Third Time's A Charm

Well, I haven't posted in a while, so here's what's been going on. Sail Training 101 ended several weeks ago, so I'm back down to just participating in Maintenance Crew, which is the first and third Sundays of the month. I found out the last meeting that I'd failed my knots and belay test. It was a big deal for me, because my tester had said I'd passed and I had gotten myself all excited about the prospect of being allowed to crew on the Californian. I was very dissappointed and a little upset. So, a couple of weeks passed and I had crew again this last Sunday. I got to take the test again, and this time I got all my knots right but I flunked the belay test. I really blew it. Got all nervous and confused and couldn't remember the sequence of belays.

In case you don't understand what belaying is, here's the deal. Any line that comes down to the deck or through a block on the deck and back up to the rail around the sides of the ship has to be tied off to something. So there are pin rails that have pins sticking out of them in order to tie the line off to them. These are called belaying pins. Its also where the term "Belay that" comes from. Its essentially the stopping point for the line. There are four ways of tying off a line. It depends on whether the line comes from above and forward, above and aft or below forward or aft. Its not that hard to remember. But we are expected to know it without any hesitation whatsoever, and for good reason. On a nice windy day, the ship might tack (turn to catch the wind from different angles) several times in the space of an hour, which means you could tie off a line and ten minutes later have to do it again. You have to be able to know what you are doing immediately, or else you slow the whole ship down and cause discord among your mates. Bad. So...I know what I did wrong, and I just have to practice practice practice to get it right. So now I have two weeks to practice my knots and belay, and to get it right. And then maybe I'll be allowed to go sailing.

This Sunday was nice though, because my folks came down to San Diego to visit the museum. And they brought my grandfather. He's always asking me all sorts of questions about the Star, so I thought it would be easier to explain my answers if he could see the ship. I get the impression that he (and my folks too) thoroughly enjoyed their visit. I think they know understand why I'm doing this. Why I get up really early and drive a very long way to spend my day working at the museum. And that's important to me.

Here are some pictures from Sunday. The people qualified to be topmen where being educated in the ways of climbing the shrouds and going out on the yards. I only have pictures of them going out on the foresail and the fore lower topsail, but later in the afternoon, the people who stayed went all the way up to the royal yard. Pretty cool.