Post 25: Starting my last week.

Well I am done here in one week.  Next Monday is my last day - sort of.  What do I mean?  Well I will go back to Kiski but will come back to sail the following week.  I don't know if I told you that yet or not, but now you know.  Much of the blogging is a blur since we are so busy - that's why it's way easier to just talk about what I did for the day, then I know I couldn't have talked about it before!

So check this out...

Saw this today on the hard.  These are the ship's anchors.  They weigh about 1500 pounds and they don't get dropped when at sea very much cause the anchors and the "rodes" (huge ropes that pull them up) are very unwieldy.

Training day today.  We did leather work and were allowed to make sheathes for our own tools.  Check out my handiwork...

This is my "rig".  Left:  My standard Leatherman tool.  Middle:  My knife in it's sheathe (which I made today)  Right:  My marlin spike (made by a local-to-Saltsburg latheman) in its sheathe *which I made today, also)

Same rig with the tools out or the sheathes.  You use this stuff everyday.

The knife was made as a gift for me by Nicholas Brown (see earlier blog post bio) over the past weekend.  The people here are great.

I used up a bunch of my words-for-the-day while describing things in earlier posts so I will have to pick some people's brains to come up with a few more to finish off the last few days.  Consider it on hiatus for today.

I do have another bio for you however.  Matt Kent

Matt is here to help with up-rig (putting the ship back together from the winter storage).  He has been sailing for five years but is quite knowledgeable about rigging the ship.  He is also the guy I would say I bother the most with questions about what the hell I am doing - trust me, there are lot's of questions.  

Where do you live Matt?  I live in a yurt on a wilderness reserve in upstate New York.  

Not Matt's yurt but a yurt for example...

What do you do for a living?  "I'm either a rock climbing guide, or a microscope technician, or a tall ship sailor.  Sometimes I build custom aquariums."

What do you want people to know about tall ship sailing?  "Adventure in your life is very important and the history and tradition is important.  There are more people in the world that fly fighter jets than know how to sail tall ships."

Thanks for the bio Matt and thanks for all the help during my sabbatical.

See ya all tomorrow.  I got a photo of the ship with all the yards and a "stay sail" bent on.

Ahoy!