{"id":903,"date":"2012-02-27T21:32:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T10:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=903"},"modified":"2013-06-17T18:49:06","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:49:06","slug":"bring-me-that-horizon-sydney-02252012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"Bring me that Horizon \u2013 Sydney \u2013 [02\/25\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou know<\/em>\"\"<\/a> what a ship is don\u2019t you? It\u2019s not just a mast and a hull and some sails, that\u2019s what a ship *needs* what a ship is, what a ship really is…is freedom\u201d \u2013 Pirates of the Caribbean<\/em><\/p>\n

If there is a tall ship within a mile of where my dear floating hotel is docked, I will find it. This is a standing tradition, and a standing joke, ever since my not making it past the end of the dock in San Jose during the Grand Voyage. But in this case, I knew it was there, and I\u2019d planned for it \u2013 not as well as I\u2019d hoped (I should have pre-booked so I could have had the mast climb that I wanted), but planned for it none the less.<\/p>\n

When\u2019s your next sail?<\/em><\/p>\n

We have one spot l<\/em>eft on the 1:45<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll take it<\/em><\/p>\n

There was no real question whether or not I would take it. Whether or not I got to spend time in the rigging, I needed today. It\u2019s been an emotional rollercoaster of a week, and while most of the developments have been good, that\u2019s doesn\u2019t mean that they haven\u2019t been challenging. The long and the short of it being, I needed a ship, a real ship, that smelled of tar and wood and spoke with the voice of the wind in the rigging. I needed to be able to lean on the gunnels and watch the wake drift by under us as we made our way out of the harbor. I needed the salt. I needed the fresh air.<\/p>\n

I needed to remember…<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter that I work and live on the water, my floating home doesn\u2019t put me in true contact with my element. We co-exist it\u2019s true, but there\u2019s no real sense of harmony there. A cruise ship is more a floating hotel than it is a true ship (er, don\u2019t tell the flagship I said that), as beautiful as she is, there\u2019s no sense of freedom there, no sense of personality.<\/p>\n

The crew moves as a unit on a tall ship, much more so than we do on our bigger more modern \u2018ladies\u2019. In the world of wood and rigging, there is no PA system, there isn\u2019t even a megaphone. One crew member calls out the orders, the others echo them to ensure they\u2019ve heard correctly, and then race quietly to their business, bare feet slapping on the hot wood of the deck, soles long since calloused over so that shoes aren\u2019t really necessary anymore, scrambling up into the rigging held in place by a harness that looks all to slender when you think of the fact that your very life depends on it as you cling hand and foot to the spars. The ship and the crew work as one, they \u00a0treat her with respect, she returns the favour.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly four years since I last felt a line in my hands, and even then I can hardly say I had any experience \u2013 one volunteer on one sunset sail does not a sailor make, but I\u2019d forgotten how good it felt to actually put your back into something like that. They only ask for six passenger volunteers to help set the sail on a harbour trip like this, and those six do so under the careful eye of the trained crew. I was the first to put up my hand.<\/p>\n

I can haul…actually..<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ve got you on a line…here<\/em><\/p>\n

And I listen as she gives the instructions, and I remember vaguely what one of the sailors I struck up a conversation with on the Lady Washington back during the Festival in 2008 told me. Remember to put your weight against the line, and when you think you\u2019ve given it your all, give it more. Always sweat your line before you tie it off. So I do. And the crew member who was supervising us works with the fellow next to me first, asking him to hold the pressure on his lie while she ties it off. Then she comes\u00a0 to me, just as I actually do sweat the line (FYI: \u201csweat\u201d the line means to pull it that last inch when you think it can\u2019t give anymore, once you\u2019ve given that final pull, the last thing you want to do is let release any of the pressure, because all your hard work will be undone, in the case of the passenger next to me, that last step had to be done for him…I just somehow remembered to do it, no actual idea why or how). Anyway I carefully adjust my hand-hold on the line so that she\u2019ll be able to get to the pin beneath it.<\/p>\n

I know you\u2019ll want to belay that…she\u2019s not going to give anymore…<\/em><\/p>\n

And the girl looks at me and says<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019ll take the <\/em>pressure…do you know how to belay?<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time, and I\u2019ve only done it once, don\u2019t think I remember<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes you do, start on the bottom, figure eight to the top<\/em><\/p>\n

It took me twice to get it right, but eventually my fingers remembered the pattern<\/p>\n

Is it twice round or three?<\/em><\/p>\n

Three<\/em><\/p>\n

This marks the beginning of the third such discussion I have had with a Tall Ship crew.<\/p>\n

One day, I\u2019ll hav<\/em>e the time and the money at the same time…<\/em><\/p>\n

You need to do it you know.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, I know.<\/em><\/p>\n

So do. Take a vacation. Take a month off, do a volunteer sail, you\u2019ll learn it fast.<\/em><\/p>\n

The last crew member I talked to on the Washington said I would end up here sooner or later. You can tell \u2013 she said \u2013 who has a little blood in their salt water<\/em><\/p>\n

I like that<\/em><\/p>\n

The ship herself was having engine trouble, since she still retains the same engine from when she was a trader vessel in the fifties making it difficult to find parts. While she is fully capable of operating under full sail power, regulations prevent her from doing so in the harbour so she has to be able to run under mechanical drive. This basically meant we couldn\u2019t go as far out as they had originally planned, but it was still a lovely day, and it was bright bright sunshine (and I forgot my sunscreen…me, fair-skinned almost-redhead…I\u2019m going to be grateful for the aloe vera in my cabin soon I suspect), which made for an almost perfect day. When we docked just outside of Circular Quay, amongst a flurry of wedding pictures being taken (which seems to be quite common for that particular stretch of harbour, there were no less than 7 weddings going on), the same crew member stopped me on the way to the gangway..<\/p>\n

See you soon<\/em><\/p>\n

She said.<\/p>\n

Once again, I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou know what a ship is don\u2019t you? It\u2019s not just a mast and a hull and some sails, that\u2019s what a ship *needs* what a ship is, what a ship really is…is freedom\u201d \u2013 Pirates of the Caribbean If … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-world-voyage-2012","category-ports-of-call"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-ez","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2243,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/2243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}