Sailing, historical tours and more sailing
Door: Sanne
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Sanne
29 Juli 2009 | Verenigde Staten, Washington, D. C.
Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back here and write again. Life on the Half Moon has been very busy. And when it wasn't busy, for instance when we were sailing up or down a river with our engines shut off and everything was quiet and peaceful, I didn't think of modern day life or internet.
So what have I been up to for the past 4 weeks?
Well, when I arrived at JFK airport I was picked up by Steve, a crew member of the Half Moon who has a farm in a suburb of New York. Later the same day he went to the airport to collect Swantje, a German artist who was going to work on the ship too. That same evening we (Steve, Swantje, me and a friend of Steve) went sailing on Steves yacht. What a great start of our adventure in the States! The next morning Steve brought us to Orient Point at the end of Long Island (a 2 hour drive), from where Swantje and I took the ferry across Long Island Sound to New London (1 hour), where the ship was docked. From that moment onwards I have practically been on the ship 24/7 till last sunday.
Voyage of Discovery
From fri 3rd of July till thu 9th of July we sailed from New London to East Hartford with 12 students aged 12-14. The voyage was called a Voyage of Discovery, which actually just means that the students do all sorts of science projects during the sailing or when we are at anchor. They also learn how to climb the rigging, how to unfurl and furl the sails and how to set them. The students are divided over two 6-hour watches, in which they rotate to be at the helm, be lookout, help in the galley (=kitchen for non-nautical people), clean the head (=toilet for non-nautical people) and do fire/bilge rounds.
The senior crew is there to teach them and to make sure that they do their watch duties. And, maybe even more important, to think of activities to diminish their apparant unlimited supply of energy so that they're quiet at 10pm and allow us to sleep. These activities included Hollandse Leeuwen (= Dutch lions for the non-Dutch people), massage circles, swimming and "the human knot". In my case being senior crew meant that I had to learn all the lines in one day so I could teach them to the students and it also meant that I was climbing, furling and unfurling a lot. Even though on this voyage I also was the cook and had to make sure that meals were served. So I sometimes ended up giving instructions to the person on galley duty from aloft, or running down the rigging straight into the galley still wearing my full body harness.
East Hartford
In East Hartford we had to stow away the science gear and a lot of the sailing gear and we changed the ship into a museum. We had two days of public tours during the weekend, and from monday till thursday we had some school groups come onto the ship for tours. The evenings were packed with receptions and parties from Goodwin College, because we were docked at their dock. So being in East Hartford meant giving historical tours of the ship all day, which was very tiring sometimes. The positive side was that we had shower fascilities and didn't have to wash our hair while swimming in the river! And some of the student crew, who had left after our arrival, came back to do tours. It was great to see them come back and tell other people about their experencies.
Hudson River Voyage
For our next voyage we had some new crewmembers come aboard who replaced the student crew. On fri 17th of July we left East Hartford with some big cannon salutes and sailed back down the Connecticut river and onto Long Island Sound. We headed West towards Manhattan, sailed through the night and passed the East side of Manhattan in the morning. Because we had covered such a big distance already we were able to take more time sailing up the Hudson river. We had a few more swimming calls, sailed rather than using the engine and docked nearly every night and were allowed to go into the town where we were docked. Therefore we got to go to an Italian Festival, the cinema (Harry Potter 6) and some people went to the pub for several nights.
Town of Hudson
We arrived in the town of Hudson on the 23rd of July. There we were part of the opening of a new waterfront park on friday and had to give public tours again during the weekend. My time in Hudson was one with mixed feelings. The festivities were really nice but the great crew we had had during our Hudson river voyage left one by one during those few days and saying goodbye isn't really my favourite thing to do. But even more depressing than seeing everyone leave, was that I also had to leave. With only one more week before flying back home, I wanted to go to Manhattan to do some touristy stuff. Steve had come to Hudson for the public tours, so I could come with him and I'm now staying at his farm again.
I have to go now, but I'll first answer Martine's question about the weather:
The weather is great. We have had bright sunshine, we've had cloudy days and half a dozen thunderstorms with more heavy rainfall than we've had in the Netherlands for the past half a year. (yay! I actually got to use my wet weather gear!)
I probably won't be back online before I get back to the Netherlands, but I'll definitely write at least one more blog to tell about my adventures in the Big Apple.
Hope you all enjoyed reading this.
Take care!
xx Sanne
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back here and write again. Life on the Half Moon has been very busy. And when it wasn't busy, for instance when we were sailing up or down a river with our engines shut off and everything was quiet and peaceful, I didn't think of modern day life or internet.
So what have I been up to for the past 4 weeks?
Well, when I arrived at JFK airport I was picked up by Steve, a crew member of the Half Moon who has a farm in a suburb of New York. Later the same day he went to the airport to collect Swantje, a German artist who was going to work on the ship too. That same evening we (Steve, Swantje, me and a friend of Steve) went sailing on Steves yacht. What a great start of our adventure in the States! The next morning Steve brought us to Orient Point at the end of Long Island (a 2 hour drive), from where Swantje and I took the ferry across Long Island Sound to New London (1 hour), where the ship was docked. From that moment onwards I have practically been on the ship 24/7 till last sunday.
Voyage of Discovery
From fri 3rd of July till thu 9th of July we sailed from New London to East Hartford with 12 students aged 12-14. The voyage was called a Voyage of Discovery, which actually just means that the students do all sorts of science projects during the sailing or when we are at anchor. They also learn how to climb the rigging, how to unfurl and furl the sails and how to set them. The students are divided over two 6-hour watches, in which they rotate to be at the helm, be lookout, help in the galley (=kitchen for non-nautical people), clean the head (=toilet for non-nautical people) and do fire/bilge rounds.
The senior crew is there to teach them and to make sure that they do their watch duties. And, maybe even more important, to think of activities to diminish their apparant unlimited supply of energy so that they're quiet at 10pm and allow us to sleep. These activities included Hollandse Leeuwen (= Dutch lions for the non-Dutch people), massage circles, swimming and "the human knot". In my case being senior crew meant that I had to learn all the lines in one day so I could teach them to the students and it also meant that I was climbing, furling and unfurling a lot. Even though on this voyage I also was the cook and had to make sure that meals were served. So I sometimes ended up giving instructions to the person on galley duty from aloft, or running down the rigging straight into the galley still wearing my full body harness.
East Hartford
In East Hartford we had to stow away the science gear and a lot of the sailing gear and we changed the ship into a museum. We had two days of public tours during the weekend, and from monday till thursday we had some school groups come onto the ship for tours. The evenings were packed with receptions and parties from Goodwin College, because we were docked at their dock. So being in East Hartford meant giving historical tours of the ship all day, which was very tiring sometimes. The positive side was that we had shower fascilities and didn't have to wash our hair while swimming in the river! And some of the student crew, who had left after our arrival, came back to do tours. It was great to see them come back and tell other people about their experencies.
Hudson River Voyage
For our next voyage we had some new crewmembers come aboard who replaced the student crew. On fri 17th of July we left East Hartford with some big cannon salutes and sailed back down the Connecticut river and onto Long Island Sound. We headed West towards Manhattan, sailed through the night and passed the East side of Manhattan in the morning. Because we had covered such a big distance already we were able to take more time sailing up the Hudson river. We had a few more swimming calls, sailed rather than using the engine and docked nearly every night and were allowed to go into the town where we were docked. Therefore we got to go to an Italian Festival, the cinema (Harry Potter 6) and some people went to the pub for several nights.
Town of Hudson
We arrived in the town of Hudson on the 23rd of July. There we were part of the opening of a new waterfront park on friday and had to give public tours again during the weekend. My time in Hudson was one with mixed feelings. The festivities were really nice but the great crew we had had during our Hudson river voyage left one by one during those few days and saying goodbye isn't really my favourite thing to do. But even more depressing than seeing everyone leave, was that I also had to leave. With only one more week before flying back home, I wanted to go to Manhattan to do some touristy stuff. Steve had come to Hudson for the public tours, so I could come with him and I'm now staying at his farm again.
I have to go now, but I'll first answer Martine's question about the weather:
The weather is great. We have had bright sunshine, we've had cloudy days and half a dozen thunderstorms with more heavy rainfall than we've had in the Netherlands for the past half a year. (yay! I actually got to use my wet weather gear!)
I probably won't be back online before I get back to the Netherlands, but I'll definitely write at least one more blog to tell about my adventures in the Big Apple.
Hope you all enjoyed reading this.
Take care!
xx Sanne
-
29 Juli 2009 - 20:56
Lotte:
Volgens mij moet jij later gewoon weer op een boot gaan wonen. Als ik het zo hoor, voel je je daar namelijk prima thuis... -
30 Juli 2009 - 06:56
Jantien:
Super stoere verhalen!! Klinkt goed, mooi opladen voor het komende jaar,
liefs en dikke zoen! Jantien -
30 Juli 2009 - 12:34
Dodo:
Hoi sanne ,wat een avontuur natuurlijk weer.
ik print je verhaal uit voor oma ,want die volgt jouw ook nu.
nog veel plezier en tot binnenkort weer gewoon in Holland gr do -
30 Juli 2009 - 14:44
Barbara:
Hee Sanne,
Leuk van je te horen! Het klinkt allemaal heel leuk ;)
Als je in Wageningen bent moet je maar eventjes wat laten weten, dan spreken we weer wat af.
Veel plezier nog!
xx -
01 Augustus 2009 - 15:23
Jacinda:
Heej,
De verhalen klinken echt als iets voor jou! Super dat je het zo naar je zin hebt. Veel plezier nog in de Big Apple!
xxx -
04 Augustus 2009 - 16:41
Hanneke:
Hee Sanne,
Leuk om weer wat van je verhalen te lezen! Mooi dat alles zo goed gaat daar en dat je het zo naar je zin hebt.
Ik ben net terug uit de Dominicaanse Republiek, dat was ook echt heel erg superleuk.
Misschien kunnen we weer eens afspreken?
Fijne vakantie iig nog verder!
xx Hanneke -
14 Augustus 2009 - 05:17
Shaun Hamilton:
Hey darl it all sounds so great. Your PAX sound alot like the ones on leeuwin. All energy and no sleep. It is great to hear that your having fun.
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