Introductions

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything that was specifically geared for public consumption, so if anyone chooses to read this, I ask you to bear with me, and also to be patient. I have no idea when I will be able to update this, because, as you will soon learn, my job takes me to rather exotic and strange locations (both wonderful and…unusual [in every sense]) some of which lack running water, let alone internet services.

A bit of information by way of introduction:

I first “went to ships”  in April of 2010. I’ll be celebrating my year anniversary as a shipboard gypsy this coming April, at which point I will also be completing my first Grand World Voyage, and will have circumnavigated the globe 1.5 times.

I’ve ridden a camel, touched the pyramids, stared into the eyes of King Tut’s mask and had my picture taken with the sphinx. I’ve ridden a donkey up the steps of Santorini, waded in the shallows of Turkey, visited the library at Ephesus, swum in the Med, and watched the sunset over Tahiti. I’ve visited the Hippodrome, meditated under the dome of the Parthenon, and been reduced to tears by Bernini’s canopy in St Peter’s Basilica. I’ve eaten crocodile, kangaroo and emu, swum in the Amazon, and rung in the New Year at sea. I’ve zip-lined over the trees of Alaska, and stood under a waterfall in that was pure glacier run off. I’ve even sat pool side in Margaretaville. I’ve had dinner, drinks, and countless laughs, with some of the best jugglers, musicians, magicians, and entertainers the business has to offer. Some of them even remember my name 😉

All in less than a year.

Yes, the job has its perks.

If anyone had told me a year ago, when I was struggling to make ends meet after coming home from a years’ stay in Britain to complete a long sought after master’s degree, that I would be sitting behind a desk in a floating palace, being paid to travel to places that for so many people remain just so many names on a map, I would have laughed. Then I probably would have cried. I did a lot of crying back then.

A word of warning for anyone who may be thinking of “running away to join the circus”: Shipboard life is not for everyone. It can be very trying, and very lonely, we spend long months separated from those we love, we miss birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmases. Every time we come home, our families are that much older, and we’re that much more distant from them.  While we meet and make friends with some of the most amazing people that the world has to offer, we are often separated from them just as quickly. We live our lives out of two suitcases and a carry-on, and when people ask us where we’re from, sometimes we have to think about it before we answer. Truly, we are gypsies.

The hours are long and the duties extensive, but the rewards and the freedom one gains from living below the waterline often outbalance the downsides.

I have no idea what these pages will end up containing, if they in fact end up containing anything.

Until such time as I’m able to come up with something more interesting to say,

Fair winds and following seas,

Shaughnessy