world! We have crew from South Africa, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Canada, the States and Norway. 

Us in the lower ranks are divided between volunteers (have more experience, mostly those who have spent a year on the ship as part of Class Afloat, on board for longer periods of time) and trainees (those who are sailing for a week or two, what I was on my first sail). Generally speaking we do all the same jobs with the volunteers taking on slightly more responsibility and leadership. 

An exception to all this is Halley. She was originally hired as program staff and still fulfils that duty, teaching us about knots, navigation, sails and all things seamanship; however she's also now part of the maritime crew as an Ordinary Seaman (under an AB). She switches back and forth filling in where needed and generally being useful. I highly suggest you read her blog post describing her role here. Click <a href="http://vagabondtreehugger.blogspot.com/2013/07/

so-what-is-it-you-do-again.html?m=>here to go!</a>

Fourth of July

As far as I know this is the first Fourth of July (and I learned not to call it July fourth, to avoid endless teasing by the Americans onboard) I've spent in the States. In the afternoon I went to WalMart with the ship's cook to buy some provisions for the barbecque we had onboard! That's right, we have a barbecque on the ship!

Once open ship was over for the day the barbecque was set up on the main deck and the Chief Engineer took on the task of grilling dinner for around 25 crew. 

Our cook, Jess had a well deserved "easy" night and stood by to monitor doneness of burgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob. 

It was a party atmosphere on deck! Portable speakers were found and music played as we all had a chance to relax and socialise together - something that doesn't often happen with the ship running 24/7. 

Later that night we watched fireworks off the bow as I started my night watch. 

Welland Canal Locks

Today was spent going through the Welland Canal. We left Hamilton at 3 am and got to the first lock around 9. By 7 pm we were through the last lock and this evening we are back in open water. After a day spent looking primarily at cement walls it sure feels nice to have all this space!

The concept of locks is really neat. Over 43.5 km we changed 99.5 m in elevation! But when sailing it's fairly tedious. The cement walls, waiting for locks to fill, etc. the maritime crew have been on all day - at a lock they all are on deck with specific jobs to make sure it all goes well. I really appreciate it but it does make a long day for lots of people!

The last lock was a baby one compared to the others we went through today but no one was complaining!

Ship Life - Cleaning

The ship gets cleaned every day. In port we usually do it all after breakfast and with everyone working it doesn't take long (about an hour). At sea cleaning is done as part of watch duties, usually in the morning. 

There are three general areas that need to be cleaned: the deck (swabbing anyone?), the heads (ie. bathrooms), and banjer (the dorm style area). This morning I was part of the group cleaning the banjer. This involves wiping down all surfaces (walls, sea chests, tables, beams) as well as floor cleaning which is a 4 step process (sweep, wet mop, squeegee, dry mop).  We had around 14 people working on that area so we were done in 45 minutes! Yay! 

Enjoying a bit of free time now before we get ready to leave. Tomorrow we'll be sailing/motoring through the Welland Canal.