Musings as Random as I Am

Educational sails continue, though our inaugural summer is almost nearing its close. Two weeks ago we finished the last sail to have all of our first crew aboard at once. As Nitro returned from a week at home, Sam left for his impending wedding. By the time Sam returns, our three summer deckhands will be returning to their classrooms.

Although I will greatly miss Daniel, Scott, and Jaime, I look toward the fall season with a sense of great excitement. As our summer ends, I am taking a week off to visit Michigan and hopefully schedule my future tonsillectomy. Within two weeks of my return, we will gain two new deckhands, both of whom encounter Charleston with the same novelty as Sam and I once did. This means that both of them will live aboard…all the time, just like Sam and I do. I find this particularly exciting as our evenings aboard have been incredibly quiet this summer. I have spent a surprisingly high number of nights completely alone, sometimes even lonely, on board.

As August and September approach, I cannot help but wonder what weather awaits us. After our incredibly dramatic start to Hurricane Season, we have been blessed with few bad storms. The Captain is still working on securing our hurricane mooring. We are more prepared for bad weather and winds now, having just installed our new fending system. It consists of a telephone pole with three huge (four feet in diameter) fenders with tires between them. Not worrying about placing fenders for docking is quite the novelty, however, short legs such as mine have found a new challenge to getting on and off the vessel…particularly at low tides.

One thing that absolutely awes me about the Captain and Mates on this vessel are their caretaking intent towards the crew. I am surprised almost daily by something one of them does or says to take care of me. The first day the fenders were in, we had an incredibly low tide (full moon) and I could barely get onto the boat…even with help (which we all know I am terrible at accepting). I was simply too short. After our sail, the Second Mate stayed late to lower our ladder one rung so I would be able to reach. On a weekly basis the Captain opens up his guest room to either Sam or myself so that we can truly feel “off” during our time off. The Chief Mate not only forces me to take time off (time off being something I am known to forget) but randomly brings little things to make life aboard easier or more entertaining (a baguette and brie, an aloe plant, etc). Given the amount of myself I invest, I wonder if I would be doing as well as I am without these amazing officers.