Life On A Boat | Gloucester, MA | June-July 2021
One day I was watching Outlander on Netflix (great show!). They were coming to America from Scotland on a Tall Ship. Now back in 2011, I went to see Tall Ships America up on Lake Erie with Dad and we talked about how cool it would be to live and work on one of the boats. So as I was sitting there watching Outlander, I got that feeling again, that I wanted to do that, I wanted to be one of those people who worked and lived on a Tall Ship. Right that instant, I got on the Tall Ships America website and perused their job openings. I found one in near Boston, MA, that was a four month season, and I called the Captain the next day to see if they were still hiring and if they would take someone with no experience, they said yes! Within that week, I had accepted the job! I was excited, nervous, and sad, all at the same time!
I left Ohio on June 3rd. I drove up through Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and then into Massachusetts. I stopped in Pittsburgh to see a friend, central PA to sleep, and then again in Wilmington, VT to hike and sleep. Before I went into Gloucester, I met some friends in Boston for the day to explore and hang out.
I arrived in Gloucester on June 5th. I went straight to the boat to get settled in. There were only two crew members on the boat when I arrived, two men from Texas. I got some of my stuff on the boat (the rest I kept in my truck) and we all went out for some dinner and drinks at a local bar, Stone’s. It was a good, fun time getting to know one another.
My three foot wide bunk
My second day in Gloucester was a free day. I decided to go explore my new town. It is really cute. The boat (my home) is only a couple blocks away from Main St. where most of the shops and restaurants are. I went and souvenir shopped for everyone, including myself. At the top of the pier where the boat is at, is a big hill with our office building on it. From the top of the hill you can see the harbor and out into the ocean. I sat on a bench up there and just soaked it all in. I just moved away from everything I know and like, to try this crazy dream of living and working on a Tall Ship! Wow! I honestly started to freak out a little bit and made a bunch of calls to get others opinions, only to find out that my Great Grandmother wasn’t going to make it through the week. I talked to the Captain and we decided that I would be able to go home for a week or so to be with my family during this time, then come back and see how I liked boat life.
The next couple days, we started working. I kept in close contact with my family to know what was going on with my Grandma, I didn’t want to leave too soon or too late. The first few days of work were hard, a lot of heavy lifting. We had to get the main gaff (upper log to hold the sail up) and the fore gaff up off the deck and into their places. The main gaff is over 60 feet long and weighs over two ton! We had about 20 people to lift it…. Luckily, with all the lines and blocks, we somehow managed to get it up into place with sheer muscle! My body started to ache already!
My tan after my first full day out in the sun, thank goodness for sunscreen!
That Wednesday, Captain drove me to the airport and I went home. My Grandma had passed away over night. I spent two weeks at home being with my family and getting everything taken care of that needed taken care of and I flew back to Boston on June 25th.
When I got back into town, we still had a week of uprigging and maintenance to do on the boat before we started sailing. We did a lot of painting, organizing, and boring stuff like that. Living on the boat was a hard adjustment for me to take in. The full crew on the boat is supposed to be 12, but we only had 5, so that helped it not be so crowded. But for someone who has lived alone or with their significant other their whole adult life, living with other adults was hard, especially because I’m an introvert. Luckily, I drove my truck and am able to escape into solitude in the evenings.
In a harness to climb up the main mast!
Our uniform: khakis, knife, marlinspike, and jean crew shirt
We also had t-shirts and sweatshirts. The rainboots were part of our foulies (foul weather gear) along with waterproof overalls and rain jackets.
It’s hard to tell in this picture but I had calises in the weirdest places on my hands, including between my fingers, from pulling lines
As far as living on the boat goes, we live in the focs’le (pronounced folks-hole, a.k.a. living quarters, stands for folks castle). There are 12 bunks that are about 3 feet wide and have curtains to block you from everyone else. In between the bunks is the “dining room” table and at the end of that it pretty much goes right into the galley (kitchen). We each have about a two foot by one foot section in the bench for storage along with a 6 inch by two foot section of open space for other storage, another good reason I’m glad I brought my truck! We have to go up to the shore head (marina bathroom) to use the bathroom and we have to go to the YMCA to shower. We also have to go to the laundry mat in town to do laundry. All food is included on the ship, Captain said “the more you eat, the more you make!” We rotate who cooks every week so we each have our turn. We work six days a week, varying hours, but usually between 8-10 hours a day, and we have one day off. We also rotate daily on who is on duty. The duty person checks bilges to make sure the boat isn’t taking on water, fills the boat tanks with fresh water for us to drink and cook with, and they cannot leave the ship the entire day.
Unfortunately, the first day off that we had since I got back, I was on duty so I couldn’t leave the ship. When you’re on duty, you must raise the flags at 8am and down at sunset, checking all of the bilges for water, and keeping an eye on the boat in general. It was nice to be alone the whole day, but I also got very bored. I did budgeting for myself and watched a lot of tv on my phone. Luckily, my second day off, I was able to leave the boat. I ended up going down to Salem and doing a bunch of the Witch Trial stuff. I previously had gone to Salem one evening after work and saw the Hocus Pocus house. (I will write another blog on Salem itself in the future.) That was basically all I did before I headed back to the boat for the night.
The following weekend, I started to get homesick. It had been about a week and a half since I left home again and it happened to be Fourth of July weekend which is when my mom’s extended family gets together every year and spends all weekend hanging out together. I was really upset that I was missing that! But luckily my Dad came to visit on July 4th so I got to have a little bit of home for a few days and I got to share the experience with the person who got me into sailing in the first place!
July 4th was the first day we took the boat out. We didn’t put the sails up though, we just motored into the bay, anchored, and watched the fireworks. They were great! Better than Sunbury’s but not as good as Red, White, and Boom. The week after the Fourth of July, we did more maintenance and got ready for our first sail that following weekend. With my Dad in town, I spent every evening with him. We went to a local beach to watch the sunset, walked all over Gloucester, ate at local restaurants, and an Indian restaurant down in Salem. I really liked exploring with him!
4th of July fireworks in New England, make sure you’re prepared with a hat and two layers of coats
The following weekend we started sailing. We first did a training sail with an interim Captain, which was much needed. With me not knowing anything about sailing Tall Ships and them not really teaching us much at all, it was very stressful and crazy. But I learned a lot. After that, we had two sails almost every single day. Which is amazing, but hard work! We have to raise the sails which weigh over 2 tons each, twice a day, take them down twice a day, and we don’t get that much time to enjoy the sail itself and being out on the water, unfortunately. But it is still an amazing feeling to be sailing on the ocean everyday! Also, I got to take the helm (steering wheel) while we docked one day, it was stressful, but kind of fun at the same time.
Shortly after my Dad left, I started to get over my homesickness. I think getting out on the water everyday really helped. So being around the crew got a lot easier and more enjoyable. On my next day off, I decided to take a day trip up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which I will go over in another blog post. This same day, I put in my two weeks notice for the boat. Pretty much the whole time I was out there, I was missing my life back home; family, Nick, friends, hobbies, etc… I had done a good amount of my summer adventure and wanted to get home for my sisters birthday at the end of July (she always gets mad at me for missing her birthday, I wasn’t going to miss her 18th!). There was a lot going on that I didn’t want to miss. Captain wasn’t too happy with me but he understood, boat life isn’t for everyone. I was starting to really enjoy living on the boat, but it wasn’t worth missing everything back home.
Pride of Baltimore docked up to the Schooner Adventure
The next two weeks, I really soaked in everything! We were still doing day sails and charters every day. But one big thing we did within the last week I was there was we sailed the boat down to Boston! On our way down there, we had two families on the boat along with us crew. We sailed about two hours with the wind, but then the wind died and we motored the remaining 4 hours. It was really cool to be out on the open water in the ocean! Sailing into Boston was a completely different experience in itself. I had never known that there were so many little islands near Boston! Also, the planes landing at Boston-Logan were coming right over top of us (just like driving down Hamilton Road next to John Glenn), it was so cool! The crew was laughing at me because I was waving like a maniac when they would fly over us hahaha. We docked up next to The Roseway which is one of Boston’s local Tall Ships (not nearly as nice as my boat, The Adventure). We had a free evening in Boston, me and a couple of the crew members went out for a night on the town. We went bar hopping and ended the night at a karaoke bar, where I sang karaoke for the first time ever! I sang, “Man! I feel like a woman!” by Shania Twain. There ended up being two Brittany’s that requested the same song, so we sang it together, it was so much fun!!
A couple crew members and I polished this bell for almost 5 hours on our cruise to Boston. I was proud of it when we finished!
The next evening we had an early day sail and basically only worked half a day, then I took off by myself and went to the park to get some alone time off the boat. Once I got tired, I headed back to the boat and did some reading in the park. I was ready to come home. The following day, we motored (because there was no wind) all the way back to Gloucester (six hours). This time, I got to take the helm while we were underway! It was boring! I would rather be out pulling lines than standing staring off into the distance… But we also got to learn a little bit of the basics for navigation, which was really interesting! I want to learn more about that one day! We got back to our home dock and we all kind of scattered. After a week of being together all the time, we start to get irritated and need our space from our crew!
My last day on the boat, our charter sail got cancelled and we had a maintenance day. We did some inspections for the Coast Guard and had a shorter day, because like I said, we were exhausted from our trip to Boston. But luckily, my two good friends I made on the boat, Gomez and Feivel, realized it was my last night on the boat and we all hung out. We went out for ice cream and played some board games.
The next morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn, loaded the remainder of my stuff into my truck, went on a whale watch tour, and headed back home! Just like on the way out to Gloucester, I stopped in a few different states on my way home, but I will make a separate blog about that.
Overall, the trip was a HUGE learning experience that had a lot of ups and downs, but I really enjoyed it in the end. I decided that I want to own my own boat one day so I can do everything myself and not have to deal with other people haha. But it was really cool to see how all of our different personalities, from all over the country, could mesh together and enjoy being in such close quarters with each other every day. My hands have calluses in the weirdest places from pulling lines, I have bigger muscles than I left home with, and I now have a home in my heart for this whole adventure. I am SO glad I went!