On Internet Access, and Other Joys of Boat Life.

Monday, August 27, 2007
2130 hours

Most of the time, my only access to the internet these days is through the ship's computer, which has one of those Verizon cards which works just about anywhere but only gives you a certain number of minutes per month (after which there's a per-minute charge, what is this, 1988?). This obviously limits my access quite a bit. Occasionally some generous land-dwelling soul will allow me to use a home or office computer. This is really really nice. However, it's generally just enough time to catch up on some correspondence, not enough to read anybody's blog. So I have no idea what most of you other bloggers are up to.

However, due to some fancy equipment brought by a generous volunteer, the Lady Washington is currently a wireless hotspot. Here in Tacoma, we are moored next to the Lady. This means that if you take your laptop out on the deck of the Hawaiian Chieftain while the wireless thingy is active, you can actually get a fairly decent connection. (Below decks, not so much; the Chieftain has a steel hull.) This has been really really really nice. Unfortunately, said volunteer will be taking his technology home with him at the end of the month. Also unfortunately, it's cold outside, so I'm writing this in my bunk and will run up on deck to post it when I'm done.

I've been lucky enough to have several friends come out to sail with me on the boats recently. Some even drove long distances to do so. It's fun to show people (meaning, people I know) what it is that I'm doing out here. I mean, not all the hours that I spend punching numbers into the computer and growling, but the other things. Things I don't think twice about anymore, but which would have amazed me a year and a half ago: things like belaying and coiling a line, or knowing which line to go to when the mate calls out commands, and what will happen if I haul on it or let it go. Or going aloft. I do still think twice about going aloft, but my second thought these days is usually "I am so cool right now."

A friend of mine back home, after finding out that I have to wear a costume for this job, said, "Oh, now I get the appeal." This struck me as odd, particularly the implied assumption that the clothes are the best part. For the record, I'm not actually all that jazzed about the 18th-century clothing. It gets in the way of sailing. I'm not an actor, and I'm not a re-enactor. I'm a sailor.

My job as purser is how I pay for the sailing. As purser, I'm in charge of accounting for all the money that is spent and received by the boat. This is a little ironic because I've managed to avoid math classes since midway through high school. In retrospect, that wasn't such a good idea. If I were half as comfortable with numbers as I am with letters (I can alphabetize in my sleep, and probably have), or if I'd ever taken a single accounting class in my life, I'd have been a lot less intimidated by all this paperwork. As it is, it's taken me quite some time to get used to it. One thing I learned the hard way was that I can really only deal effectively with spreadsheets when I'm not tired, hungry, dehydrated, or aching. This means not after sailing. With that and a few other lessons under my belt, I hesitantly claim that I'm actually getting kinda good at this now -- not as good as I'd like to be, but good enough that my hair is no longer in danger of being torn out every time I try to assemble an income report for the seaport office.

So there's sailing, and there's pursing, and there's various chores inbetween, and there's living in a steel box with a cast of genuinely interesting characters, and a dozen new things to learn every day, and taken as a whole this job is challenging and satisfying on every level: physical, mental, emotional, relational, and yes, spiritual too.

With all of that going for me, if my internet cravings are not satiated, well, I guess I can deal.

How I Got Back On The Boat, etc.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
1100 hours

So I went home for my brother's wedding, and what a glorious shindig that was. The tricky part turned out to be getting back to the boat, which was in Coupeville the day after the wedding. The crowded Greyhound (sold out for the weekend, as Amtrak wasn't running) got me as far as Everett, but then what? Coupeville is at the north end of Whidbey Island. Everett is south of Whidbey Island. The closest ferry to the island leaves from Mukilteo, the next town over from Everett. There are buses between all the towns and ferries in the area -- but most of the buses don't run on Sundays. And of course it was a Sunday.

So... I walked four miles, with a pack that weighed 23 or so lbs. (darn that laptop), to the Mukilteo ferry. And then I called the Chieftain from the ferry, and they said they'd send somebody for me when they got back from the evening sail. Some very generous and hospitable Coupevillains drove the length of Whidbey (about 40 miles, if I recall correctly) to pick me up and, it being very late by the time we got back, took me in for the night. Which meant that I got a much-needed shower that I wouldn't have got otherwise, and slept on a much better mattress.

It was totally worth it, of course. But next time I try to travel by public transportation in northwest Washington, it will not be on a Sunday.

From Coupeville to Everett, to Seattle (Lake Union), to Brownsville, which is north of Bremerton, and which is where I am now, on my day off, watching the Chieftain from the window of the port office. And in between, by little and by little, I am getting better both at sailing and at pursing. I am less exhausted and more even-tempered. There are several people aboard who are newer and know less than I. When people ask how long I've been aboard, I have to guess because I've lost track. And I am not tired of it yet.