3/26/2011

This morning we heard a lecture from Captain Rybka about the history of the Niagara after the war, which is something we rarely talk about. It is really a depressing story about bureaucracy and poor planning with a helping of cautionary tale for not caring for important pieces of our history. The boat was left to rot, rebuilt and left to rot more times than is remotely fair, but that is the way of our culture it seems. We sometimes fail to remember how important things are till they're already ruined.

Afterwards, there was more work on the galley, and work getting the boat prepped for uprig. We've been getting the yards ready to send aloft and coiled the anchor rodes in their home. Stays are being tarred and seized as needed. We're getting ready to really start things up; less than a month till the sailing season starts.

3/25/2011

Turned to at 0630 and headed into town with the folks on the boat. Our shore galley is being remodeled so the captain took care of our breakfast at a local shop. I tried the apparently quintessential Erie breakfast of a meatball omelet, which was really tasty, but would probably make better drunk late night food than breakfast food.

Upon getting back to the boat, we started in the preparations for uprig. We moved yards around a bit, and then I was pulled off that to help move some artifacts around in the museum store room. We are doing some upgrades to the shore facilities, and we had to cut hole in the wall to get a new water heater installed. Once we moved the heater, then we had to fix said wall. It was new and interesting for me.

The I moved down to the shore galley to help with the upgrade and refit in there. While it is kind of inconvenient to have it torn up, we'll have it back together by tuesday and it will be really nice. There is also talk of putting together a "Misery Bay Workout Program" for the crew. We all need a bit more conditioning to get ready for the season.

03/24/2011- Returning to Niagara

So the few of you that read this are probably aware of how bad I am at updating. I'm going to try to do better this time around.

1900-

Arrived in Erie around 0900 and quickly got to work. Checked in with the Mate and then headed out to salt the ship and break ice free, as there were student tours coming aboard later in the day and we had to get the boat to a useful condition for that. After the drive I was tired, but keeping active was very helpful in dealing with that. I worked till noon, and then turned to taking care of some last minute preparations. I went into town to get a new rig knife and a foulie hat, and then went down into the shop to put together a new rig, as my old one was poorly made and falling apart.

Met some of the other O.S.s and an AB and had a pleasant time working with them on our gear. It really feels good to be back.