Shore Leave - Duluth

The first night in Duluth we hosted a party for the crews of all the ships at the festival.  BBQ hotdogs and platters of fruit, cheese and crackers. And a watermelon basket because we can be fancy like that! 

On the last morning of the festival the Sons of Norway brought us breakfast. It was delicious! We ate on deck and the officers put on their dress uniforms. 

We were docked just down from the Great Lakes Aquarium. Happily, crew members got in for free! I enjoyed this model of the great lakes…

…and sailing a toy boat along the route we've been taking. Going through the locks was interesting, my boat capsized a couple times!

Most of the tanks were freshwater, like this one showing the fish that live in Lake Superior. 

I got out for a run one day. One of the nice things about living on a ship is the nice waterfront paths to run along. 

Duluth was nice, Canal Park, where we moored, was a nice area to wander around in although it was a little touristy. So far Duluth wins the postcard contest as there were lots available at several stores.  

The festival was the usual mix of crowds and vendors (a lot of them are the same at each festival; Baja Smoothie, kettle corn, Great Lakes Challenge merchandise). 

Now we are off for a 10 day sail to Chicago - hooray!

Sailing Along - Thunder Bay to Duluth

A short two-day sail this time. We had the same group of trainees on which was  so nice as it meant we could build on the skills they already learned instead of starting fresh.

Lake Superior lived up to its reputation of being a cold lake. The temperature has definitely dipped into single digits up here!  Combined with a headwind it made for some cold times! For a while there was a wool blanket kept on deck to wrap up in when you were on lookout. Even with that it was chilly!

The second day the wind died down and we motored through the Apostle Islands. We anchored that night and had a BBQ and the Watch Olympics which are always an entertaining way to spend an evening.

All in all a pretty uneventful sail/motor!

Ship Life - Standing Watch

Standing watch is what defines ship life for me. Standing watch means you are part of the group working to keep the ship running and safe. 

The day is broken into four hour watches. Each watch is covered by the same group of people known as a "watch group". These people end up being the ones you spend most of your time with as you work together and are on the same schedule so have the same downtime as well. As well as the group of deckhands each watch will have an officer and an AB on duty. My watch is 4-8 and before you ask am or pm I will say both!

So, what do we do during watch? There are four physical positions that need to be filled at all times:

Helm - as you may have guessed this is the person helming, or steering, the ship. If we are in a narrow channel or river an experienced helmsperson will be on (the narrower our course the more experienced the person) but in open water everyone is given a chance to helm. There is no auto pilot on board so when we are underway there is always someone at the helm. 

Stand-by - kind of like co-pilot. This person is available to help handle the helm in stormy weather or to take over should the helmsperson suddenly faint away or something. 

Look out - standing on the bow, watching for other ships, fishing buoys or other things that might interfere with our safe passage. 

Safety - twice an hour we walk through the ship to make sure all is safe. Mainly we check for fires and floods. 

We rotate through these positions generally every hour or half hour and generally in a specific order although the pro crew may change things depending on other work needing to be done and who is available and able. 

In addition to the physicals the people on watch are available to work on sail trimming, maintenance and cleaning. There will definitely be cleaning every day. My watch group cleans the heads (toilets) which isn't as bad as it sounds and is actually my favourite cleaning job on board. 

At the end of a watch we will come together to hand over the care of the ship to the next group as well as debrief them on any pertinent information. As part of the Norwegian tradition on board we will wish the next group a good watch in Norwegian. "God vacht!" 

Shore Leave - Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay is our shortest stop this summer. Arrive on Saturday, leave on Tuesday. We were here for Lake Superior Day on Sunday and also open for deck tours on Monday (though not many people came on Monday).  

The lines were the shortest I've seen. This is just as they started letting people on and it didn't get much longer, at least while I was on duty. 

On Monday the whole volunteer crew had the day off! The only one this summer. Not so bad for me but some of them have been on since June 4 and won't get off till August 21! 

We started with breakfast at Hoito's, a Finnish restaurant famous for their breakfasts. 

 

We did a little shopping and then I went back to the ship and met a friend who gave me a driving tour of Thunder Bay, lent me laundry facilities and took me to see the Kakabeke Falls. 

Although I look at water everyday it's not water like this! Very mesmerising, loud and awe inspiring. After dinner I returned home to our three masts and Sorlandet. 

Sailing Along - Bay City to Thunder Bay

We started out with really nice weather, set some sails on day 2, had a swim call etc. 

For this leg there was a youth leadership program, only 4 girls joined the program but they rock! They are learning so much and are a great addition to our team. I'll be sad to see them go next weekend 

No pictures of this but we sailed through a squall that had us dousing sails asap, getting things set for high winds and an all hands call that eventually ended with "pieces of meat hanging around" being told to go below decks. 

We sailed up Lake Huron, around some neat islands and through the locks in Sault Ste Marie. There were 4 side by side, pretty neat. Not at all envious of the card stopped for construction on the bridge!

Lake Superior was beautiful and cold (as expected). One night when I got off watch at 8:00 it was 8 degrees celcius! 

It was so nice having a six day sail. The next leg, to Duluth, will be short, 48 hours or so. 

Swim Call

The day we left Bay City was super hot as the whole weekend had been. In the morning our Chief Mate, George, mentioned their might be a swim call. Now, one thing I've learned on board is that plans often change but happily this wasn't one of them. 

In order for a swim call to happen the waters have to be pretty calm and we need the ship to stop moving (obviously!). We were under engine, not sail, so that made it fairly simple.   

For safety we launch the man overboard boat and it's manned by a team of two who monitor the swim area as well as crew on deck doing the same. Everyone was eager to get in the water so the crew swapped in and out of supervising roles so that everyone could have a turn to swim. There are two ladders set up for getting out of the water, and in as well if you don't fancy jumping off the side!

Shore Leave - Bay City

I love Bay City! It's been my favourite port so far. It started off with our liaisons dropping off laundry bags which were available for us to fill, leave on the dock and were returned the next day with clean clothes! We also had shower facilities available at the local Y. Showers that run continuously - fun times! 

In contrast to Cleveland, Bay City is full of little independent stores, cafes and restaurants, all within walking distance of the port. I was happy to find a wool store, a fabric store, rubber stamp and scrapbook store and stationery store! Also a post office and a (yes, singular) store that sells postcards. 

Although the food on board is great it was fun to find new places to eat - salads, wraps, curry etc. 

One night I went out with some of the girls from the ship, we had our "normal human being" look on, not our boat people look. 

There is a mini golf course in Bay City that I tried out one day. 

Followed by a gigantic ice cream cone. Obviously I had a hard time choosing a flavour. 

As I mentioned I finally found postcards and spent some time sitting in a cafe writing them. 

One more picture, the view from "my" porthole.