From the Picton to the Providence

This week, Matt and Heather are participating in a week long program on board the Sloop Providence with a group of local middle school kids.  Thus far, the kids have had a “behind the scenes” tour of Fort Adams, got divided into watches and had an extensive tutorial about the ship.  Today, the group will be able to apply what was learned yesterday when they take the Providence sailing out in Narragansett Bay.  For a daily update, follow this link http://sea-fever.org/.

Peter Mello was the Executive Director of ASTA for several years and is now involved with the Providence Maritime Heritage Foundation www.sloopprovidenceonline.org  

Next week, Matt and Heather will blog about thier experience aboard the Providence, complete with video and photos.  Until then, Fair Winds!

Halifax Parade of Sail

Here is a great video from the Halifax Parade of Sail. The last ship to go by is the Gorch Fock.  The Race Team was lucky enough to have been invited on board and it was a great experience.

After numerous doses of history…

The East Coast of the United States, in general,  is much more enthusiastic about history then the other regions of the country that I have been to. In the few short months that I have been here for my internship, I have visited the Jamestown, Williamsburg, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Atlantic Fisheries Musuem in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and yesterday I visited Mystic Seaport. It seems that every place in the East has an abundance of museums and old historic districts in the towns and cities.  

 

Just to make you chuckle

From the Facebook Group Tall Ships Geeks

How to Simulate Ship Life

Sleep on the Shelf in your hallway closet; replace the door with a sheet.

6 hours after you fall asleep have a stranger open your curtain, shine a light in your eyes, and whisper wrong rack.

While showering use only cold water and turn it off while sudsing.

Each morning power wash your house with a garden hose.

Every month take apart every appliance in the house (whether working or not) and put them back together again; hoping you do it right.

Invite 20 strangers to live in your house for 2 months.

Read books by flash light under your coffee table.

Use 17 scoops of coffee for 8 cups of water. Let it sit for 6 hours with the coffee grinds still in it. Drink at a luke warm temperature.

Invite someone you have known for 3 days or less to climb onto your roof and vomit into the wind, making sure it goes all over them and you.

Only eat food that comes from a can.

Don’t shave.

Wake up every night for an hour to patrol the house…get the family involved and develop a watch system.

Climb telephone poles of questionable structural integrity.

Stand on your roof for 4 hours looking into the distance.

Hang sheets from tree branches and stow them.

At some point during the day yell all hands on deck.

Don’t shower at home. Walk 10-20 minutes down the road and ask a neighbor to use their showers.

Enter your house by means of a rope ladder into the second story window.

Unplug the TVs and radios. Only read magazines from 5 years ago to stay abrest on current events.

Listen to your favorite cd 6 times a day for 2 weeks.

Buy fresh fruit and veggies. Eat them 3 weeks later.

Repaint the interior of your house every other month…whether it needs it or not.

Halifax Awards night…almost like the Oscars(R)…

Friday the thirteenth in Halifax was the awards night for the VECTRIX TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE(r) races.  Jonathan, the Race Director, handed out awards to all the winners as seen here. Here is the run down of the winners of the second and third races:

Finishing in style

July 19, 2007 

Leaving the Picton Castle Monday morning was a sad affair. While it was time to move on, both I and my shipmates wished that we could stay together longer. Things have to move on though, I have work to finish in Newport and the ship has a schedule to make in ports farther north. Even as I was packing my things to leave, work on the ship continued just as it did before. The ship is the only constant thing concerning life on the Picton Castle. Everyone else comes and goes as their time allows. As I was leaving, Rebecca was giving an orientation to the new trainees on the quarterdeck to prepare them for the Halifax Parade of Sail. I remember when I was in Charleston some months ago, being acclimated to the ship while the bags of departing crew members piled on the hatch. That memory came full circle as I left the ship with my bags.

And they were gone….

I am still mourning the loss of the Tall Ships in my life. I still find myself waking at peculiar hours of the night and I will eat my meals with my plate in my lap even though a table top is in front of me. I miss my friends…..who are now more like family. That is the great thing about Tall Ship sailing, within a week you have the same relationship with your crew mates as you do with friends of 15 years.

I had a lot of fun. The events were great.

Charleston, SC was full of excitement and anticipation. I had never been to a Tall Ships event like that. The event coordinators were very experienced and knew how to keep the event running smoothly. The hours were great. They weren’t open to early and they didn’t close too late.

Norfolk, VA was all about the ship’s crews. There were laundry facilities near by and we were in the city so we were able to find our own fun, i.e mall, movies, and exploring the town. Every night there was something going on for the crew members after hours, such as concerts, BBQ’s and tours. The walking parade was a blast. I fondly remember the day we were trained for the parade. The captain said that the military crews that we would be marching near are professional and are trained to march, we aren’t. He told us to avoid straight lines and geometry. We needed to walk fast, walk slow,  and run. We need to have various shapes, such as egg shaped blobs. We could wear whatever we wanted but it need to be full of color.  The parade went over well. We were the brightest in the bunch. The greatest part of the Norfolk event was the location of the ships. They were in almost a straight line, stern to bow. You needn’t walk far to get to any of the ships. There were only 3 ships off the beaten path and two of them were closed to visitors due to dreaded gangway issues.

Newport, RI. Home sweet home! It was nice being here. The docking situation for Picton Castle was a little hairy but we made it through with flying colors and then watched the caterers scramble. I still remember a waitress with a wheelbarrow standing on the dock trying to figure out how she would get the wheelbarrow of her goods onto the ship. I told her the easiest way was to do it like the crew, pass everything on-board one by one. Once I told her that, things moved along much more quickly. It was nice that Newport arranged free tours of the mansions for the crews but this event was certainly dedicated to the captains. Yes, the captains are important but if you asked the captains the people that make a lot of Tall Ships anything happen they’d say the crew first. Without us ,the ships wouldn’t get anywhere.

Halifax, NS. That was an interesting event. The fog was so thick we could only see .02 nautical miles. That being said we had one near collision with a buoy and on the way to the event several other ships sustained injured crew and were heeled over…. A LOT ! The event itself was nice however and the city was wonderful. I really enjoy Canada.

The one thing each event had in common….great people watching.

Fog in Halifax

I noticed today that my tenure with the Tall Ships festivals and the Picton Castle was coming to a close. That was made apparent this morning when I had to move my gear out of my bunk that I’ve lived in for nearly two months on the ship. Tommorow the ship leaves Halifax with many of my shipmates and friends. I will not be on board this time though. Time to move on and finish out my internship in Newport by collecting and organizing my experiences for ASTA.

The festival in Halifax has had a very good showing. Crowds of people have been on the docks to see the tall ships. Today the weather has turned foul again with fog and mist in abundance. If the line for donuts and coffee at Tim Horton’s is any indication, then it is certain that today will again be a busy day for the tall ships despite the kind of weather that makes someone want to stay at home and sleep.

Speaking of weather, I have to give kudos to our captain for keeping us and our ship out of unnecessary danger. I learned yesterday that the gale that we were waiting out in New Bedford and Martha’s Vineyard caught several of the other tall ships by surprise. Their captains had not predicted that the low pressure systems would converge and cause as much trouble as they did. A crew member on one of the ships got injured enough to require hospitalization and removal from the ship for some time.  There are inherent dangers involved with sailing on the sea and it is a good thing that our captain is experienced enough to know how to be conservative and minimize those dangers.

Yesterday afternoon I helped out with the deck tours on the Picton Castle. Just making sure people don’t get hurt and answer questions. It’s amusing how excited the young kids are. I imagine I would be just as wide-eyed were I in their shoes. I never really got to go on a tall ship as a kid because all the tall ships I knew in the midwest were on my tv set. The ship’s cat does not like deck tours – she tries to sleep on the hatch but people are always poking and prodding her.

I’m looking forward to tommorow’s parade of sail. Those are always exciting. Hopefully the weather will work in our favor for that.

Almost over

Today I did my first deck tours all season. I must give serious props to my fellow crew mates….deck tours are murder for crews on Tall Ships. There is the stereotypical questions suchs as ”You go ALL the way up there?!” “Can we go down below?” and since my station was near the galley “What are you cooking in the KITCHEN (grrr on the use of non-nautical terms!) It was a long day and I only did four hours of deck tours, I really feel for those that did 8.

I am pretty sad that I will be leaving my Picton Castle family although I won’t miss the hour long night watches. This morning I was awoken by the sound of the gangway squeeking and squaking against a piece of plywood. Give me a call and I will imitate the sound for you. I also was granted the privilege of lighting the galley stove, which I failed at; nobody told me that I was supposed to light the diesel pan. I thought I was inept. Thank goodness Rebecca was already up to help. But of course 5 minutes after she went back to bed I thought I caught the galley on fire. I later learned that you need to turn on the fan higher and you won’t get any diesel smoke on the galley. I freaked out and turned the fan down. Luckily Donald woke at 5:30am to start breakfast so hell didn’t break loose. We had eggs and hot water so I didn’t fail too much. 

I only have 2 nights and 1 day left with Picton Castle……WHAAAAAAAA! (That’s the sound of my crying)

Race Three photos

 Last night was the awards ceremony for the VECTRIX TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE(r) Race Series. The second race was quite the upset, with Prince William beating the Pride of Baltimore II by merely ten seconds!  The third race was won by the Bermudan sailing vessel, Spirit of Bermuda. They were followed by the Dutch ship, Urania, who also received the overall trophy presented by VECTRIX (www.vectrixusa.com).   Jonathan and I were on board the Race Committee boat for the start of the race along with some volunteers from the Piscataqua Sailing Association.  Sandwiches, sun and sailing-there is no better way to spend a summer afternoon.

 Follow this link for awesome pictures taken at the start http://www.sailpsa.org/component/option,com_rsgallery2/Itemid,111/  and click on TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE(r) July 9.  Thanks Wendy!