Day 22 (of the blog - day 30 at the ship): We are starting to look like a sail ship...

4 Sails!  Read...errr...count 'em and weep.

We put both of the bottom two yards up today in continuous rain (thanks, Erie).  Which means I missed getting to go to the SeaWolves Education Day today - so no story there.  I may go to the game tomorrow though so don't get too distraught.  More on that tomorrow.

So on Saturday we had training and one of the things we did we do a test run of putting on immersion/exposure suits for an "abandon ship" scenario - not the most optimistic deal but necessary non the less.  Check it out...

No, I am not choking myself - although I would have claimed self defense.  What? - this is the position you assume when going into the water from the ship so the PFD doesn't slip up over your head.

My family came up to visit and my grandson got to try on the PFD also - you can see he had a great time.

"So what about the immersion suit Kwiatek?"

Here I am starting the process of putting the suit on - it is tight and made of a material that wants to stick to your shoes and other things you are wearing.  We put plastic shopping bags on our feet to get them to slide in more efficiently.

Me in the complete immersion suit.  Notice the reflective tape on the parts that tend to face up in the water.  The orange thing on the breast is a whistle and rescue light.  The black hose hanging under the light is for inflating part of the suit for buoyancy.

It was a good day.  Lot's of safety and videos and learning.  I wasn't thinking about the dangers of sailing - but now I am!  

Believe it or not I am starting to run a little thin of words of the day but how about this:  Son of a Gun.  I won't swear it's true but the sailor's say the origin of the term is from the Age of Sail when women were allowed to accompany their husbands aboard ship.  If they had to give birth on the ship the area relegated to births was the gun deck (I don't know why) so instead of the father at the wife's side (he would be off working on the ship presumably) there was a gun (cannon).  Ta-dah!  And now you know....the rest of the story.

*insert cool jazzy music*

Welcome back.  Let's meet Susanne Karsiotis.

How old are you Susanne?  Well she's not actually in the room right now but I think she is around 24 because she worked as a biologist after college at some fish lab over in Toledo, Ohio.

How long have you been a sailor?  "I joined the Niagara in 2012 as part of the science consortium (a college class)."

The other crew say you are great to work with, what do you think about that?  "Yes." (this is speculation because like I said she is not here right now).

What do you like to do with your free time?  "I like to write."

Is there anything you would like the readers to know?  "I've killed many many fish in my day."  (she did not say this proudly - remember she was a biologist).

Can I quote you?  "Go for it."

Thanks fellow apprentice.

Well catch you all tomorrow.

Ahoy!

Day 21: The Double Whirlwind...

Not only did we bust our butts today and get a bunch of odds and ends done but the wind was blowing like crazy - our anemometer registered a 49MPH gust!  It made it "exciting" when aloft.

I spent much of my day aloft.  I learned a new lashing - the round lashing or block lashing.  The purpose is to lash a block (i.e. block and tackle) to something else - in my case a I-bolts.  Here is what it looks like...

The white line is the hitch I made.  It holds the block (on the left) - and hey, my toe!

I also helped put the rolling tackle on top of the main mast - in the crazy wind.  That was a little intense.  

All in all a good day because we are set up to put two more yards on tomorrow.  We are starting to look like a ship.  I can't wait to send a few photos of the ship when it's a full ship.

Let's switch gears and meet James Turner. 

James is a 28 year old from northern California who likes mint tea and...wait, wait, wrong website...

James is an able seaman (professional crew member)

How old are you James?  28

From where do you hail?  Northern California

How long before the mast?  pretty much two years

What did you do before sailing sailing?  I was a machinist - CNC operator.

James is most well known for his response to times when people point out mistakes he has made.  James will say, "Oh me." (in a Winnie the Poo-esque voice)

Thanks James and keep on sailoring on!

Here is a shot by me from the fighting top of a group of school kids on a tour of the ship...

We have tours often.  Many schools bring their classes to tour the ship.

And now the word for the day:  Belaying Pin

Here is a belaying pin (it is sitting on the fife rail).  The belaying pin is used to work with lines.  This one, when in use, would be in the hole just under its tip.  In the background you can see one in use - with a line "made fast" and the excess line "coiled and hung".

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 30th,  I will be going to some sort of Education Days with the Erie SeaWolves (the local baseball team) to talk about the ship.  The captain thought it would be a good idea to have my perspective - new guy, sabbatical, teacher, older than the others, etc. - sweet, I am all for it.  I will let you know how it goes...

I know I still have to show you a photo or two of the exposure suit drill we did but I will have to get to that on the morrow.  

Ahoy!

Day 20: 4 weeks in the bag and some more training - after all it is a Monday...

I got lots of sweet stuff to talk about today and I won't try and cram it in all today and rot your brain.  I will save some for the days to come.  I will start with the word for the day...

Galley

The galley is basically the kitchen area on the ship.  *Note if it's not on the ship - like the kitchen we are eating out of during uprig - it is a kitchen NOT a galley.  Our galley is run by the Steward - you met her last week (Gail).  It used to have a cool butcher block counter but the coast guard (I think) made us take it out for safety/health reasons.  We still do however use a wood-fired stove.  *beep*  *beep* back the truck up.  You said what?  Yeah.  There are basically three kinds of stoves for the ship - diesel, propane, or wood.  The two advantages of wood are 1) the wood will burn out unattended (in other words you can't accidentally leave it on.  2) the flame of the wood stove is contained INSIDE the structure of the stove itself - not true of the other two kinds.  I have a photo of the old one from the ship to give you an idea...

At least you get the idea.  Its small but it has to fit below deck and it's a small space.

So today we learned the traditional method of lifting heavy things on the ship with the capstan (the big human-powered winch we talked about before).  We have used it before, as you know, but today the captain took his time to explain to the inexperienced people the process and the forces at work, how to move it safely and how to look for unsafe conditions.

Here is the captain (red hat), the chief mate (blue hoody), and the second mate (green sweater) using some belaying pins and a slow match (the fuse for the cannon) as a model to explain the process.

So then we actually put the fore t'gallant yard up putting the theory into practice...

Here is the yard as it is coming up off the gallows ...

The yard as it approaches the cross trees - near it final destination...

And here it is in place and secured.  As you can see we now have two sails on the ship - the fore and main t'gallant yards that carry the royal sails.

So as a I have been promising here are a couple of me aloft...

This is me taken through the "lubber hole" on the cross trees (thanks to Matt for taking the photos.  You will meet him soon)

If you were on the ground watching me climb to the lubber hole (like above) this is what you would see...

So here is a shot from the plaza of me on the cross trees (note the arrow)

This is essentially the same perspective as the last shot but zoomed in (to prove that it was actually me all you non-believers).  That's about 90' to the water (not sure if it's to the deck or the water level - either way the air is rare up there)

Let's meet Jordan Hankison a new ordinary seaman from Madison, Wisconsin.  Last year he worked on the Lady Washington.  Which many of you probably didn't know you knew about.  If you have seen the Macklemore/Ryan Lewis video for Can't Hold Us - that ship is the Lady Washington.  If you have never seen it you can check it out here... Lady Washington in Macklemore video. 

How old are you Jordan?     22

What do you want to do when you grow up?  "Retire on a deserted island and drink margaritas till I die."

What should I tell Kiski (and my millions of other fans)?  "I like long walks on the beach, and...I dont know."

Well then how how about a quote?  "Spring break forever!"

Thanks for your help, Jordan!

Saturday we had safety training and I had to put on an immersion/exposure suit.  Maybe if it's a slow day I can show you that - if your in the mood for a good laugh.

Ahoy!

Day 19: Just a teaser...

Only have a few minutes before work but guess what I got?

You guessed it, some photos of me aloft, finally.

Here is a teaser...

This is me on the fighting top (about 50' up).  Matt, another crew and now friend, took this for me.  The background is the slip off Presque Isle Bay, basically a marine maintenance area.  In the upper right you can see the water exit from the slip to the Bay itself.

This is a photo I took from the cross trees (way up there - another 30' or so up from the photo above) of the bow of the ship.  Look at all of the gear we have been adding to the ship in the last four weeks!

More pics coming on Monday.  See you then...

Ahoy!

Day 18: Sunny and a chance of yards...

Both a totally sweet day today - got the first sail on the ship
And a bad day - had something fall from aloft - yikes!

Bad news first.

Three of us were on the fighting top tensioning (huh, computer says that's not a word but you know what I mean...) the Bentinck shrouds with come-alongs...

 

a come-along...

Here is how the concept works.  You can see the come-along at the top in the middle.  Each end is secured to the two ends of the rope reaved through the round wooden things (hearts/deadeyes).  When you get it tight you seize (gah, been spelling this wrong - why didn't anybody tell me?) it so it can't slide back and you can then remove the come longs (so you can look like an old timey sail ship *wink*  *wink*)

...when the pin securing the cable guide sheared off (we still aren't sure how but it may have been an errant lanyard line that nobody noticed) causing the guide to slide and making the use of the come-along dangerous, so we had to swap it out for a new one.  That is when the problem occurred - when we took tension off the cable the guide slid free and fell all the way to the deck.  Honestly it was a little scary but luckily nobody was on the fore part of the ship.  Safety is big around here and this event obviously compromised the Niagara's great track record.

The good news.

We got the first sail on the ship.

(*pardon the poorly and quickly edited 2 photos into 1 - could fit the whole ship in one good photo)

Look near the top of the main mast - the one on the right.  That is the main t'gallant yard with the sail bent on and furled so you can't really see it. (the black platform on the left mast is where we dropped the piece from the come-along FYI)

It was really cool to put this on.  It seems like a ship now.  My job in the whole thing was to walk the capstan (remember the big man-powered winch from the earlier post?).  I have not been that high up on the ship yet but it can't be too far away!

How about a word of the day?

We need to be a little mature about this one but Three Sheets to the Wind.  I had some trouble figuring out a way to explain this so I went to the interwebs and found this sweet explanation on www.phrases.org:

"To understand this phrase we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. Sailors' language is, unsurprisingly, all at sea and many supposed derivations have to go by the board.  Don't be taken aback to hear that sheets aren't sails, as landlubbers might expect, but ropes (*editorial note:  i got confused by this for several days before I asked someone.  There are also leeches, braces, clews, halyards, and more...). These are fixed to the lower corners of sails, to hold them in place. If three sheets are loose and blowing about in the wind then the sails will flap and the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor."

And for the finale of the show a new bio - Gail Issacs.  She is the ship's Steward.  In short she is responsible for the food and following all the FDA rules and regulations.

Gail, Everyone.  Everyone, Gail.

Gail is super interesting.  She basically realized the run-around of  "normal" life was not for her.  She sold everything she owns and got a job as the cook on a private yacht.  She has since moved on to tall ships and has seen cool and new places.  She save much of her money so she can spend the winters in Mexico.

Gail's quote:  Well she just drove off with another crew member so I can't ask but it would probably sound something like this..."Clowns get a bad rap."  (Gail has also been a clown for the past 14 years - I think but I can't ask cause she left, but its something close to that)

Don't think I will blog again until at least Saturday.  Tomorrow we work from 1pm-9pm and the internet shuts off at 6:00 here at the library.  I may be able to send out a quick blog Saturday.  If not see you Monday!

Ahoy!

Day 17: One step closer to actual sails!

1000+ views!

(Couldn't find a ship so how about this duck?)

Thanks for all the attention you've been paying toward the blog.  I miss the Kiski community and it is keeping my spirits up.

I helped carry out the main t'gallant and fore t'gallant yards at the end of the day today.  They are already dressed (they got all the stuff on them they need to be put in place - blocks, the sail, foot ropes, etc.).  In the past 3 weeks when we put something on the plaza the next day we put it on the ship.  So if the trend continues, tomorrow we will have actual sails on the ship!  Stand by...

I spent most of my day aloft on the main fighting top.  I had to put siezings on the benticks shrouds and the main t'gallant back stays.  Then we had to down rig all the stuff we used for that job: come-a-longs, salvages, etc. (don't worry I didn't know what much of this was either 3 weeks ago but I thought I would throw it out there to make it seem like I'm learning something).  In order to do my job I had to go the highest on the ship I have been yet - the mast cap!  I was literally sitting on top of the main mast pretty BA.

The arrow points to where I climbed/was sitting today. Totally sweet, right?  Also this photo shows the progress we have made to this point.  You can see many more lines and big pieces of wood (if you don't remember what it looked like, ahhhh...check back to like day 2 or something).  Also, the small long white thing in the lower left hand corner is the t'gallant yard w/sail I was talking about earlier.

So how about a word of the day...the head.  Many of you may know that the bathroom on a ship is called the head.  But why you ask?  Well what would be the best place to put the toilet?  The front - or "head" - of the ship.  Why?  It's a sailing ship so the wind will blow the smell away from the rest of the crew.  Wallah!  The head.  And now you know...the rest of the story.

The great Niagara bio project continues with another apprentice like me:  Cyrus Economides. (sweet 300 name, eh?)

Cuyrus, how old are you?  15 (I still don't believe him about this)

Where are you from?  Marquette, Michigan - Yooper for life!

How long have you been sailing?  8 years (what - do the math dudes!)

Interesting fact?  Cyrus is home schooled and his family has a sailing business - hence he is here.

Can I quote you for my peeps?  "Patience comes with waiting."

*Cyrus is one of the hardest working people I know - he tells me he struggles to find the motivation to do his school work though.  Sound familiar, anyone?

I am really trying to get some photos of me aloft but it hasn't been working out.  Remember, patience is a virtue.

Ahoy!

Day 16: Duty again and the weather stinks

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.  I know I managed to get back to the mother ship and have the families and friends over Easter Day for a great meal and some awesome company.  Hope we can do it again soon.

Back in Erie the weather maintains its normal Erie nonsense.  Had to go aloft to tune the t'gallant shrouds with some of the other crew.  I am starting to get the hang of going aloft but it was really windy, cold and raining today.  This was the slip for much of the morning...

Can you make anything out?  No?  Us neither. (Not an actual image of the slip - for the purpose of example only)

So on duty days the dood on duty doesn't get out as much as everyone else cause they gotta do dishes and prep for meals.  As a result I didn't have a ton to do today.  Here is a quick list...

1. dishes
2. render the t'gallant shrouds
3. dishes
4. watch to make sure stuff didn't get bound up while others lifted the fore t'gallant mast
5. dishes
6. make siezings for the main t'gallant backstays
7. cut the siezings for the main t'gallant backstays (yep you heard me right - put them on and minutes later had to cut them off.  I am totally OK with it but it takes me longer than everyone else to put them on and....let's just say I bet they're glad they aren't paying me...)
8. clean up

That pretty much sums up the day but I will have to do more dishes and then make a boat check - to make sure she isn't sinking - no really!

Bosun's Chair.  No clue why they call it this but the bosun's chair is a seat that is rigged in an area - like the middle of a line - where you cannot find purchase with your feet yet still need to work.  It is really just a swing without the...ahhhh...swing set part....it's just the seat part, sheesh!  Here is one of ours...

Not super easy to see but it is hanging from a takle in our rig shop.  How about one in action...

I have not yet got to do this but looks pretty intense.  You generally tie your own knot to hold the chair - you can probably guess why.

Thought I would introduce you to some of the other crew I am working with.  I won't get carried away but I will give you a couple choice quotes from each crew member...

This is Nicholas Brown...

When I asked if he would be my first victim he said, "Can it be subpoenaed?"  That about sums up Nick.  It is his third year on Niagara and he has helped me a lot in my short time here, including making me laugh - regularly.  He is bright and quick witted and sees himself working in sailing at least for a while.

Tomorrow:  Cyrus.

I'll pick up the pace a bit, I promise.  Friday should be very interesting.  A local financial company is having a carnival at the ship and I think I will be helping to police the ship and museum.  I'll keep you in the loop.

Ahoy!

Day 15: Gaining time (which begs the question...How'd we lose it? I'm guessing Erie weather.)

So my plan from yesterday to get some aloft photos failed because we worked until 6:00 today.  I will have to shoot for next week because we have a couple of days off in a row for Easter.  Consider it a cliffhanger or dramatic pause or something...or just hold your horses - does everything have to be immediate satisfaction with you people?

My job much of the day was:

1.  walk the capstan to raise the main t'gallant mast (the highest part of the ship)
2.  walk the capstan to place the fore t'gallant mast (the same part of the ship but on the smaller mast closer to the front of the ship)

Here are the masts on this photo...

Black arrow:  fore tgallant mast       White arrow:  main tgallant mast 

(so you can see putting them up there is a bit of a challenge.

3.  Get in a "mustang suit"  (see earlier word of the day) and use this...

Paint Float (this is the actual float I was on)

To rig much of this...

This is the bow sprit and the jib boom.  There is yet another boom that goes out the front called the flying jib boom and will make the front of the ship 60 feet out from the deck - I will go out on it when done.  Oh yes I will.

The hard to see black post sticking down toward the water from the middle of the light colored jib boom is called the martingale but sailors call it the "dolphin striker."  Heh not super PC I guess but a little humorous.

The word for the day is.....Bitter End.  A simple one to hold you over until the next blog.  This is simply the end of the a line or rope.  So think of it this way:  imagine a rope is wound around a pin and attached to something at the other end.  The standing end is the end that is connected and the bitter end is the end that, well isn't connected to anything.  You almost never want to let this go.  Bad things usually happen.

Looks like I may be AFK for Easter maybe until Tuesday.  So the next blog may be then.  Now, now before you get all woebegone on me...actually I got nothing here, I will miss my blog too so maybe you can just cry when people aren't looking - you wont have to explain things that way.

Ahoy!

Day 14: First day aloft for realsies!

Plus and minus.  Super plus = got to work aloft today for the first time - on the fore mast at the fighting top so not all the way up but I'm OK with that right now.  My job was to make "mousings" on the shackles.  We use a different technique but you can get the basic idea here...

Once the shackle is securely attached and you don't want it to move the mousing secures the pin so vibration or constant motion won't cause it to come unsecure (if that's a word cause spell check is telling me it isn't)

Minus.  I can now tell you that being 50' feet up several things happen to change your perspective on the weather.  First let me say that today was a nice sunny brisk day at about 35 degrees.  So thing one that happens is temperature drops when you are up there.  Thing two is the wind is ALWAYS blowing.  Not hard really just enough to make the drop in temperature, combined with the breeze, seem like the sun has forsaken the planet.  

I still don't have photos of me aloft - but hold on to that thought hopefully until tomorrow's blog.  I have plan!

As for the word for the day I will show you this photo...

Fid (the brown carrot 2nd from the left) -  Heaving Mallet (the big hammer looking thing in the middle) - Serving Paddle (all the way to the right - smaller cousin upper left (not the copper pipe smarty))

So these are various tools sailors use to make different types of finishes on bigger ropes using smaller line.  Ah, now that I have gotten to this point I am not positive how to proceed...Um...hold on I'll be right back......................................................................

Ok I'm back.  Thanks for waiting.  I went and took this photo out on the ship of a serving and combined it with an old photo of a rose lashing...

To the left is a rose lashing.  In order to get this REALLY tight you use a hauling mallet by wrapping the line around it (it's confusing - I'll show you when I get back).  The fid is the tool you use to help make a hole big enough for the line to go through - as you can see the lines are tight on one another and in order to continue to snake the line through enough times to secure it.  On the right the very straight thing in the middle is a line with a serving running down it - you make that nice an neat and even with the serving paddle (I don't know how to do it yet.  It is apparently pretty advanced).

Wow.  Now that I look it over that was probably too technical.  Sorry 'bout that.  Just sort of going off what I did today.  Let me show you this before I sign off for the day.  I thought I would show you a quick photo of the port aft pin rail...

This is why things get a bit confusing.  See all the pretty ropes?  They all go to different things - in fact the ropes themselves are different: some are dacron, some roblon, some manilla...sheesh.  And there are 5 other places on the ship that look like this plus random cleats with lines on them - and we're not even close to done rigging yet.

Cool dudes. Hope that wasn't too much.  How about "bosun's seat" for tomorrow?  I'll percolate on it a bit.  

Ahoy!

Day 13: Training round 2. Ding! DIng!

Before I talk about the training we did today I totally forgot to tell you about the coolest part of yesterday:  my first "walk" on the capstan.  We can lump in a word of the day with this story:  Capstan.  (unless I already told you what this is and then just think of it as review.  We put the main top gallant mast up yesterday.  It is not heavy but goes like 100' in the air.  So to put it up we used a man-powered winch (essentially) called a capstan.  Here are some dudes using a capstan...

(sorry I don't have an actual photo but it is nearly impossible to get photos during the work day cause we are so busy.  many of my photos are of stationary things or they are staged - also this drawing does show the person tending the line but you get the idea I think)

It was pretty cool and went smoothly.  We should be using it again soon and I will try and get someone to take a photo of us actually hauling on something.

Now how about today?  This should sum up today, at least outside...

Luckily we stayed inside today for a training day

Training day included making short splices...

...long splices...

I would show you a photo but it wont really look any different...

...and grommets...

A ring of rope used how you would think a brass grommet is used today but you use this ring and stitch all the way around it to keep it in place.

We also had furling training.  I asked the other apprentice to snap a few photos of me while I was aloft on our training model since we took turns as groups.  We learned a "showy" furling called "harbor stow" for when you want to look snappy in port and a "sea stow" for when you look ahead and your like, "holy crap look at the squall cloud barreling down on us," and you want to reduce windage for the safety of you and the ship.  Check this out...

Me climbing up to the cross trees (small wooden platform just above me) - this is the inside model, I am like 8' off the ground

Here is our "watch" (team) harbor furling the top gallant sail.  I am second from the right helping to "cross the bunt" to dress the sail so it looks even when done.

Here I am finishing a lashing and "laying to deck" (getting back down from aloft).  Notice my side is not near as nice as the professionals - Doh!

Honestly I love training days.  I really feel like I make progress during those days.  Out on the ship things are quite chaotic and there are many commends and lots of verbiage that can make things even more hectic.  It is not a place to "practice" it is a time and place to do - problem is I'm not that good at it.  Yet.

Back to work again tomorrow.  Weather is supposed to be decent so I will stop crying about it.  

Watch out for mermaids.

Ahoy!

Day 12: Week 3 Day 1 - Confused?

I little rejuvenated this morning after a day off.  Then we worked really hard again today.  It is supposed to SNOW tomorrow.  What?  *grumble* *grumble*  Yesterday must have been summer - 70 degrees - today was clearly fall - so tomorrow MUST BE WINTER.  Mr. Beebe is wrong!  Erie is crazy.  So any how we worked hard today because it was warmer out - although it rained; more on that later - and tomorrow will be a training and we will be inside all day.  We are practicing splicing (didn't finish last week - I will get a pic) and furling - ah, that's something to do with the sails but I will have to tell you more about it in tomorrow's blog.

So the bad weather today, right - because I'm in Erie and now have a new appreciation for Saltsburg.  So the word for the day will be "foulies".  It's not a real term but one of those jargonish type words that is relevant/important to a particular occupation - obviously in this case sailors.  So as you can imagine when you are out at sea on a tall ship, sailing, you have to work even in foul (see where I'm going with this...?) weather.  In the foul weather the clothes that keep you warm and dry are called "foulies".

Check out this GQ shot of me in my foulies...(and proof that I am still alive and didn't just hire someone to write this sweet blog)

Left:  Full "foulie" with hood (needed today)     Center:  with coat off you can see my climbing harness  Right:  side view you can see the life line for the harness and the small lines in the back are for lanyards for my tools - you can NOT go aloft with anything that isn't strapped to you (imagine a knife or pliers falling 100' from the top of the mast - that's gonna leave a mark)

So I intended on talking more about Saturday's work with some staged photos but the weather was so bad I couldn't get the photos yet.  Saturday I completed "up and over" training and climbed up to the platform on the fore mast and then back down the other side.  Yay me.  It was intense but I will talk more about that later this week when I score some photos of me aloft - you'll have to trust me because you will probably just see a small thing vaguely resembling a person.

I can say Saturday helped me feel like I am starting to get the hang of this a bit - trust me still in the very early stages - but there were a bunch of volunteers here and when the officers needed somebody to do something they felt comfortable calling on me to help.  It was a little bit of validation of all the hard work I have put in to this point.

Also check this out...

Recognize this?  ...Anyone?  ...Anyone?  ...Beuller?  They are big lead ingots.  They are used as ballast on the ship.  They are tucked down under the floor boards (called the sole) to provide stability for the ship - in a case where there is an imbalance or the need for more draft (the amount of the ship under the water).  I have seen them in the ship because they have it all ripped up right now installing gray water tanks under the sole.

I will try and get some more cool photos of going aloft soon and post them ASAP.  Keep reading and avoid the kraken.

Ahoy!