First Day Off, Awww Yehhhh.

I consider myself very exceptional at being spontaneous, but I think this is olympic status for dropping myself right into the middle of things. The flight over the puddle was long, arduous, and just, well, what flying normally is over a 30hour period. One nice thing though was landing in Fiji just at sunrise, it was quite beautiful.

Immediately off the plane in Sydney, I found the office of the Sydney Harbour Tall Ships, and "enlisted." Bam. Thrown on a ship, stuffed my belongings somewhere in the hold, and started working. It's gotten better since then, though, and the amount I am learning is enormous.

The company has 4 ships, the Soren Larsen, the Coral Trekker, the Southern Swan, and the Wangi Queen. There are some issues going on with the port of Sydney because some of the people in charge don't like seeing all the ships in one place or something, so we are constantly shuffling them around between the pier by the opera house, White Bay which is a commercial area, and the maritime museum.

I've been put to work helping refit the Swan, as she's supposed to go on a trip to Bundaberg next Monday (not this coming one) which I might be on (I also just moved onto the Swan). James, the captain in charge of the refit is really nice and I'm learning a lot from him. Long hours though, the other day we were at it from 7am to 8pm! I've cleaned out the captain's quarters, which was a pretty grimy job, stripped, sanded and oiled the mainmast with linseed & diesel, and today I got to be the rigger's apprentice and help this guy fix and retension the lanyards for the shrouds (I know they're not called shrouds, but I forget what the proper name is) which was really interesting. Other things the rigger taught me was the legend behind the Matthew Walker knot, and how to make Plank Juice from old rum or whiskey barrels, a French-Canadian tradition apparently.

I've also been learning to climb the mast and go out on the yards - it's pretty intimidating at first! This company is one of the few left that have you go up without a full body harness clipped in the whole way, which is very cumbersome. We do have waist harnesses (no leg straps) that clip onto a wire when you climb around onto the top and you're hanging backwards, and onto a safety line when you're out on the yard, but the rest of the time you're on your own. As James said when he was taking me up there for the first time, "nothing like the natural fear of falling to keep you safe; you'll be surprised how strong your hands and arms are." 

And so, my adventure has begun. The folks here are all really nice and helpful, so it's made the transition easier. Some of them are even helpful with how to improve my accent, "You Americans say 'Oh Yeah,' but around here, you gotta learn to say 'Aww Yehh.'" That's all for now, Cheers!