Atlantic Passage

So I wasn’t sure I would actually post anything here after I “swallowed the anchor” and got back home.

There are a few things I think that should be included though.

John has posted a fantastic map of our trip on his blog. He had a pocket GPS with him that recorded our location at noon everyday. He exported all the data into an application that let him generate a map. He also has exported the data to Google Maps that allow you to zoom into every place we went.

This is, as they say, a COOL THING ™!

You can check out John’s post here:
http://atlanticrounds.blogspot.com/2009/05/daily-waypoints-and-ports-of-call.html

Here is a much reduced version of the map:

It is really odd being back home after all the time away. I am very happy to be back home with my family and, now that it is warming up a bit (it snowed here last week!), I’m actually enjoying doing yard work instead of deck wash and rust busting

However it is strange to be here where things are both totally familiar and yet slightly different. I imagine it as being a bit like experiencing a parallel universe. Not sure how long that feeling will last but it’s still strange nearly 3 weeks from our arrival in Lunenberg.

Work is a good example, my office was almost identical to the way it was when I left, there was even the same items on my to do list on the white board! However the economic situation is such that the company has had to do some belt tightening so some of the consultants I used to work with are gone. Walking around in the office leaves me with a similar “Temporal Shadow” feeling like I had in Martinique.

On the plus side they want me to do a “show and tell” on Thursday to give them a feel for how my trip went which should be fun. So I get to spend the next few days going over my 3000 some odd pictures trying to put this trip into a 45 minute slide show.

Wish me luck!

I may post more stuff here as I’m not sure I’m exactly finished with my Atlantic Passage just yet. Check back every now and then and, as always…

Thanks for reading.
KJ

On the plus side I have a good Internet connection.

Yesterday I spent a great day wandering around in town.
Found a great little Cafe at the top of one of the hills here with great coffee and good Internet, they even have power plugs at just about every chair.

One odd thing about St Georges is that all the big churches are missing their roofs and are slowly being rebuilt. From what I can tell this is the legacy of Hurricane Ivan.

Having a good Internet connection is a mixed blessing because it means I’m able to get all my personal stuff done and then I have time to do a bit of random surfing.

Big mistake!

The global economic situation is miserable and back home in Calgary things are not looking good for the oil patch.

So after a great relaxing day of walking around up and down hills in the hot Grenadian Sun I decided to check into the possibility of heading back to Calgary for a brief visit. Primarily to see my wife and family but also to touch base with my employer and to get a read on the prospects for the next couple of months.

That also is a dangerous thing, because once the world ashore gets it’s gaff hooked in a sailor’s gills it’s difficult to wriggle your way back to sea :-/

Oh well, as my fellow trainee WT is fond of saying “it is what it is” and I’ll just have to go and check it out.

Currently I’m scheduled to fly back to Calgary tomorrow, Saturday Feb 28, which will take nearly 24 hours and then fly back to Grenada next Saturday to make sure I’m here when the ship sails out on 8th of March.

In the meantime I have another lovely day to soak up the energy and vibe of this beautiful city with it’s fascinating and incredibly friendly people.

More later maybe…

Thanks for reading.
KJ
There are photos from my day ashore in St Georges here.

Been pondering a couple of things lately, usually while on lookout. The sea are pretty empty here off the coast of Africa maybe one ship every other watch. The two things are what project to work on in my off watches and the way “procedure” is detailed on board.

The reason for the concern about project is that nearly everyone is working on something or other. Today was Sunday so there was no shipwork but everyone was sewing, doing ropework or woodwork or practicing their instruments etc. Now to be honest they have all been doing this for 6 months, actually nearly 8, whereas I have been aboard for just under 2 months. So what to work on? The contenders for me is fancy ropework on my telescope, to give it a more nautical flair and also to give it a bit of protection, and some kind of navigation instrument like a chip log or an astrolab or something. The latter seems likely to be a bad idea if only because I would be on my own and it wouldn’t really be “sailors” work.

As for procedures, they are not really written down, the orders are however, nor are they fixed. The procedures for doing the various tasks that keep this amazing machine running are organic. They have grown along with the ship. Their roots are centuries old but then specifics are as linked to this ship as much as my speach pattern and mannerisms are linked to me.

Learning them is more akin to learning to walk than learning math or any other subject for that matter. They are a combination of physical actions coupled with knowledge of what is to be accomplished and the order in which those things need to be accomplished. We don’t have specific duties for sail handling, for example, people just lay out to do what needs to be done when the order is given. For me still unsure of what is happening I end up at the back of the line “tailing on”. When an order comes and I am the first or nearest to the line I should be taking the lead but my uncertainty makes be hesitate and I almost get run over as the more experienced people get on with it. This is in no way a bad thing and know it won’t be long until I can keep up but it is still a bit frightening when lots of things are happening at once.

Frightening and exciting at the same time. This is the way seamen have learned their trade for centuries.

Is it better than modern “school” methods? I don’t know. I do know that the seamen of yesteryear, experts at their trade, knew no other way to learn or teach the way of their ship so it certainly does work.

Time will tell.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Just a musing post on this sunny Sunday morning in Mallorca Spain….

I’m sitting in a very nice cafe just outside the Mediaeval Cathedral here in Mallorca having a cappuccino and typing into my laptop.  As the bells ring for Sunday Mass I ponder the odd set of things in my life now… When I’m done here I will wander back across town to get back onboard a sailing ship rigged like one from the 19th century.  I have traveled halfway around the world on transport that would have been amazing only 50 years ago, I’ve chatted in realtime across the planet from outside a building that was built in the middle ages.

There is an odd kind of mental disconnect when I sum all this up.  It’s a kind of temporal confusion.  Odd but exciting at the same time.

The Mate says we will be leaving on Tuesday for Gibraltar.   That will be my first time at sea, the start of this passage at last.

Time to go and look around a bit more before I have to embed myself in the ways of our fine ship once more.
Thanks for reading.

KJ

This is my first entry to the log of my journey aboard the barque Picton Castle.

My trip starts officially on November 12, 2008 in Mallorca Spain and will go until May 23, 2009 when we arrive in Lunenberg N.S.

So why start posting nearly a month in advance?

Three reasons really:

1) So there is something for good people like you to read before I go.

2) To chronicle some of the stuff I have to do and worries I have to deal with.

3) So I can try to explain, to you and to myself, just why I want to leave my loving wife and daughter, my job, my day to day life with all its security and solidity, for 6 months on the wet moving deck of a sailing ship.

The following quote from Samuel Johnson sums up how many people see such a trip:

“No man will go to sea who can contrive to have himself put in jail, for going to sea is being in jail with the added chance of being drowned.”

Lovely.

So why go?

I have always had a fascination with ships. Any ships, from Roman galleys to Napoleonic-era frigates to early ironclads, WWI battleships, Cape Horn grain racers and B.C. stern wheelers.

Over the last few years I’ve been fascinated with the complexities and beauty of classic sailing ships.  All those miles of rigging and acres of canvas moving tons of cargo across the seas of the world, by the power of the winds alone, under the control of surprisingly small groups of skilled men.

For me to be able to “learn the ropes” and actually make such a beautiful thing as a ship work, to cross a great ocean and experience the life of a seaman in the Age of Sail, is a dream come true.

But other than dreams why…

Perhaps it is only to be able to put flesh on the bones of all the stories and accounts I have read.

Perhaps it is to test my will, and what passes for brawn, against nature in all her awesome power.

Perhaps it is simply to escape my “normal” life, to get outside my head and “off the net.” To be in a place where I don’t “know the ropes”, where I have to challenge myself. To meet new people, see new places, and learn new skills.

Perhaps all of the above or none of the above at all.

I’m not sure I really know just yet.

I intend to find out, however, and by the time I get back, perhaps I will be able to say here why I went.

Or not

I do know that John Masefield said it pretty well:

Sea-Fever
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sails shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again,for the call of the running tide,
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea gulls crying,

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,
And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Thanks for reading.
KJ