Trip Report - Day 1
Nov. 1st, 2005 06:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithAt 6.30 pm, I arrived at Elizabeth Pier. We had to be there by 6.30, to prepare for departure at 7. I'd been up in the library killing time by reading books about writing that I wouldn't have wanted to pay for, so I came down a bit early.
The crew were already there, getting the ship ready. We'll differentiate here between the 8 men/women of the "crew", being the members of the Sail Training Assoc and the 10 trainee crew/passengers/visitors.
The Lady Nelson is owned/run by the Tasmania Sail Training Association, a volunteer organisation. Mostly she just goes out on short harbour trips (~ 1 hour long) on the weekends, with occasional longer voyages. She was built in the late 1980s, a replica of a brig built in England in 1798 that was involved in the settlement of Hobart a few years later.
There's not much of her -- 60 tonnes & about 52' or 16 feet long. The three cabin compartments open onto the deck. The aft cabin is the control room (with the radio, navigation equipment etc). The amidships compartment has bunks on the port side (I think, every time I came up the ladder I thought I was facing the opposite way to what I was, bit disorientated) and the kitchen and saloon (table with bench seat around it) on the other side. The bunks are narrow and short (not much over 5 foot I think) and not high enough to sit up in. Easy to climb into if you keep your head down, a little harder to get out of.
Anyway, I dumped my bags in one of the top bunks (the lower ones being taken) and then awaited around for the others to turn up. When everyone was on board and the crew introduced, the trainees were divided into three watches, Red, Green, White -- each made up two crew & 3-4 trainees. I was in White.
Once out in the harbour, we had to let the sails down. I think there was one watch handling the sails on each mast and White doing the jibs (they're the sails on the bowsprit).
After that, they started taking people aloft, up the ladder to the first platform, just above the course yard. It's getting dark by now. Of course, once people are up there, they're in no hurry to come down and there's not room for a lot of people, so I had to wait. Which mostly mean, standing around watching the coast as it got darker and darker.
Then one of the crew asked, as the rest of my watch was skiving aloft, did I want have a got at steering the ship? Sure.
The wheel is sort of hidden behind the aft cabin, so you look down the side of the ship, rather than straight ahead. The idea is to pick a point on the coast and steer towards it. Probably easier when it's not dark, but there were lights along the coast that worked. There's also the compass to help. When you turn the wheel, there's a delay before the ship reacts and it is easy to overcorrect, so back the other way, and oops, too far that way. "Think 30 seconds ahead," I was told. What confused me though, you turn towards port to go to port & starboard to go to starboard; but for some reason I kept wanting to turn in the opposite directions.
It was fun though, but very cold (because I wasn't moving).
Once I was relieved, I headed below deck to find supper being served.
I didn't get to go aloft that night. By the time I had a chance, it was very dark. I can think of better things to do than climbing up narrow rope ladders in the dark, so I passed, until tomorrow.
Before going to bed, we had to take in the sails, the jibs again. In the dark, of course. Then the crew got the anchor out. And sometime around 11 pm, we went off to bed.
The crew were already there, getting the ship ready. We'll differentiate here between the 8 men/women of the "crew", being the members of the Sail Training Assoc and the 10 trainee crew/passengers/visitors.
The Lady Nelson is owned/run by the Tasmania Sail Training Association, a volunteer organisation. Mostly she just goes out on short harbour trips (~ 1 hour long) on the weekends, with occasional longer voyages. She was built in the late 1980s, a replica of a brig built in England in 1798 that was involved in the settlement of Hobart a few years later.
There's not much of her -- 60 tonnes & about 52' or 16 feet long. The three cabin compartments open onto the deck. The aft cabin is the control room (with the radio, navigation equipment etc). The amidships compartment has bunks on the port side (I think, every time I came up the ladder I thought I was facing the opposite way to what I was, bit disorientated) and the kitchen and saloon (table with bench seat around it) on the other side. The bunks are narrow and short (not much over 5 foot I think) and not high enough to sit up in. Easy to climb into if you keep your head down, a little harder to get out of.
Anyway, I dumped my bags in one of the top bunks (the lower ones being taken) and then awaited around for the others to turn up. When everyone was on board and the crew introduced, the trainees were divided into three watches, Red, Green, White -- each made up two crew & 3-4 trainees. I was in White.
Once out in the harbour, we had to let the sails down. I think there was one watch handling the sails on each mast and White doing the jibs (they're the sails on the bowsprit).
After that, they started taking people aloft, up the ladder to the first platform, just above the course yard. It's getting dark by now. Of course, once people are up there, they're in no hurry to come down and there's not room for a lot of people, so I had to wait. Which mostly mean, standing around watching the coast as it got darker and darker.
Then one of the crew asked, as the rest of my watch was skiving aloft, did I want have a got at steering the ship? Sure.
The wheel is sort of hidden behind the aft cabin, so you look down the side of the ship, rather than straight ahead. The idea is to pick a point on the coast and steer towards it. Probably easier when it's not dark, but there were lights along the coast that worked. There's also the compass to help. When you turn the wheel, there's a delay before the ship reacts and it is easy to overcorrect, so back the other way, and oops, too far that way. "Think 30 seconds ahead," I was told. What confused me though, you turn towards port to go to port & starboard to go to starboard; but for some reason I kept wanting to turn in the opposite directions.
It was fun though, but very cold (because I wasn't moving).
Once I was relieved, I headed below deck to find supper being served.
I didn't get to go aloft that night. By the time I had a chance, it was very dark. I can think of better things to do than climbing up narrow rope ladders in the dark, so I passed, until tomorrow.
Before going to bed, we had to take in the sails, the jibs again. In the dark, of course. Then the crew got the anchor out. And sometime around 11 pm, we went off to bed.
