8-12 watch CD Canal

I’m on the 8 to 12 watch now. Watch this morning wasn’t that bad, now that Michelle is gone we have Laura, I showed her how to do a boat check and talked to her about A watch, how we are the awesome action watch. On the second boat check of watch Laura did it herself and I just followed watching her, we go into the engine room and there is water gushing out of a pipe and into the bilge. We freak out and run to tell Peter, he’s all calm about it and slowly makes his way down into the engine room. Turns out they were flooding the engine room bilge on purpose, yeah thanks for telling me. Later soap was put in it and then pumped out, B watch was cleaning it for morning work party.

On watch we were going through the Chesapeake Delaware Canal, lots of buoys to steer through and we all know how good I am at driving. Went under a few bridges as well. While on forward look out you don’t always have to walk all the way aft to tell the mate what you see, you can just use hand symbols. Peter was showing us a few more today, they are silly and Peter is so enthusiastic about it.

For work party Jesse and I went aloft to tension the main upper shrouds. Laura and Brooke first had to ease off the royal stay a little before we could do ours to make the tension more balanced. Then we tightened the royal and topgallant stays. Grant and Zach took off the rotten boards from the mizzen top, people keep stepping through them.

CD canal

John on the helm.

Maisie, Cookie and Zach.

Katie with cannon ball in hand.

Day off

Katie and I wondered the streets of Baltimore for 12 hours today. Saw the Constellation and her four decks, walked around looking at random things and getting lost. Actually ate all three meals out today. We watched Pride furl, she had 8 people aloft on her topsail but only three on her headsails.

Also Michelle left today to go back to Alaska.

Constellation's gun deck.

Hammocks.

Grant, Peter, Mitch, Me, John and Katie.

Pride II furling.

Battle Sail

We opened for tours at 11 and we were busy all day, there was a constant flow of people. C watch did tours while the rest of us painted. We painted black, yellow and green. A lot of yellow was done and made a big improvement on the boat. What I love best is the fact that we only painted starboard, the side to the public and when we get to another port and are pulled up on the other side we’ll have to go paint that.

Closed at 4 so that we could do our battle sail, which turned out amazing. We had a few pirates aboard that were more like cannoners, they were really fun. Sailed into the inner harbor fired at the Constalation, the Fearless a stupid pirate ship and then at the pirate camp. We sailed out a bit more and fired at Pride and the Farewell a few times before we struck our colours, we were flying our huge Union Jack and we struck all our sails. After it was over we thought it would have been better if we made our yards crooked and lifts all whoppyjangle.

The gunners were really great, they helped us move and load the guns and we had a great time just talking to them while standing by. Turns out they know Lawrence the crazy cannon guy who fixed our guns in Florida. Also the 500 pound brass cannon that he brought to Bounty for the pirate festival belongs to this lady Grace.

After we docked some more crazy pirates showed up and we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

The gunners invited us over to their camp that night we were really glad at the end of the night that we went. They fired off a few cannons and let Grant and Katie do it because they are our main gunners. They put steel wool in the gun, makes extra sparks and flames out of the barrel. When they fired they moved the guns so they were pointing at Bounty. Then they taught us this amazing game called scuttle hatch. Two players stand on their own little board that is a bit tippy, then you pull on a line between the two and try to get the other one off. It’s not tug of war because you can give slack and whip the line around, I beat Katie three times.

Marines.

Pride II.

Marines shooting.

Jesse playing scuttle hatch.

Day Sail

We had a day sail today with people who worked with and have been customers of Bob’s. It was actually a great day, not as much work because there lots of other people there willing to help. We had a catered lunch before we left the dock, after we left we sailed around in circles for awhile tacking around, any time we had to tack or strike the headsails we got people to help us. Near the end Katie and I got to take some people aloft, even had a woman who was 8 months pregnant.

Docked at Fells Point.

The Constellation.

Pride of Baltimore I mast.

Fells Point, Baltimore

Another really long day, we came into Baltimore and docked at Fells Point. On the way in we went under another bridge, sailed into the inner harbor and shot off the cannons, once at the Constellations and again at Pride of Baltimore II.

Katie, Brooke and I ended up walking around the harbor, got dessert twice and saw the lay of the land a little.

Fort.

Baltimore.

All day watch

The longest day ever, it took forever to actually get off the dock at St. Michels, We kept bumping into things, the water wasn’t deep enough and the bottom was full of mud. In the end we got off the dock with no damage and between then and 1900 we didn’t stop moving and A watch was on watch all day.

We set practically every sail and then furled everything at the end of the day; almost every single line was hauled on at some point. We sailed under a bridge and then anchored on the other side of it. Sail into Baltimore tomorrow.

Lines everywhere.

First passenger.

Dan explaining something.

Main mast.

Mitch grabbing a bunt with a boat hook.

Under a bridge.

Furling.

Day off

Finally got a full day off. This morning we all got a back tour of the museum, things that they don’t always keep on display or have tour guides go to. Jesse and I spent the day together, roamed around the different parts of the museum, all the different houses with things in them. Went into town and got to see it in the day time. I ended up going to the post office and renewing my passport. Jesse went into an antique shop and found sail maker grommet dye sets, bought a few and then came back later and bought a few more.

At 1330 we met back near the boat and got a free ride to a school so that we could check off three things for our NFSPW that we can’t get on Bounty. That then helps you become and AB along with basic safety training and life boatmanship. What we needed was turning auto pilot on, turning it off and gyroscope compass. Normally to get those you either have to find someone who will let u drive their boat that has it, very unlikely or take a class for about $800. Zach was talking to some people the day before about it and explaining our situation, they said they knew some people and that we could use their simulator. All we did was give them some t-shirts.

The simulator was amazing, we all stepped into the fake bridge and were really blown away. We each had a turn at driving and at the very end the guy turned up the seas and the wind making it hard to steer and then put a boat right in front of us.

And congratulations are in order for Cookie and Maisie who just got engaged tonight.

Maritime Museum.

Decaying skipjack.

Automatic crab picker.

Light house.

Michelle sanding chain plate.

Simulator.

Brooke chasing ducks.