It was worth the wait.
Its a long story but here is a shot off the port beam of us while sailing...
We are heading west so if you look close you can see some of Pennsylvania in the far background...
So we started early today to get maintenance done early because the big news was that the Governor
Tom Corbett
was coming to the ship at 15:30 to make a big a big announcement. We wanted to get some sailing in before that. It was supposed to be my big chance to practice tacking and waring (sp?) out on the open water. We got out a little later than we wanted because, since we were in Erie, there was a thick fog that didn't break until about 10:30am. The fog would not really be a problem for us - the ship is big and equipped with the latest radar, GPS, and other nav/com gear. The real problem would be the dudes out fishing that morning in their 20' fiberglass boats that would not show up on our radar. SInce the Niagara has about 290 long tons of displacement it would crush a little Bass boat and probably not even slow down.
Any who, we got under way about lunch time. Since the slip, where the ship lives, and the channel out of Presque Isle are both narrow places the ship is maneuvered using its twin screw diesel engines to get to open water. Check out this Google Earth capture...
White Arrow: Slip where the Niagara lives Black Arrow: the channel out of Presque Isle
Everyone on the ship is assigned duties on the station bill - so in any given situation you know where you are supposed to be and what you are to do. My job during General Quarters - like when leaving the dock - is helm. In other words I get to steer the ship! Totally sweet, right. Like i said in an earlier post, we don't have a ships wheel - we have a tiller. Here is the photo...
Background: look close you can see a big tan colored wooden bar. That's what you push back and forth to steer the ship. Very simple, but effective, technology. Foreground: Big wooden box called the binnacle that houses the ship's electronic navigation equipment and throttles for the engines.
My second job was lookout. I unfortunately couldn't get a photo of this but my job was to stand on a high point on the front of the ship and look for anything that could potentially cause trouble for the ship and report it to whomever "has the con" (control of the ship). Since we were out on the open lake there was little to report but it was an awesome view.
We sailed around for a bit and practiced a maneuver called waring (sp?) where we controlled the direction the wind hit the sails by moving the ship instead of the sails. I din't know we were doing it until after we were done and the chief mate told me about it. Heh. We cut our time a bit short because remember the big announcement? We had to get back to the slip to see the Governor.
There was a bunch of press and cops and slicked back hair for the big event. The governor announced that the state was pledging $4.8 million to refit the Niagara...
The Gov's big announcement and some of my new friends on the crew: L-R Kaitlyn (2nd Mate), Allison (3rd Mate), Sydney (4th Mate), Cheyenne (Boatswain), James (AS), Kelsey.
I also got to see myself on the news last night because after the announcement we went back to work but many of the news cameras were still rolling for footage. I was aloft on the fighting top and they used a quick shot of me up there as part of the story - sweet. I couldn't find the one that has me in it but you can check out the story - and more importantly the ship - here... Niagara Funding Story
The big deal about the whole thing is that the best place in the country to learn about square-rig sailing is on the Niagara. This $4.8 million dollar commitment means that this tradition can go on at least another 25 years.
All around just an awesome day. Sailing on a ship like the Niagara is just an amazing experience. I am going out again Saturday but it will be a bunch of drills so I am not sure how much pure sailing we will get to do. I will let you know - but probably not until Sunday.
Ahoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment