I wasn't really sure what I would be doing in the next week, let alone the sailing season. At this point, I had already interviewed for a seasonal position aboard Pride of Baltimore II, but I knew that I would not hear from them for at least a month. I decided to ask my sailing friends on Facebook if their were any immediate job opportunities in the industry. Days after Christmas, and everyone was home for the holidays, so I didn't expect to find a job anytime soon. Within an hour of posting on Facebook, I had two job offers. One offer was from a Captain of
Pride II, they had one position open for
a winter maintenance deckhand! I
considered this fate and told him I would be in Baltimore January 1st, giving me two days to pack everything and drive to Baltimore. I didn't think I would be able to make it home again before the sailing season, so I also made sure to bring my live-aboard and sailing gear. I should also add that this winter maintenance position didn't include housing, so I reached out to a friend's aunt, and she graciously agreed to let me stay in her guest room for the next two months. Everything worked out absolutely perfectly, and I really appreciate the fact that I'm in an industry where I can get offers quickly and be somewhere at the drop of a hat. I also want to add that one of my other winter maintenance deckhands, was actually from Norfolk and was my camp counselor years ago (2007). Small world.
Photo taken of me by Pride II
Communications Assistant: Patrick Smith
The next two months, my job was a mix of sanding and varnish all the time. Constant brightwork maintenance is just a fact of working on a boat, let alone a wooden boat. I met some new, exciting and fearless sailors, but the days and weeks definitely started blurring together. Occasionally one of the mates would walk through and ask one of us if we wanted another project, and just being offered a new task for the day felt like a promotion. We varnished spars and blocks, polyurethaned soles and countertops, touched up
white paint down below.
aside and offered jobs to those that had applied for the sailing season. I got offered a deckhand position, and was really excited to have another sailing season with this beautiful boat. There was a good mix of experience amongst seasonal crew, ranging from a week, to a couple years, to five-eight years in the industry. We also learned that the 2017 season itinerary included participating in the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta. I plan to write
an entire blog entry dedicated to this, so stay tuned!
The first few months of the season were all up-rig, down-rig and private events, we also participated in Light City Baltimore. Due to us changing out rigging, but also needing to be fully rigged for the festival, we got a lot of experience up-rigging and down-rigging the boat. We sent the main topmast up, knowing we would be replacing the main forward runners in another two weeks, which would require us to bring the main topmast down again. We sent the fore topmast up once, realized the shrouds were on backwards and brought it down again. Two weeks later we replaced those shrouds and had to bring the fore topmast down again with the yards still rigged. Mid to late April we finally finished up-rig and tuning everything, giving us a few weeks to do daysails, visit Annapolis and get a full press shakedown sail with the crew before heading down to Charleston
for our first festival!
Fair winds,
Brandi Lynn
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