First schooner trip - day 1
If I had had blog software in 2003, I would have done this real time. But, instead, I’ll write entries as I remember them from one of the best vacations I ever took.
I remember arriving early in the morning, at what I thought was on time. I’d been told by a mate when I booked the trip that the boat wouldn’t leave for a while, and the berths were already assigned, so no need to be early. When I arrived, the mate was nowhere to be seen (he had since left the boat) and the boat was getting ready to leave. Lesson number one of the schooner sailing handbook. Be early, be flexible.
It was with some disappointment that I wound up with a berth with no curtain or storage, just a settee. Once we were underway though, you forget the berth and enjoy the rhythym of the big schooner.
The Highlander Sea is a ship made in the style of a Grand Banks Fishing Schooner. She survived in part because she was built as a pilot vessel. Thus, there are nice accomodations below (original, for the pilots) and she was made of better timber than fishing vessels typically were. She is 154 feet overall.
Though I was a passenger, all passengers were working crew. In total, there were about a dozen crew plus six passengers, and it took all of us to raise the sails. The mainsail in particular is large, and six or eight of us would haul on the lines.
You get an immediate appreciation for the men that made their living on these ships as fishermen. On modern boats with winches, if it takes all of your strength, there may be something jammed. On old schooners, if all of your strength doesn’t move it, then you get another to pull on the line with you. If two are not enough, try three. If three are not enough you begin to consider the possibility that something is jammed.
Our shifts were four on four off with a “dog shift” of six hours. Six am till noon and noon to six pm were the long shifts, and after that were four. Every other day you got the early long shift, and every other day the later one. I remember the shift where you got to eat breakfast. Eat fast, go on deck to relieve the others so they can eat.
- the MuseTags: Highlander
