back out to sea

The past few days have been pretty dynamic - Two of the outgoing crew finally got to go home, after 9 months on the boat. Having spent the past week training, yelling and coaching us through the ways of how to handle Spirit, we all were pretty worn down from the rapid-fire information overload. We had, and will continue to have a near-vertical learning curve from the 90% crew turn-over. I'm half anxious, and half stoked to have learned, and continue to learn all of line handling and navigation that would have taken me months on Argo.  Something about either this boat, the crew, the captain, the training or maybe just even the crew moral has made coming aboard here so much better. For one, I'm not the chef on board, and can therefore focus all of my efforts to being on deck. Second, I'm the third mate, which in sailing world translates to "the one in training, and the one who needs to prove themselves," so I'm in a very unique position. In a week I'll have my own watch team of 6-10 students, and will work with my deckhand, Carver, on leading them through sail handling, navigation, and making way to Bermuda. The thought of having an entire vessel under my command for alternating 4 hour watches is a little daunting - it will be my navigation that gets us there, and I'm just waiting for the moment I crash the boat, or fuck something up. My superiors tell me horror stories about "back in the day when I was 3rd mate and that one time I really fucked up," doesn't help, but doesn't put any additional pressure. It's comforting to know that they don't expect me to know everything, but its very much NOT comforting to know that the future holds a few inevitable times of being chewed out. So for now I'm keeping it simple - don't crash the boat.

Tomorrow morning we go underway to Gloucester, Massachusetts, which will take about 4 days. An easy sail, but a not-so-easy watch team schedule of 4-hour watches for 4 days straight. Though, by the 2nd day, you just get into a routine of coffee-slurping consciousness.

So here we go. 4 days of coffee guzzling, rapid-fire navigation to Gloucester. Readddyyyyyy go!