I only woke up at 01:30 and then again at 02:25 which worked perfectly for getting up to go to the WC for a shower. Despite the early hour, there were a few crewmen getting cleaned up. The ship was rolling quite a bit again and I got bounced around the shower. Imagine a guy in the shower, getting wet and soaped up with one hand while holding onto a handle with the other and getting thrown back and forth at the same time and then trying to get rinsed off and you get why I only showered every other day. Orion decided not to shower at all through the week which honestly, you couldn't really tell much even though we gave him some shit about it.
If that’s how it is taking a showing in rough seas, imagine going to the bathroom. The toilets are jet suctions to try to prevent clogging. You are warned regularly to not put foreign objects into the toilets because they have to disassemble the sewage system to fix any clogs. Even with the warnings the toilets were clogged twice during the trip. They always threaten if they find out it was you that you will be assisting the damage control crew in fixing it which is a very messy job.
I'm actually writing this around 13:30 in the afternoon while the crew are at Sail Stations. We're only bracing the yards so I don't feel bad about not being there for the first time this week but I wanted to write this down while most of this day was still fresh in my mind and you'll see why soon enough.
When I got back to the berth, Calen and Orion were already suited up so I had to get dressed quickly as it was already 03:15. I noticed Orion came back for his foulies so I put on my warm raincoat and watch cap and headed up. It was pitch black and there was a cold wind howling on the weather deck. Despite the decks being soaked, it wasn't raining but we were getting tossed around quite a bit so we all got doused with sea spray regularly. I turned on my red light and made my way to the Main to meet the rest of the deck watch. The wind was so cold, I waited until we had a few minutes free so I quickly headed back down to pull on another layer of clothes and ran back up before I was needed.
While we were standing around waiting for orders, we found out that the watch previous to us had done absolutely no work during their watch. They had grabbed some leather and whipping and made designs while they sat around. Suddenly the red mast lights came on. The Eagle is equipped with bright multicolored lights on all the mastheads that point down to the deck. They can change the colors to white, yellow or red. When climbers are set to go up in the evening, they will turn on red of yellow lights so the climbers can see better without killing their or the bridge crews night vision. When the lights came on, I uttered an audible "uh-oh" which the group asked me to explain. I told them it looks like we may be climbing and setting sail but some were skeptical considering how bad the weather was. Five minutes later I was validated when a female crewman (she will remain nameless in this journal) who was going to be our watch lead for the evening came down and told us we were going to set most of the staysails and some jibs. She introduced herself and immediately told us she woke up in a bad mood which was apparent from her manner. We headed over to the main storage locker and grabbed our harnesses.
It was hard to understand why a four hour watch before us did absolutely nothing and now we were doing whatever was needed (I did confirm this later with a person who was on the previous watch) but ours is not the reason why yada yada yada... We headed forward to get the lines ready for the fore topmast staysail and went to set the sheet. We hauled and hauled again and only got some slight progress. We then hauled some more until we made no progress. It was obvious there was something wrong so Orion and I told the watch lead that the line needs to be checked. The watch lead still unconvinced about the source of the problem without any investigation, called in more people to haul. I should stress at the beginning of this that anytime there was any sort of pause whatsoever, we waited...holding onto the lines still with no explanation of what was happening. Sometimes we waited for 10 minutes or more without any explanation and don't forget, the wind was blowing extremely hard and the ship roll was fairly extreme. So we waited until she had gathered a bunch more crew to haul the line and we hauled and hauled some more and still made no progress. Now she finally went to investigate and after another long wait, she came back mad and moved us to another line. Yup, she had put us on the wrong line. Luckily we didn’t break anything.
Now we had the right line and Orion asked the watch lead if she wanted him to tend the sheet as it would need it for setting. She angrily replied "No" and sent him to the halyard with us. We started hauling on the halyard and sure enough, we got part way up before the halyard stopped hard. The watch lead went and released the sheet that hadn't been tended. We finally hauled together and got the sail set.
We moved on to the bow to place the lines for the Main Topmast Staysail. We again waited while the watch lead appeared and disappeared on deck, leaving us holding onto lines with no direction. We finally threaded the sheets and manned the halyard which took a good half hour or more. When I looked forward, I found it odd that Johnson and Calen were leaning on the port rails facing outboard by the Main Staysail sheets. We started to haul on the halyard in the heavy winds and Johnson and Calen were engulfed in the Main Topmost Staysail. Being unable to see them until we hauled the sail high enough, I suddenly realized how much danger they had been in. Had they been there accidentally? Calen was very unhappy at this point and told me he was mad but he'd talk to me about it later so I didn't realize how bad it was yet.
The watch lead pulled us in after again waiting for her to disappear and reappear, called us in and apologized for screwing up the first haul. The OOD also came over and thanked us for our hard work in this difficult weather. They dismissed us for a break so we could come back fresh to set some more sails.
When we got to the Mess deck , I finally asked Johnson what had happened and she told me she was told to stand there by the watch leader to be "human chaffing gear"! To add to my total disbelief, Calen described what had happened when they were engulfed by the sail. He looked over and saw when the sail hit them, Johnson was lifted off the ground and started going over the rail. Fearing for her life, he immediately leaped over and grabbed her and pulled her back down. He was relieved to find that she had clipped herself in to the rail so at worse she would have been thrown over the rail and hung there but likely with injury.
For the first time, I now felt angry. The watch lead had put two of my team in danger on purpose. Her concern hadn't been for them, it had been to make sure the sail didn't get fouled in the equipment went it came up. In a light wind this may have been less of an issue but was unbelievably dangerous in this high wind. Any part of the equipment on the sail could have hit them hard and injured them severely, never mind being pulled over a rail at risk to their lives. I did my best to walk this off but was then determined to get as much detail into my journal as soon as I got the chance. I'm not sure who I would tell or why yet, but it's important to me to get this in writing. We did swear to each other at this point that if we saw another situation that put any of us in danger, we would either try to stop everything or completely walk away rather than put the crew or ourselves in any danger.
**Note that looking back on this incident later, I realize that the method of using human chaffing gear is a standard procedure for this crew on this sail. Having said that however, in this type of weather it should not even be considered and the lead of our shift should have seen that the conditions were too dangerous to attempt it. If anything, the Eagle crew should place permanent lines with chaffing gear and do away with this practice.**
Next we worked on the Mizzen Topmast Staysail. We routinely laid out the lines and had to wait for Orion and Calen to get the gaskets untied. Calen later complained that in one area he went up to, he had ended up right next to the black water vent and had taken a deep breath, Blah!
When Calen got to the bottom gasket, he worked and worked the line but could not get it free. He eventually moved over and Orion came up to work the knot and after much difficulty (and with me cheering him on), Orion managed to get it loose. We again tried to haul. I should mention that around the setting of the second sail, OC Bruce had started working with the watch lead to help her with her obvious confusion. Hard to think that if he hadn't started helping her, things could have been much worse.
When we finally started pulling on the halyard to the Mizzen T. Staysail, we only got a small part of the way before the halyard lines got tangled. We tried pulling harder to see if they would free themselves but no luck. We hauled it back up part of the way to try to untangle it. Orion had been sent down to check the downhaul. While we were waiting, we had not seen Orion come back. Since the watch lead was absent again, Calen and I headed down separately to see if he needed any assistance. We both found him at the base of the main waiting for direction. No more than two minutes later, the watch lead showed up and yelled abrasively "Are you comfortable? Are you relaxed? Get back aft and help!". This isn't boot camp, we're not recruits. We were there because of her lack of direction and were checking on a crew mate. Despite my blood coming to a boil, I decided to repress my anger for the good of the ship and crew. So I kept the peace and walked away.
We attempted to fix the halyard and pulled it over to the starboard side. OC Bruce and the watch lead attempted to get it untangled but were unsuccessful. We left the Mizzen Topmast Staysail for now and moved forward to set the Inner Jib.
As you might expect, this did not go smoothly either. Working on the bow in heavy seas and high winds is never easy but Calen and OC Bruce went and undid the gaskets for the Inner Jib on the bowsprit without hesitation. The watch lead got the sheets ready and a snatch-block set up for a stopper. We lined up as the line captain got the sheet off the pin. When he called out to haul, all the crew hauling in front me started taking a step back with each haul. Now the crew behind me did not do this as this was a hand over hand haul so you do not move from your spot. So I quickly was pinned between two crew members. The crewmen franticly kept hauling, ignoring the fact that their elbows were hitting me full force in the chest with every haul. Normally I would have yelled "Avast!" or "Hold" but it was obviously impossible since I couldn't talk while I was getting constantly pounded in the chest. I pulled myself out of the line hard and the crew kept hauling while I was completely ignored by the watch lead. When there was a pause in the hauling for the watch lead to set the stopper and reset the line, I jumped back on the line. Before we started the next haul, I called "For the love of god, do NOT step backwards when you do your haul!". The crew by this time realized what they had done to me and all replied in unison "Aye".
At the end of the next set of hauls, the watch lead was having trouble pulling the block back to reset the stopper so I jumped forward and pulled with her and jumped back into line. While we hauled and held the line, OC Bruce had gone over to help remove the stopper for the next rotation. To get the sheet secured quickly, he ran and completely slid on the deck, ducking under the sheet as he did. While he slid, he grabbed another line and pulled himself up in one motion was on his feet and started securing the sheet. We all gave him a "Woo-hoo!" for the quick performance and he started "rapping" some tunes he made up on the fly while we finished securing the lines. I couldn't hear him myself but Calen got a kick out of it and tried to imitate him later without success. We later called his slide the "superhero move".
We moved to the halyard and got set for the haul and I ended up as the line captain. Before we started, we had to kick hard on the block as it was stuck crooked. What else could go wrong? I brought the line off the pin and gave the commands to haul as directed by the watch lead. When we started getting to the end of the hauling, she screamed a command at me that I though sounded like "Haul" so I gave another haul. This caused the watch lead to get mad again and she screamed again and all I could hear was a short muffled sentence. I put my hand to my ear to prompt her to repeat the command and she screamed even louder and more unintelligible. Then it clicked in my head that the next step of this was to bring it to the pin so I ignored her and brought the line forward to the pin issuing the "back easy" and "take strain" commands. She immediately stopped me, screaming to bring the line to the other side of the pin. This was not the method I used so it threw me as it looked like it created a foul lead. So I proceeded to "C" the pin and figure eight the line but got yelled at again. I've lead lines for a long time so this was getting aggravating. I moved the line to where she directed again and went to finish putting it on the pin as she screamed for me to stop again and put in the locking hitch. This time I definitely lead it in reverse and had to pull it off again and redo it. I guess I wasn't surprised of my mistake at this point because of the stream of screamed unintelligible commands that confused and aggravated me.
I coiled and hung the line as the crew went back to work Mizzen Top Staysail again. When I got there, our official relief had arrived and it was determined they would finish working the problem and we were relieved of our watch. We walked back at 07:35 and many people joked that this had been the watch from hell.
The multiple problems from today were mostly caused by our watch leads inexperience and unwillingness to listen to the TSA crew. When we got back to our berth, Calen and Orion were still livid and said this shift soured them on the whole experience. We had seen safety issues and minor mistakes all week but nothing life threatening. I hoped that was just aggravation and exhaustion talking and that they would feel better after they got some rest. I grabbed some breakfast with extra bacon and sausage as a treat to myself for surviving the "Hell Watch". I'm still amazed even as I write this that no one was seriously hurt or injured. I started thinking that I might need to contact the XO and Captain after the voyage to hopefully address the safety and communication issues.
I was just finishing breakfast as the morning muster was called for all crew. If the announcement just got piped, that meant most of the crew was already lined up on the Waist. Great...I grabbed my tray and headed up but couldn't go out the starboard side to leave my dishes with the Scullery as they had closed off the hatch. That meant I had to go completely around the housing which meant going through the Waist....where the muster was! I went up anyway and found myself surrounded by Coast Guard Crew. I went to attention but pulled the tray and dishes behind my back, hoping I wouldn't get noticed. I had to wait after the crew was brought in for the morning talk by the Chief before I could squeeze by with my dishes.
If that’s how it is taking a showing in rough seas, imagine going to the bathroom. The toilets are jet suctions to try to prevent clogging. You are warned regularly to not put foreign objects into the toilets because they have to disassemble the sewage system to fix any clogs. Even with the warnings the toilets were clogged twice during the trip. They always threaten if they find out it was you that you will be assisting the damage control crew in fixing it which is a very messy job.
I'm actually writing this around 13:30 in the afternoon while the crew are at Sail Stations. We're only bracing the yards so I don't feel bad about not being there for the first time this week but I wanted to write this down while most of this day was still fresh in my mind and you'll see why soon enough.
When I got back to the berth, Calen and Orion were already suited up so I had to get dressed quickly as it was already 03:15. I noticed Orion came back for his foulies so I put on my warm raincoat and watch cap and headed up. It was pitch black and there was a cold wind howling on the weather deck. Despite the decks being soaked, it wasn't raining but we were getting tossed around quite a bit so we all got doused with sea spray regularly. I turned on my red light and made my way to the Main to meet the rest of the deck watch. The wind was so cold, I waited until we had a few minutes free so I quickly headed back down to pull on another layer of clothes and ran back up before I was needed.
While we were standing around waiting for orders, we found out that the watch previous to us had done absolutely no work during their watch. They had grabbed some leather and whipping and made designs while they sat around. Suddenly the red mast lights came on. The Eagle is equipped with bright multicolored lights on all the mastheads that point down to the deck. They can change the colors to white, yellow or red. When climbers are set to go up in the evening, they will turn on red of yellow lights so the climbers can see better without killing their or the bridge crews night vision. When the lights came on, I uttered an audible "uh-oh" which the group asked me to explain. I told them it looks like we may be climbing and setting sail but some were skeptical considering how bad the weather was. Five minutes later I was validated when a female crewman (she will remain nameless in this journal) who was going to be our watch lead for the evening came down and told us we were going to set most of the staysails and some jibs. She introduced herself and immediately told us she woke up in a bad mood which was apparent from her manner. We headed over to the main storage locker and grabbed our harnesses.
It was hard to understand why a four hour watch before us did absolutely nothing and now we were doing whatever was needed (I did confirm this later with a person who was on the previous watch) but ours is not the reason why yada yada yada... We headed forward to get the lines ready for the fore topmast staysail and went to set the sheet. We hauled and hauled again and only got some slight progress. We then hauled some more until we made no progress. It was obvious there was something wrong so Orion and I told the watch lead that the line needs to be checked. The watch lead still unconvinced about the source of the problem without any investigation, called in more people to haul. I should stress at the beginning of this that anytime there was any sort of pause whatsoever, we waited...holding onto the lines still with no explanation of what was happening. Sometimes we waited for 10 minutes or more without any explanation and don't forget, the wind was blowing extremely hard and the ship roll was fairly extreme. So we waited until she had gathered a bunch more crew to haul the line and we hauled and hauled some more and still made no progress. Now she finally went to investigate and after another long wait, she came back mad and moved us to another line. Yup, she had put us on the wrong line. Luckily we didn’t break anything.
Now we had the right line and Orion asked the watch lead if she wanted him to tend the sheet as it would need it for setting. She angrily replied "No" and sent him to the halyard with us. We started hauling on the halyard and sure enough, we got part way up before the halyard stopped hard. The watch lead went and released the sheet that hadn't been tended. We finally hauled together and got the sail set.
We moved on to the bow to place the lines for the Main Topmast Staysail. We again waited while the watch lead appeared and disappeared on deck, leaving us holding onto lines with no direction. We finally threaded the sheets and manned the halyard which took a good half hour or more. When I looked forward, I found it odd that Johnson and Calen were leaning on the port rails facing outboard by the Main Staysail sheets. We started to haul on the halyard in the heavy winds and Johnson and Calen were engulfed in the Main Topmost Staysail. Being unable to see them until we hauled the sail high enough, I suddenly realized how much danger they had been in. Had they been there accidentally? Calen was very unhappy at this point and told me he was mad but he'd talk to me about it later so I didn't realize how bad it was yet.
The watch lead pulled us in after again waiting for her to disappear and reappear, called us in and apologized for screwing up the first haul. The OOD also came over and thanked us for our hard work in this difficult weather. They dismissed us for a break so we could come back fresh to set some more sails.
When we got to the Mess deck , I finally asked Johnson what had happened and she told me she was told to stand there by the watch leader to be "human chaffing gear"! To add to my total disbelief, Calen described what had happened when they were engulfed by the sail. He looked over and saw when the sail hit them, Johnson was lifted off the ground and started going over the rail. Fearing for her life, he immediately leaped over and grabbed her and pulled her back down. He was relieved to find that she had clipped herself in to the rail so at worse she would have been thrown over the rail and hung there but likely with injury.
For the first time, I now felt angry. The watch lead had put two of my team in danger on purpose. Her concern hadn't been for them, it had been to make sure the sail didn't get fouled in the equipment went it came up. In a light wind this may have been less of an issue but was unbelievably dangerous in this high wind. Any part of the equipment on the sail could have hit them hard and injured them severely, never mind being pulled over a rail at risk to their lives. I did my best to walk this off but was then determined to get as much detail into my journal as soon as I got the chance. I'm not sure who I would tell or why yet, but it's important to me to get this in writing. We did swear to each other at this point that if we saw another situation that put any of us in danger, we would either try to stop everything or completely walk away rather than put the crew or ourselves in any danger.
**Note that looking back on this incident later, I realize that the method of using human chaffing gear is a standard procedure for this crew on this sail. Having said that however, in this type of weather it should not even be considered and the lead of our shift should have seen that the conditions were too dangerous to attempt it. If anything, the Eagle crew should place permanent lines with chaffing gear and do away with this practice.**
Next we worked on the Mizzen Topmast Staysail. We routinely laid out the lines and had to wait for Orion and Calen to get the gaskets untied. Calen later complained that in one area he went up to, he had ended up right next to the black water vent and had taken a deep breath, Blah!
When Calen got to the bottom gasket, he worked and worked the line but could not get it free. He eventually moved over and Orion came up to work the knot and after much difficulty (and with me cheering him on), Orion managed to get it loose. We again tried to haul. I should mention that around the setting of the second sail, OC Bruce had started working with the watch lead to help her with her obvious confusion. Hard to think that if he hadn't started helping her, things could have been much worse.
When we finally started pulling on the halyard to the Mizzen T. Staysail, we only got a small part of the way before the halyard lines got tangled. We tried pulling harder to see if they would free themselves but no luck. We hauled it back up part of the way to try to untangle it. Orion had been sent down to check the downhaul. While we were waiting, we had not seen Orion come back. Since the watch lead was absent again, Calen and I headed down separately to see if he needed any assistance. We both found him at the base of the main waiting for direction. No more than two minutes later, the watch lead showed up and yelled abrasively "Are you comfortable? Are you relaxed? Get back aft and help!". This isn't boot camp, we're not recruits. We were there because of her lack of direction and were checking on a crew mate. Despite my blood coming to a boil, I decided to repress my anger for the good of the ship and crew. So I kept the peace and walked away.
We attempted to fix the halyard and pulled it over to the starboard side. OC Bruce and the watch lead attempted to get it untangled but were unsuccessful. We left the Mizzen Topmast Staysail for now and moved forward to set the Inner Jib.
As you might expect, this did not go smoothly either. Working on the bow in heavy seas and high winds is never easy but Calen and OC Bruce went and undid the gaskets for the Inner Jib on the bowsprit without hesitation. The watch lead got the sheets ready and a snatch-block set up for a stopper. We lined up as the line captain got the sheet off the pin. When he called out to haul, all the crew hauling in front me started taking a step back with each haul. Now the crew behind me did not do this as this was a hand over hand haul so you do not move from your spot. So I quickly was pinned between two crew members. The crewmen franticly kept hauling, ignoring the fact that their elbows were hitting me full force in the chest with every haul. Normally I would have yelled "Avast!" or "Hold" but it was obviously impossible since I couldn't talk while I was getting constantly pounded in the chest. I pulled myself out of the line hard and the crew kept hauling while I was completely ignored by the watch lead. When there was a pause in the hauling for the watch lead to set the stopper and reset the line, I jumped back on the line. Before we started the next haul, I called "For the love of god, do NOT step backwards when you do your haul!". The crew by this time realized what they had done to me and all replied in unison "Aye".
At the end of the next set of hauls, the watch lead was having trouble pulling the block back to reset the stopper so I jumped forward and pulled with her and jumped back into line. While we hauled and held the line, OC Bruce had gone over to help remove the stopper for the next rotation. To get the sheet secured quickly, he ran and completely slid on the deck, ducking under the sheet as he did. While he slid, he grabbed another line and pulled himself up in one motion was on his feet and started securing the sheet. We all gave him a "Woo-hoo!" for the quick performance and he started "rapping" some tunes he made up on the fly while we finished securing the lines. I couldn't hear him myself but Calen got a kick out of it and tried to imitate him later without success. We later called his slide the "superhero move".
We moved to the halyard and got set for the haul and I ended up as the line captain. Before we started, we had to kick hard on the block as it was stuck crooked. What else could go wrong? I brought the line off the pin and gave the commands to haul as directed by the watch lead. When we started getting to the end of the hauling, she screamed a command at me that I though sounded like "Haul" so I gave another haul. This caused the watch lead to get mad again and she screamed again and all I could hear was a short muffled sentence. I put my hand to my ear to prompt her to repeat the command and she screamed even louder and more unintelligible. Then it clicked in my head that the next step of this was to bring it to the pin so I ignored her and brought the line forward to the pin issuing the "back easy" and "take strain" commands. She immediately stopped me, screaming to bring the line to the other side of the pin. This was not the method I used so it threw me as it looked like it created a foul lead. So I proceeded to "C" the pin and figure eight the line but got yelled at again. I've lead lines for a long time so this was getting aggravating. I moved the line to where she directed again and went to finish putting it on the pin as she screamed for me to stop again and put in the locking hitch. This time I definitely lead it in reverse and had to pull it off again and redo it. I guess I wasn't surprised of my mistake at this point because of the stream of screamed unintelligible commands that confused and aggravated me.
I coiled and hung the line as the crew went back to work Mizzen Top Staysail again. When I got there, our official relief had arrived and it was determined they would finish working the problem and we were relieved of our watch. We walked back at 07:35 and many people joked that this had been the watch from hell.
The multiple problems from today were mostly caused by our watch leads inexperience and unwillingness to listen to the TSA crew. When we got back to our berth, Calen and Orion were still livid and said this shift soured them on the whole experience. We had seen safety issues and minor mistakes all week but nothing life threatening. I hoped that was just aggravation and exhaustion talking and that they would feel better after they got some rest. I grabbed some breakfast with extra bacon and sausage as a treat to myself for surviving the "Hell Watch". I'm still amazed even as I write this that no one was seriously hurt or injured. I started thinking that I might need to contact the XO and Captain after the voyage to hopefully address the safety and communication issues.
I was just finishing breakfast as the morning muster was called for all crew. If the announcement just got piped, that meant most of the crew was already lined up on the Waist. Great...I grabbed my tray and headed up but couldn't go out the starboard side to leave my dishes with the Scullery as they had closed off the hatch. That meant I had to go completely around the housing which meant going through the Waist....where the muster was! I went up anyway and found myself surrounded by Coast Guard Crew. I went to attention but pulled the tray and dishes behind my back, hoping I wouldn't get noticed. I had to wait after the crew was brought in for the morning talk by the Chief before I could squeeze by with my dishes.
I was pretty tired by now but I knew we had to do day work duty this morning from 09:00 to 11:00 because of a schedule adjustment. Calen and Orion had already informed Johnson they would not be attending so I felt obliged to be there to take up the slack. I wrote a few notes to keep things straight in my head and started helping out on the Mess deck when 09:00 came up.
An officer came down and asked for two volunteers to go up to the Wardroom to Assist. Since I had never done it, I was happy to try something different although no one else was quick to volunteer. Abney from ROTC volunteered when they asked again and so did Solari who didn't know two of us had already volunteered. Solari stayed back and Abney and myself were ordered to head back to assist.
I had spent a little time with people from almost every group and I could tell Abney was dependable and a good guy. I lead the way to the Wardroom Galley and we found it empty. We realized a woman we had passed on our way back was heading forward...probably to do what we had come to do for her. We waited in the small galley and she eventually came back with an armload of supplies. She introduced herself quickly as Donna and we apologized for not being able to help sooner. She said she doesn't like to wait and would just prefer to do it herself rather than hang around. We offered our help but found it was too early to set the tables and we needed to wait for Dan to give us some work. My heart dropped a beat at the name as this was the guy who had yelled at me for doing nothing wrong going to the CO Lunch earlier this week.
I had noticed that Wesley, the Captain of the Niagra was typing in the Wardroom and was told earlier he had been looking for me. He had been put in charge of getting the names and Social Security numbers of all TSA members so they could issue us our Sea Time certificates. I entered the Wardroom and greeted a score of officers and guests there. I gave a big hello to Red, the former Captain of the Sea Cloud who I was really getting to like and Allen, another guest I had met on deck who obviously knew a lot of the Eagles operations. This seemed to help the other officers and guests come and talk and they were all very friendly and talkative.
I formally introduced myself to Wesley as we had met briefly on deck a few times before. He had been typing out a manual on his computer and took down my information. We chatted about our ships a bit and Wesley got up and said he'd go ahead and submit my information to the XO right now. I followed him out to hall when XO Turdo showed up as if on queue. I had been trying to figure out the best way to see him to make Captain Jeremy's request of direct communication with the Eagle from the Friendship of Salem. Wesley gave him my information and pointed me out and XO Turdo said he'd take care of it today. I decided there would be no better time to make this request so I introduced myself and gave him my pitch - "XO Turdo, Chief Willard said I should speak with you regarding the communication between our two ships. I proceeded "The Captain of the Friendship of Salem sends his regards and requests that he be able to communicate directly with you regarding sending more of The Friendship crew on board for training in the future. Currently the Friendship of Salem is undergoing hull repairs and may not be able to sail for another year or so and it would help if we could keep our crew skills current while helping train your own crew." XO Turdo replied "Absolutely! I'd be happy to take his requests.". I told XO Turdo that I would forward his email contact information to our Captain and thanked him for the honor of serving on board and his consideration of our request.
Wesley returned to the Wardroom to write and XO Turdo went on his way so I returned to the Wardroom Galley to assist. Donna was still preparing lunch so she had Abney and myself go forward to the main Galley to find Don. If we didn't find him on the way, we were to request the Galley supply us with twelve summer squashes and bring them back with us. If they said no, talk to Mr. Torske to get it done.
On our way back to the Mess deck , Abney hit his head on the ceiling of the stairs. Abney was easily over 6 feet tall and being just under 6 feet tall myself, almost hit my head there before. He mentioned he has this kind of trouble all over the ship. When we got to the Mess deck , there was Don standing with the day workers so I called out "Hi Don". I got back a gruff "What?" and I explained we were sent forward to find him and if not, get the squash. He barked back "Who sent you? Donna?" Not fully remembering her name yet, I took a shot and replied "Yes" and Don decided I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. Don checked with Lauren to see if she had been told to prepare the squash and she said she hadn't. Abney and I told Don we'd continue on and get the squash and bring it up. Don started telling a story to Lauren and myself at the time but I unfortunately do not recall the details. The important thing is that by the end of the conversation, I realized that Don's gruff manor was just who he was and he was really a great guy.
Abner had gone ahead and retrieved the twelve summer squashes and we brought them forward to the Wardroom Galley. Donna showed Abney how to cut them and I started to peel hard boiled eggs for egg salad. Donna gave me a grate to push the eggs through so I didn't have to chop them up.
Talking with Donna was a hoot. Though she was often the Wardroom cook, there were few food items I could name that she liked in any way. Onions, celery, seafood, meat..I kept naming items and she either would eat them if she had to or would avoid them altogether. Now I eat almost anything so I found it funny that one of the few things I'm not crazy about (cooked mushrooms) she absolutely loved. In fact she didn't like egg salad and I questioned her when she threw in a giant glop of relish after having already mixed in mayonnaise. She said she added whatever she could find and when people complemented her on it, she decided to keep it in despite the fact she had never tasted it (or most of her other cooking as well) herself.
During this time Don and other officers and guests would stop in for a snack or just to talk. I was loving this duty as the people I was exposed to were all so friendly and open. A Commander from the Navy came in and he was of course Abners commanding officer. He had heard the tail end of the story of me going airborne off the deck and accidentally getting it on video and he proceeded to tell us of an incident of when he was serving on a sub.
They had just finished traveling from Alaska to Hawaii and the climate change does a number to the condition of the exterior metal of the sub. After they surfaced, the crew attempted to go up and out which requires going through two inner scuttles and then a clamshell door that pulls inward. The clamshell door was completely seized and they pulled hard but were unable to get it open. The Commander decided to go up through another very small exterior access door with a really big hammer. I piped in "Oohhhhh, this isn't going to end well...". Because of the location he was, there were no clip in points to secure him safely so he just stood at the top of the access and reached over and started slamming the clamshell door hard with the hammer. This was having no effect at all so he got on top of the clamshell exterior and started hammering down even harder.
Keep in mind the sub is still moving and they have no watches set on deck yet because of the door issue so the subs visibility is limited to the periscope. The sub struck a big wave at this point that hit the commander and threw him off his feet and almost over the side. He was now hanging on to the edge of the exterior access with one hand and the hammer in the other. The sub was still en-route to it's destination so all he could imagine was dropping into the ocean and getting chopped up by the subs screws. He pulled himself back up through the access and decided to abandon this line of repair and went back to the interior section under the clamshell door.
The Commander got another idea and took the two clips from his harness and hooked them to either side of the door and hung on them with all his weight and it actually worked! The doors pulled down and opened. He added that the clip areas he was on were not designed for it so if they had given he would have propelled himself straight down all the way to the bridge and would not have escaped without injury. But in the end it was a success.
The Commander left us to our duties and Donna gave Abner some vegetables to chop. There was nothing else to do except set the table at 10:30. We couldn't set it early because of the rolling of the ship, most of the dishes and tableware would have ended up on the floor. I excused myself to go assist on the mess-deck, promising to return in time to set the Wardroom table.
I went to the mess-deck but it was fairly empty so I checked the Galley and Scullery but they didn't need help or had just relieved the previous watch. I returned to the mess-deck and found Lauren there.
My experience with Lauren was first always seeing her on deck in a USCG t-shirt, even when it was cold and snowing. I talked to her whenever I had the chance and she was always joking and friendly. She was assigned to the mess-deck for two weeks which is apparently how it works with the rotation so we got used to seeing her almost any time we were on the mess-deck. She was a hard worker but always had a smile and was easy to joke with.
When I first met her, she was sitting on a bench at what would be her usual table and spot closest to the serving area. She looked a bit "green" and I saw a patch behind her ear that some people use to help stave off sea sickness. She had been with the Eagle a number of years but every time they go underway, it still takes her two or three days before she stops feeling sea sick. That surprised me but apparently it's not uncommon. I'm happy to say I never felt seasick at all during the voyage, even when the storms were raging.
Lauren didn't need much help at this time so after I brought some of her dishes up to the Scullery, I headed back to the Wardroom to assist with setting and passed Abner on the way who was bringing dishes from the Wardroom Galley to the Scullery. When I arrived, I patiently waited for Don who came in and said that the officers were still in the Wardroom in a meeting and that we'd have to wait.
Don, Donna and myself stood and chatted for a while until Elizabeth, another TSA member, came in and told me she was relieving me. My Day Work shift now concluded, I made my way to the mess-deck. I retrieved my iPad and began doing some more writing, hoping to get caught up as much as possible.
I set myself up in the back of the room so I could get some back support against the wall while I write and Orion and Calen came in and let me know there was a rumor that the ships store was going to open in 15 minutes. Were we psyched and immediately grabbed our cash from our berths and made our way aft. We had to get a crewmember to direct us where it was located on the lower deck.
Down the stairs past the Chiefs quarters we found it discreetly located next to the small gym. We patiently waited for the store to open when they piped over the intercom that the ships store would be open in 10 minutes. This confirmed the rumor and we were set to go.
Rumors are funny things aboard the Eagle. I found that with a few small exceptions, most of the rumors I heard were completely true. I think they start off as "rumors" because unless it is confirmed by an officer or piped, the event doesn't officially exist yet.
**Unfortunately I am now writing in this journal a week later than when the last two and a half days happened. I tried to avoid this knowing I would forget the some details but I at least made some notes and though it may be lacking, it should still be a good picture of what happened.**
There was a crewman there that was waiting for another crewman or two to help him open the store. He handed out some price sheets so we could look over the goods. We didn’t have to worry about tax and were excited to see the crew clothes and accessories listed. They also sell candy, soda, energy drinks as well as promotional material that they sell when they sell items in port when they attend events.
I don’t think there was one TSA member who didn’t want a Coast Guard Eagle Crew lid (baseball hat), coat or shirt. Our hopes were dashed however when the crewman there said they would not sell any of the crew items (located in the left column) to non-Eagle crew.
They do sell many other items and as I reviewed everything, I realized to get the things I wanted I would not have enough cash. Plenty in the bank but with no way to get it. So I could get a mug ($5), sticker ($2), t-shirt ($18), non-Eagle crew lid but still cool ($14) and then I had to decide if I wanted to get an Eagle zippo lighter ($18 and damn cool). Although I wanted the lighter too, I just had to get my friend Tony a present for driving me down to New London and he would absolutely love it so I sucked it up.
Orion decided not to wait anymore and headed back to our berth. Another crewman eventually came down and opened up the shop. I reviewed what I was buying with them but they had trouble finding a lot of the stuff I asked for. I settled on a lid and shirt but they couldn’t find the lighters. They asked me to come back in a half hour to check again.
I brought my loot up the stairs and the line went up the stairs and down the hall. The line was both TSA and guests with a few Eagle crewmen. I got to brag a bit about being first in line and then showed my purchases. I mentioned I had enough money left to buy the lighter and Doug offered to lend me some money if there was something I really wanted, like a crew lid. I had to point out no one could purchase any Eagle crew items and they all looked just as disappointed as our group did when we found out. I brought my loot back to our berth to carefully pack under my bunk.
I hung out a bit on the Mess deck and headed back when the half hour was due. Brian and some other TSA were still in line and we watched as other people brought up their purchase to show off. Orion and many other people brought up the Eagle Christmas ornaments. They were a very popular purchase and I probably would have got one if I had the extra cash. Someone brought up a polo shirt and a hat I hadn’t seen. It was the blue coast guard colors and much better than the one I settled on.
I lamented that I couldn’t afford the polo and Orion offered to lend me $20. I said I would pay him back either in port or send him the money since he wasn’t sure if he was staying Friday night yet.
When I got back to the front of the line, Mike had joined us and he watched as I asked to exchange my previous lid and got a nice large blue embroidered polo. They were going to close soon so Mike went back to get his money as he wanted a polo too and asked to tell people they keep the store open until he get’s back. I had to do a mad dash back to my berth so I could exchange my lid. When I got back they exchanged it no problem and after the last person in line was done, they were going to close when I asked them to stay open just a few minutes as Mike was coming back.
Mike arrived with his money and bought a few things. After he thanked me for getting them to stay open, he acted mad at me when he found out I had bought the last large polo and all they had left were extra large. He settled on a large of a different cream color. He playfully threatened to hurt me if I ever showed up on the Fame wearing it. Maybe if I took a photo of me wearing it while holding a ransom note….naaahhhhh. Despite being short a zippo, I happily hauled the rest of my loot back to pack under my bunk.
There’s a saying in the Coast Guard that goes “If you’re there on time, then you’re late”. Simply put, they expect you to be there before your appointed time for anything. So around 12:40 when they first called the officers to Quarters, we went to the waist to line up for the call to Quarters.
When the call was received, we came to attention. Officer Solari then asked each Mast Captain to respond if all his crew are present and accounted for. The Mast Captains should have already checked with the lead of each group to be ready for his response. By this time in the voyage we all showed up to Quarters as we now knew we should. We were then issued the command “Fall out ALFA Company” and the response was “Fall out ALFA Company, aye!”.
We were then pulled into a group where the officers would then recognize crew for special acts or promotions. After we were dismissed from Quarters, I saw Captain Pulver go up to the Quarterdeck. Earlier in the week I had mentioned to some TSA crew that it would be great if we could get permission from the Captain to get a photo of him and some officers with the TSA. I followed him up but he was talking to another officer. He saw me waiting and said in his usual energetic way, “You need me? Just give me two minutes…”.
So I respectfully stepped back, turned away and folded my arms behind me to give him some privacy for his conversation. About ten minutes later, the rest of the bridge officers showed up for their sail stations brief. Captain Pulver walked over to meet them so I stepped out of the way and he saw me again and called over “Are you mad at me?” to which I answered immediately “No sir!”. He replied “Good! Make your request to the Chief then and he’ll take care of you.”. “Aye sir!” I said as I walked away to find Chief Willard.
Often during the week, Captain Pulver has simply walked up to me and we did a bit of joking around. We had already had our CO lunch and I always enjoyed our talks. I’ve been sure to follow any military procedure out of respect to the Eagle crew and I hoped it helped in some small way earn some of their respect. But by this time I realized that I had breached military etiquette and approached the Captain directly instead of making my request through a lower officer first.
So when I walked away I swung around the group on the quarterdeck because I saw Chief Willard on the other side. The meeting hadn’t started yet so I called out “Chief Willard” and he came over and asked what I needed. “Chief Willard, I would like to make a formal request for the TSA to meet with the Captain and any other officers who would like to join us for a photo with the Captain and TSA crew. I know Captain Pulver has an extremely busy schedule but you just name the time and place and we’ll be there.”. The Chief thought it was a great idea and put up a finger from each hand like he was making goal posts and said “I’ll make this happen!”. I thanked him and made my way back down to my berth.
On my way down I told Brian that I made the request and he laughed because that’s exactly what he was about to do. I also told a few other TSA crew when I passed them on the mess deck about my request so now we just had to wait and see.
I grabbed my iPad and started doing some writing on the mess deck before the details of the morning events faded from my memory. Sail Stations were called and I for the first time ignored them as I wanted to make sure I got whatever writing done that I could. They were only bracing anyway so I didn’t feel I was being neglectful.
While I was writing, a few OC’s came onto the Mess Deck with a bunch of charts and equipment. OC’s Schaefer, Coker and Litsingcok started putting up the charts and I realized they were prepping for the Nav and Weather brief. This was the first time I had seen the OC’s actually get there early and practice their brief before presenting it to the Captain. They asked me and another officer if we would watch and give them any pointers. I of course agreed and pointed out that they should get the microphone and learn how to use it during their practice run.
They went through it once and they had even made detachable icons to represent the Eagle and the low and high pressure systems. I commented that they need to make sure they keep the microphone up by their mouth as other presenters had used the mike earlier in the week and held it so far away, it didn’t even pick up their voice. Another higher ranking officer joined us for the third run through and he gave them some pointers on what questions the Captain would probably ask them such as would we have a following tide and how it would effect us coming into Charleston.
They had to go ask some other crew for more information to make sure they were prepped. I told them they are obviously the best prepped presentation this week and good luck.
The weather today was now the nicest it’s been since we left port. I grabbed my iPad and went to the fantail to get some writing done in the warm sun. When I arrived on the fantail, I was talking to some crew while someone announced “Captain on deck” and he came up through the aft door. As practiced, I went to attention and brought up my right hand in salute.
To my surprise, Captain Pulver saw and approached me and returned my salute so I could release mine. In my head I was thinking “Ok, that was cool!”. Captain Pulver then said with his usual dynamic energy, “Hi Max! Sorry I couldn’t talk to you earlier, what was your request?”. Now a bit confused over military etiquette I made the request again directly to the Captain, “The TSA crew would like to make a formal request for the TSA to meet with the Captain and any other officers who would like to join us for a photo with the Captain and TSA crew. We know you have a very busy schedule but if you agree, name the time and place and we’ll be there.”
Captain Pulver replied “Oh I think that’s a great idea! Let’s make this happen. How about at 18:20 today on the fantail? We don’t have anything else scheduled for after, right?”. As he started walking away, I scanned the schedule in my memory and replied “I believe we have a leadership meeting at 18:45 sir.” The Captain said “Leadership meeting? Oh the officer who was giving that missed the boat so that’s been cancelled. So I’ll have it piped so all the TSA crew know when and where to meet just in case there’s a change.”. As he walked off, I managed to stammer out a “Uh..Thank you, Captain!” before he disappeared on the quarterdeck.
I have come to understand that while there is military etiquette we should follow, the Captain is the only one who get’s to decide his own etiquette.
Before I went back down to the mess deck to continue writing, I found as many TSA crew as I could all over the ship and informed them what happened. I wanted everyone to be ready for the photo and not have to panic into putting on nice clothes or brush their hair.
I returned to my usual spot in the back of the mess deck to continue writing. The OC’s brought the charts in and had me guard them for the presentation. Around 14:55, they announced the Nav and Weather brief for 15:00. I was thrilled when Red came and joined me as I gave him a hearty greeting.
So I respectfully stepped back, turned away and folded my arms behind me to give him some privacy for his conversation. About ten minutes later, the rest of the bridge officers showed up for their sail stations brief. Captain Pulver walked over to meet them so I stepped out of the way and he saw me again and called over “Are you mad at me?” to which I answered immediately “No sir!”. He replied “Good! Make your request to the Chief then and he’ll take care of you.”. “Aye sir!” I said as I walked away to find Chief Willard.
Often during the week, Captain Pulver has simply walked up to me and we did a bit of joking around. We had already had our CO lunch and I always enjoyed our talks. I’ve been sure to follow any military procedure out of respect to the Eagle crew and I hoped it helped in some small way earn some of their respect. But by this time I realized that I had breached military etiquette and approached the Captain directly instead of making my request through a lower officer first.
So when I walked away I swung around the group on the quarterdeck because I saw Chief Willard on the other side. The meeting hadn’t started yet so I called out “Chief Willard” and he came over and asked what I needed. “Chief Willard, I would like to make a formal request for the TSA to meet with the Captain and any other officers who would like to join us for a photo with the Captain and TSA crew. I know Captain Pulver has an extremely busy schedule but you just name the time and place and we’ll be there.”. The Chief thought it was a great idea and put up a finger from each hand like he was making goal posts and said “I’ll make this happen!”. I thanked him and made my way back down to my berth.
On my way down I told Brian that I made the request and he laughed because that’s exactly what he was about to do. I also told a few other TSA crew when I passed them on the mess deck about my request so now we just had to wait and see.
I grabbed my iPad and started doing some writing on the mess deck before the details of the morning events faded from my memory. Sail Stations were called and I for the first time ignored them as I wanted to make sure I got whatever writing done that I could. They were only bracing anyway so I didn’t feel I was being neglectful.
While I was writing, a few OC’s came onto the Mess Deck with a bunch of charts and equipment. OC’s Schaefer, Coker and Litsingcok started putting up the charts and I realized they were prepping for the Nav and Weather brief. This was the first time I had seen the OC’s actually get there early and practice their brief before presenting it to the Captain. They asked me and another officer if we would watch and give them any pointers. I of course agreed and pointed out that they should get the microphone and learn how to use it during their practice run.
They went through it once and they had even made detachable icons to represent the Eagle and the low and high pressure systems. I commented that they need to make sure they keep the microphone up by their mouth as other presenters had used the mike earlier in the week and held it so far away, it didn’t even pick up their voice. Another higher ranking officer joined us for the third run through and he gave them some pointers on what questions the Captain would probably ask them such as would we have a following tide and how it would effect us coming into Charleston.
They had to go ask some other crew for more information to make sure they were prepped. I told them they are obviously the best prepped presentation this week and good luck.
The weather today was now the nicest it’s been since we left port. I grabbed my iPad and went to the fantail to get some writing done in the warm sun. When I arrived on the fantail, I was talking to some crew while someone announced “Captain on deck” and he came up through the aft door. As practiced, I went to attention and brought up my right hand in salute.
To my surprise, Captain Pulver saw and approached me and returned my salute so I could release mine. In my head I was thinking “Ok, that was cool!”. Captain Pulver then said with his usual dynamic energy, “Hi Max! Sorry I couldn’t talk to you earlier, what was your request?”. Now a bit confused over military etiquette I made the request again directly to the Captain, “The TSA crew would like to make a formal request for the TSA to meet with the Captain and any other officers who would like to join us for a photo with the Captain and TSA crew. We know you have a very busy schedule but if you agree, name the time and place and we’ll be there.”
Captain Pulver replied “Oh I think that’s a great idea! Let’s make this happen. How about at 18:20 today on the fantail? We don’t have anything else scheduled for after, right?”. As he started walking away, I scanned the schedule in my memory and replied “I believe we have a leadership meeting at 18:45 sir.” The Captain said “Leadership meeting? Oh the officer who was giving that missed the boat so that’s been cancelled. So I’ll have it piped so all the TSA crew know when and where to meet just in case there’s a change.”. As he walked off, I managed to stammer out a “Uh..Thank you, Captain!” before he disappeared on the quarterdeck.
I have come to understand that while there is military etiquette we should follow, the Captain is the only one who get’s to decide his own etiquette.
Before I went back down to the mess deck to continue writing, I found as many TSA crew as I could all over the ship and informed them what happened. I wanted everyone to be ready for the photo and not have to panic into putting on nice clothes or brush their hair.
I returned to my usual spot in the back of the mess deck to continue writing. The OC’s brought the charts in and had me guard them for the presentation. Around 14:55, they announced the Nav and Weather brief for 15:00. I was thrilled when Red came and joined me as I gave him a hearty greeting.
OC’s Schaefer, Coker and Litsingcok were resetting the charts when the Captain, XO and another officer joined the briefing. As they ran through it, the Captain joked that he hoped everyone else was taking notes as they easily turned chart pages because of setting them in advance over one another. You could see the surprise on the officers faces when they placed the paper icons they made onto the charts.
The Captain then started asking them questions but they were unfazed as they rattled off the answers as the previous officer had called correctly what the Captain and XO might ask. If one of the OC’s were not entirely sure about the answer, they deferred to the OC that did. The officers gave some notes to the crew on other things we would need to watch out for during our approach to Charleston. After a review of the Risk Assessment, things ended with an applause for the OC’s. As they were packing, I told the OC’s “Definitely the best presentation of the week”.
After the Nav and Weather brief was over, we were turned around to the other side of the mess deck for what they were calling our “Liberty briefing”. The two “Moral Officers” one Eagle crew and the other NOAA, reviewed what would be expected of everyone when in Charleston. They used a slideshow on the TV to go over the best places to eat and spots to avoid, what numbers to call in an emergency, how to act when dealing with the police and most importantly, what scams to avoid that have been happening in the area.
The Captain then started asking them questions but they were unfazed as they rattled off the answers as the previous officer had called correctly what the Captain and XO might ask. If one of the OC’s were not entirely sure about the answer, they deferred to the OC that did. The officers gave some notes to the crew on other things we would need to watch out for during our approach to Charleston. After a review of the Risk Assessment, things ended with an applause for the OC’s. As they were packing, I told the OC’s “Definitely the best presentation of the week”.
After the Nav and Weather brief was over, we were turned around to the other side of the mess deck for what they were calling our “Liberty briefing”. The two “Moral Officers” one Eagle crew and the other NOAA, reviewed what would be expected of everyone when in Charleston. They used a slideshow on the TV to go over the best places to eat and spots to avoid, what numbers to call in an emergency, how to act when dealing with the police and most importantly, what scams to avoid that have been happening in the area.
When they got to the point about crew drinking to excess, an officer stepped in and said that if he hears of anyone getting into trouble with the local authorities, he will get them on a plane to New London so fast it will make their head spin and he would include a nice notation for their permanent record. How the crew acts with locals in any port is important with the USCG.
After we were dismissed, I went back up to the fantail to attempt to do some more writing. I was joined off and on by TSA and Eagle crew. As I was appointed the keeper of the contact information, I made sure anyone who wanted to entered their information into a spreadsheet on my iPad so we could keep in contact after the voyage. I made sure I got OC Johnson’s email and thanked her for the last week as Calen took a photo of us.
After we were dismissed, I went back up to the fantail to attempt to do some more writing. I was joined off and on by TSA and Eagle crew. As I was appointed the keeper of the contact information, I made sure anyone who wanted to entered their information into a spreadsheet on my iPad so we could keep in contact after the voyage. I made sure I got OC Johnson’s email and thanked her for the last week as Calen took a photo of us.
As 18:20 was closing in, an announcement was piped calling all TSA crew to meet on the fantail at 18:20. Because of my warning, most of us were already there. At 18:15, I noticed Jonny Slanga was almost at the royals on the Main. I told Orion I doubted he would make it down in time but we’ll take the photo with whoever was there.
Captain Pulver and XO Turdo showed up at 18:20 on the dot and to my surprise as we lined up in front of the Captains Coffin, Jonny walked right in line! He must have raced right down the Main to make it in time. You’ll notice in the photo that he is the only one in harness.
The ships photographer snapped a few photos which wasn’t easy considering the size of the group and he couldn’t go behind the railing. We joked with each other and luckily the fish bowl wide lens he had worked perfectly. Brian had also given him his camera to see if he could get a shot.
Afterwards Captain Pulver and XO Turdo thanked the TSA crew for coming on the voyage and that our knowledge for training their own crew was extremely valuable. We all thanked the Captain and XO Turdo and gave them a “Hip, hip, huzzah!” before they went back to their stations. The rest of us hung around on the fantail for a while and joked around before going back to whatever we were doing.
I went to seek Chief Willard later to thank him for trying to get the photo and joked with him regarding his retirement countdown. I said “…only 384 days to retirement!” and he corrected me as he had recently checked his iPhone app and he had 385 days left to go which also included hours, minutes and seconds. I also scolded him for not showing up for the photo since I specifically asked that he attend. He apologized for missing it before we got called to the mess deck for dinner.
I ate another lite dinner because the rumor was we were going to sail stations after dinner to furl. This time I headed out as soon as they called the officers for sail stations and got a harness from the main storage box. I’ll be damned if I missed climbing because I wasn’t at the front of the pack this time. They called sail station for all crew and I went aft to the Mizzen. As I got there, the mizzen crew was already moving forward. I was told that because the mizzen was still not fully repaired, we were to assist the other masts.
Most of us waited around the main for an assignment. This time when Mr. Thomas was calling for hands to furl the royal, my hand shot up immediately. Unfortunately it didn’t matter as I was passed over until they got to the course yard. He first asked for volunteers for the QT and stated he wanted an Eagle Crewman and TSA for the opposite tips of every yard. This was another USCG procedure that we were not used to.
The QT means that you have an experienced crew hand on either end of the yard shouting out the furling orders to the crew inward. This way the crew on either side of the yard can hear the commands. This didn’t seem to make sense to use as on every tall ship we have seen, you have a yard or mast captain in the center of the yard shout the orders so both sides of the yard can hear you. So when Brian asked why they needed two, I piped in and let them know how most of the other tall ships do it.
At first Mr. Thomas and the other officer looked surprised at our suggestion until Mr. Thomas said that idea makes a lot of sense. "That's why you're here, to tell us how the other ships do it since we don't know". “Today for the other yards we'll do this like normal” so he chose myself and Brian to be the QT’s since we were TSA. However a few minutes of discussion later he said “Let’s try it that way with the course” and elected Brian to be the yard lead.
We joined the other crew already making their way up the main shrouds. It struck me when I realized they didn’t make any calls getting off or on the shrouds either. As a safety procedure to warn other crew, we would normally shout out “Laying on Main shroud starboard side” so the climbers knew someone else was coming up behind them. Same when climbing off the shrouds, you call out “laying off”.
I anxiously hopped up to the platform holding the shrouds and as I went up, I knocked my knee on a giant bolt. I’m not used to there being steel bolts at the bottom of shrouds. It stung a bit but I continued my climb up the shrouds to the course yard. Because these shrouds were actually tight steel cables underneath, the normal bouncing you get when you climb was minimal. We had to wait on the shrouds a bit while we waited for crew above us to get over the top. The futtocks are easy to climb so going over the top is a piece of cake compared to the Friendships.
In this case I wasn’t going up to the top but stepping across over a wrapped line onto the course yard. Once I got to the futtocks, I clipped in to the futtocks shrouds and then to a bolt on the other side, I stepped across and called out “laying on” and moved onto the foot ropes. Whitney had moved out to my right as we were on the starboard side of the course.
We waited for the rest of the course yard crew to make their way to their stations so we pulled ourselves onto our stomachs onto the yard. The top buckle of my harness poked hard into my chest so I had to adjust before I could relax. I could see Mike from the fame on the forward top with his camera. Whitney and I commented on the soon to be setting sun and how beautiful it looked. Whitney said it would more than likely be set by the time we got back down. Nelly and Brian were the last to make it to the top. I shuffled out a bit more starboard as Nelly got to my left and Brian got to the center to call the furl.
I ate another lite dinner because the rumor was we were going to sail stations after dinner to furl. This time I headed out as soon as they called the officers for sail stations and got a harness from the main storage box. I’ll be damned if I missed climbing because I wasn’t at the front of the pack this time. They called sail station for all crew and I went aft to the Mizzen. As I got there, the mizzen crew was already moving forward. I was told that because the mizzen was still not fully repaired, we were to assist the other masts.
Most of us waited around the main for an assignment. This time when Mr. Thomas was calling for hands to furl the royal, my hand shot up immediately. Unfortunately it didn’t matter as I was passed over until they got to the course yard. He first asked for volunteers for the QT and stated he wanted an Eagle Crewman and TSA for the opposite tips of every yard. This was another USCG procedure that we were not used to.
The QT means that you have an experienced crew hand on either end of the yard shouting out the furling orders to the crew inward. This way the crew on either side of the yard can hear the commands. This didn’t seem to make sense to use as on every tall ship we have seen, you have a yard or mast captain in the center of the yard shout the orders so both sides of the yard can hear you. So when Brian asked why they needed two, I piped in and let them know how most of the other tall ships do it.
At first Mr. Thomas and the other officer looked surprised at our suggestion until Mr. Thomas said that idea makes a lot of sense. "That's why you're here, to tell us how the other ships do it since we don't know". “Today for the other yards we'll do this like normal” so he chose myself and Brian to be the QT’s since we were TSA. However a few minutes of discussion later he said “Let’s try it that way with the course” and elected Brian to be the yard lead.
We joined the other crew already making their way up the main shrouds. It struck me when I realized they didn’t make any calls getting off or on the shrouds either. As a safety procedure to warn other crew, we would normally shout out “Laying on Main shroud starboard side” so the climbers knew someone else was coming up behind them. Same when climbing off the shrouds, you call out “laying off”.
I anxiously hopped up to the platform holding the shrouds and as I went up, I knocked my knee on a giant bolt. I’m not used to there being steel bolts at the bottom of shrouds. It stung a bit but I continued my climb up the shrouds to the course yard. Because these shrouds were actually tight steel cables underneath, the normal bouncing you get when you climb was minimal. We had to wait on the shrouds a bit while we waited for crew above us to get over the top. The futtocks are easy to climb so going over the top is a piece of cake compared to the Friendships.
In this case I wasn’t going up to the top but stepping across over a wrapped line onto the course yard. Once I got to the futtocks, I clipped in to the futtocks shrouds and then to a bolt on the other side, I stepped across and called out “laying on” and moved onto the foot ropes. Whitney had moved out to my right as we were on the starboard side of the course.
We waited for the rest of the course yard crew to make their way to their stations so we pulled ourselves onto our stomachs onto the yard. The top buckle of my harness poked hard into my chest so I had to adjust before I could relax. I could see Mike from the fame on the forward top with his camera. Whitney and I commented on the soon to be setting sun and how beautiful it looked. Whitney said it would more than likely be set by the time we got back down. Nelly and Brian were the last to make it to the top. I shuffled out a bit more starboard as Nelly got to my left and Brian got to the center to call the furl.
We tested the tightness of the edges of the sail and called below to have them loosen the bunt lines. Brian called out “Ok, everyone grab a fold!” so we reached down as far as our arms would allow and (with difficulty) grabbed a handful of canvas. Brian shouted “Everyone try to get on the same fold!” as we then all adjusted where we grabbed and then heaved up the canvas and tucked it under our bellies. Brian repeated the command as we pulled another handful up and let the previous canvas fall.
I was waiting for Whitney to finish pulling up her section when Nelly called over for me to pull my section tighter. I’ll admit I found this a bit annoying as I knew what I was doing. I pulled it tight and she called out “Good!” but it sounded to me like she was talking to a first timer. I forced myself to remember that Nelly had a very “gung ho” personality and was just trying to be helpful and continued on.
With this experienced crew, we got to the foot of the sail in no time. Compared with the other square riggers I know, this was very easy as you didn’t have to worry about any “dog ears” as these sails were designed to pull straight up. Once we got the last of the sail tucked up, we beat it hard to make sure there were no lumps or “dead babies”. Brian called out “Ready to heave her up on the count of three? One, two, three…” and we all called out “Heave!” as we pulled the furled sail on top of the course.
We all grabbed the gaskets closest to us and wrapped up and tied them tight to the sail. The gaskets on the Eagle are interesting as instead of just gasket lines, they have long rectangular sections of canvas attached to the yard that wraps around the sail. At the end of the canvas is your gasket line that you then wrap around the yard and sail.
I used a method that my friend Bernie was fond of that pulls it nice and snug back upon itself and Whitney and Nelly followed suit. I looked around for another gasket but didn’t see any until Nelly pointed one that was obscured far to my right. After we finished I looked up at the lower topsail crew finishing their furl and commented that they took longer than I thought. Whitney reminded me that same crew had already furled the upper topsail before that so if anything they were ahead of the game.
Reluctantly, we were told to lay below and made our way off the course and down the shrouds again. The sun was just about to set so we had made good time. When we got back down to the waist, we managed to get some shots before the sun finished setting.
I was waiting for Whitney to finish pulling up her section when Nelly called over for me to pull my section tighter. I’ll admit I found this a bit annoying as I knew what I was doing. I pulled it tight and she called out “Good!” but it sounded to me like she was talking to a first timer. I forced myself to remember that Nelly had a very “gung ho” personality and was just trying to be helpful and continued on.
With this experienced crew, we got to the foot of the sail in no time. Compared with the other square riggers I know, this was very easy as you didn’t have to worry about any “dog ears” as these sails were designed to pull straight up. Once we got the last of the sail tucked up, we beat it hard to make sure there were no lumps or “dead babies”. Brian called out “Ready to heave her up on the count of three? One, two, three…” and we all called out “Heave!” as we pulled the furled sail on top of the course.
We all grabbed the gaskets closest to us and wrapped up and tied them tight to the sail. The gaskets on the Eagle are interesting as instead of just gasket lines, they have long rectangular sections of canvas attached to the yard that wraps around the sail. At the end of the canvas is your gasket line that you then wrap around the yard and sail.
I used a method that my friend Bernie was fond of that pulls it nice and snug back upon itself and Whitney and Nelly followed suit. I looked around for another gasket but didn’t see any until Nelly pointed one that was obscured far to my right. After we finished I looked up at the lower topsail crew finishing their furl and commented that they took longer than I thought. Whitney reminded me that same crew had already furled the upper topsail before that so if anything they were ahead of the game.
Reluctantly, we were told to lay below and made our way off the course and down the shrouds again. The sun was just about to set so we had made good time. When we got back down to the waist, we managed to get some shots before the sun finished setting.
As we walked around the waist, I noticed that some of the crew who were presumably on MAA duty shining the brass on the ship. Considering the bad weather we had been through, the brass had gotten pretty well tarnished and the difference after the polish was amazing.
I eventually went to my berth to grab my iPad and continue writing. When I was passing the room on the mess deck where the crew hangs out, Rob was doing military pushups. Rob is a guest and father of one of the Chiefs. When I came back, Lauren was showing how many military pushups she could do with her back legs propped up on a bench. She cranked them out as a few of us cheered her on.
Whitney and Orion stopped by while I was writing and I joked this is their last chance for them to let me know what to write about them. I did my best to add all of Orion’s quotes and Whitney talked about how when she was at the end of a gangway helping people on to a ship to grab the rail. She suddenly realized she was the rail! Her last name being Rayl gave us a chuckle.
We also talked about my nickname Max and how it is located in every car you ever drive so whenever they drive they can think about me. Whitney said that when she turned her AC to Max, she would rather have a Max genie appear. I continued writing for over five hours before I finally crashed in my bunk on a nice calm night at sea. For once I slept without getting tossed around all night.
Day Nine:
http://emaxadventure.weebly.com/1/post/2013/05/-day-nine-friday.html
I eventually went to my berth to grab my iPad and continue writing. When I was passing the room on the mess deck where the crew hangs out, Rob was doing military pushups. Rob is a guest and father of one of the Chiefs. When I came back, Lauren was showing how many military pushups she could do with her back legs propped up on a bench. She cranked them out as a few of us cheered her on.
Whitney and Orion stopped by while I was writing and I joked this is their last chance for them to let me know what to write about them. I did my best to add all of Orion’s quotes and Whitney talked about how when she was at the end of a gangway helping people on to a ship to grab the rail. She suddenly realized she was the rail! Her last name being Rayl gave us a chuckle.
We also talked about my nickname Max and how it is located in every car you ever drive so whenever they drive they can think about me. Whitney said that when she turned her AC to Max, she would rather have a Max genie appear. I continued writing for over five hours before I finally crashed in my bunk on a nice calm night at sea. For once I slept without getting tossed around all night.
Day Nine:
http://emaxadventure.weebly.com/1/post/2013/05/-day-nine-friday.html