We spent three days packing the hold full. We hand pack many things, and every single inch of space must be used. For example, you can fit 60 bars of Irish Spring soap inside a medium-sized tire. The hold fills up, and pretty soon you don't need the ladder - you can just climb up the pallet of vienna sausages that's sitting on a 900 pound bale of second-hand clothes. Five of these bales of clothes are for the Man from Christmas. He explained to me how to pick the good ones. "This is no good," he said, tugging at the arm of a sweater. "Too hot." He looked at the next bale down and noticed a clump of athletic shorts. "Very good!" But what will he do with 8000 lbs of clothes? (His son sells them.)
Another piece of cargo is an industrial sized flat bed truck, that we put on top of the cargo hatch and welded to the side of the ship. Says the mate "If you pick up the truck, you pick up the ship." They are one.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Kwai Dirt and Other Love Stories
Kwai, in one of her previous lives, carried gravel. I don't really understand this. Gravel is rocks, and everywhere's got rocks. Everywhere has rocks, including the bilge (bilge= very bottom of the boat, under the floor, like a basement, but only two feet high. Everything eventually ends up there.) The bilge is full of thousands (literally) of pounds of old gravel and sand. The plan is to eventually remove this (I've already hauled a few hundred pounds out of there, as have others.) but Kwai Dirt is special. It cannot be destroyed.
Or so says the crew. Having used the ship's washing machine in daylight now, I'm wondering whether the dirt is as all-powerful as we think. Maybe our weird foreign washing machine (Place clothes in washer, turn on garden hose and add water, add soap, reattach lid...) might not be up to it. Either way, the dirt defines us.
The washing machine is located above a ladder leading up from deck, and below a ladder leading to the thing called Monkey Island. Kwai is in a transitional period and has not lost all the architecture of her life before us. This means that towards the back of the ship is a tall white tower (you can see it in the picture behind the sails.) This tower contains some normal stuff (the galley and the mate's cabin are on the first level) but above that it gets wild. Up the ladder on the Port side is the Dwarf Castle, a home-made cabin constucted of tarps and plywood now used for storage. On starboard is a secret storage space called the Noodle Hatch (currently contains mattresses.) The Monkey Island is the very top. (While I was getting used to the ship I spent a lot of time going "Wait, WHERE??")
Below all this madness is the perfect little cabin that Nate and I share. It is fabulously luxurious, containing such ammenities as an outlet, several clothes hooks, and a porthole. Nate has strategically placed fans so that fresh air is drawn directly toward the top bunk, which is big enough for us to comfortably share. The best thing though is the book shelf. Unlike many boat book shelves, its selection is not comprised solely of discarded spy novels and boring historical dramas involving boats. Sure, there's a copy of "Sail Tall Ships!" What boat doesn't have at least three copies? But besides that the space is filled by real writers like JD Salinger, Jack Kerouac, Joseph Heller, and (hurray!) John Steinbeck.
How to Make a Profit on a Tall Ship (Part 2 in a Series)
Do everything yourself.
So now I'm the ship's sailmaker.
Help.
Or so says the crew. Having used the ship's washing machine in daylight now, I'm wondering whether the dirt is as all-powerful as we think. Maybe our weird foreign washing machine (Place clothes in washer, turn on garden hose and add water, add soap, reattach lid...) might not be up to it. Either way, the dirt defines us.
The washing machine is located above a ladder leading up from deck, and below a ladder leading to the thing called Monkey Island. Kwai is in a transitional period and has not lost all the architecture of her life before us. This means that towards the back of the ship is a tall white tower (you can see it in the picture behind the sails.) This tower contains some normal stuff (the galley and the mate's cabin are on the first level) but above that it gets wild. Up the ladder on the Port side is the Dwarf Castle, a home-made cabin constucted of tarps and plywood now used for storage. On starboard is a secret storage space called the Noodle Hatch (currently contains mattresses.) The Monkey Island is the very top. (While I was getting used to the ship I spent a lot of time going "Wait, WHERE??")
Below all this madness is the perfect little cabin that Nate and I share. It is fabulously luxurious, containing such ammenities as an outlet, several clothes hooks, and a porthole. Nate has strategically placed fans so that fresh air is drawn directly toward the top bunk, which is big enough for us to comfortably share. The best thing though is the book shelf. Unlike many boat book shelves, its selection is not comprised solely of discarded spy novels and boring historical dramas involving boats. Sure, there's a copy of "Sail Tall Ships!" What boat doesn't have at least three copies? But besides that the space is filled by real writers like JD Salinger, Jack Kerouac, Joseph Heller, and (hurray!) John Steinbeck.
How to Make a Profit on a Tall Ship (Part 2 in a Series)
Do everything yourself.
So now I'm the ship's sailmaker.
Help.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Contemporary Art
I said this about Picton Castle, and I'll say it again: Being registered to the Cook Islands is awesome! It's difficult, if not impossible, for anyone other than Americans to get paid work on American-flagged vessels, but the Cook Islands enforces no such restrictions. Our crew at present consists of five Americans (the Owner, the Captain, the Cook, Nate and Myself) one Canadian, one German, two I-Kiribati, one Brit, and one Spaniard. On Sunday we had the day off and use of an old Honda mini van, so all of us (minus the Owner, the Captain, and the Cook) piled in. We dropped off the Brit (our Mate) and the Spaniard(our Super Cargo) at the ship's other car, and the rest of us embarked on Island Tour.
The purpose of Island Tour is to pack as many people in the van as want to come, and once this is accomplished rules are as follows:
1. Sponteneity is encouraged.
2. Start drinking early.
3. When the alcohol runs out, pull over immediately and buy more.
4. Anyone can shout a suggestion for a destination or activity/demand a smoke break at anytime.
5. The driver holds veto power and does not have to pay any of the parking fees.
In the course of our Island Tour we:
1. Visited the Maritime Museum
2. Got Vietnamese food
3. Picked up a local professor of contemporary art (the German's girlfriend)
4. Stopped at a scenic overlook
5. Went to the beach
6. Discussed contemporary art at length
Island Tour is a lot like Kwai: It's barely-controlled chaos, but everyone's happy.
The purpose of Island Tour is to pack as many people in the van as want to come, and once this is accomplished rules are as follows:
1. Sponteneity is encouraged.
2. Start drinking early.
3. When the alcohol runs out, pull over immediately and buy more.
4. Anyone can shout a suggestion for a destination or activity/demand a smoke break at anytime.
5. The driver holds veto power and does not have to pay any of the parking fees.
In the course of our Island Tour we:
1. Visited the Maritime Museum
2. Got Vietnamese food
3. Picked up a local professor of contemporary art (the German's girlfriend)
4. Stopped at a scenic overlook
5. Went to the beach
6. Discussed contemporary art at length
Island Tour is a lot like Kwai: It's barely-controlled chaos, but everyone's happy.
When Boats Fly
A Travel Lift is a device with which many sailors are familiar. Basically, it looks like the outline of an enormous cube made from large steel beems and put on wheels (two huge tires per bottom corner) in between the upper sides of the cube are slings, which, with the assistance of a scuba diver, are positioned underneath the ship. The operater of the Travel Lift can then use the machine to take up on the slings by means of giant wire pulleys. In this way a boat is lifted from the water, and the machine carries the ship inland.
I stood on the aft deck of the Kwai facing away from the Travel Lift and watched the pavement move smoothly underneath the ship as if we were flying.
(The purpose of this is to be able to do work on the hull.)
How to Make a Profit on a Tall Ship (Part One of a Series):
The Owner (very hands-on) looks dumpster and pulls out a large metal pipe with a wheel attached. "Why did this get thrown out?" he asks. The question is directed at no one in particular.
I look at the piece. It's obviously a part of something, and it's big, too big to have gotten wrapped up in some other garbage and thrown out by mistake. Besides, no one would be so careless.
"Oh, it's broken," the Owner continues. "But it's worth $5 in scrap."
I stood on the aft deck of the Kwai facing away from the Travel Lift and watched the pavement move smoothly underneath the ship as if we were flying.
(The purpose of this is to be able to do work on the hull.)
How to Make a Profit on a Tall Ship (Part One of a Series):
The Owner (very hands-on) looks dumpster and pulls out a large metal pipe with a wheel attached. "Why did this get thrown out?" he asks. The question is directed at no one in particular.
I look at the piece. It's obviously a part of something, and it's big, too big to have gotten wrapped up in some other garbage and thrown out by mistake. Besides, no one would be so careless.
"Oh, it's broken," the Owner continues. "But it's worth $5 in scrap."
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