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!