2/25-27
It has been a trip getting back into ship-shape, and trying just to keep up with the more experienced professional crew. I am beyond the voyaging trainees but well behind the level of the pro-crew members and basically being treated just like them and very often asked to perform at their levels. Even the least experienced pro-crew member is well beyond me, I feel, but I am loving the challenge.
Saturday I worked aloft with the rest of the crew and, it being my third time aloft, was starting to get comfortable up there (this is also my first time ever working aloft without a harness, though we do use belt harnesses when doing longer projects aloft other than loosing and stowing sail).
Then we got the assignment to do work aloft I had never done before, and one of the pieces of hardware (the pin to a shackle, FYI) slipped out of my fingers and went swimming. The process of solving the problem sent me up and down the shrouds, and out and back on the yard arm several times, my feet were extremely sore and my legs were jello by the time I finished the job. Lost some confidence, got an eye-roll from the mate, and had to buy beers for everyone for my mistake. But all of that is far better than having my diaper powdered and training wheels tightened. Treat me tough, and I will get tougher.
The next morning we got a call to muster at about 4:45 to raise anchor and move the ship because were were blocking the way of an incoming cargo ship trying to get to the dock. Since there is not too much ship's work to do the crew, sparse already, has been divided into two watches and takes shifts of two days on and two days off. So, at about 5 am we manned the windlass (anchor raising crank) and hauled up the anchor. Usually a 15-16 person job, we did it with seven. I am still a bit sore.
Like I said, still getting into ship shape.
But, our work was rewarded with one of the most brillant sunrises I have ever seen.

Today is the first day of our two days off. I have SCUBA dived for the first time ever and loved it. We weren't even training in a pool, we trained off a dock. It was a really bizarre feeling of elation combined with holding off claustrophobia (though that passed as I got used to being under water). Tonight we are headed to Sufriere with the local guys we befriended at the rum shop. Sufriere is a place where boiling sulfur meets the cool ocean, and a warm bubbling spring is the result, fenced in by picturesque boulders. Apparently some scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed there as well.

So far life is hard but also very good.