Saturday, February 17, 2007: Full sails in the setting sun…
The conclusion of my sailing adventure: We made a couple of dives, Saturday on the Rhone, probably the most famous wreck in the BVIs, and Sunday at Shipwreck Alley, where three little wrecks lie close together in 20-25m of water. Preparing for the first dive was a bit stressful: one of their regs turned out to not have a pressure gauge, which they were seriously going to use anyway until I offered my spare set; a couple of the guys couldn’t remember how their equipment went together; then one of them had a problem with his BCD inflator so he had to disconnect it and basically dive without a BCD (he could orally inflate it on the surface); then one of them had improperly attached his BCD to his tank and I had to help him sort that out; he also had no alternate air source; then another guy’s BCD inflator was kaput and his BCD couldn’t hold any air at all. This was all before we even got in the water. Not knowing how any of these guys would be underwater in an environment that was new to me with a growing list of equipment issues, I was on the verge of not diving—the whole thing looked like an accident waiting to happen (an accident without oxygen or a proper first aid kit on board, at that). The last thing I need is to be involved in any kind of diving incident right now: whether I’m on duty of just diving for fun, it won’t be very good for my career. Anyway, the guy with the most-broken BCD sat out the dive and I went down with the rest of the gang, who were all fine divers in the end, just a little rusty topside—which is pretty normal for holiday divers anyway. We were lucky enough to be the only divers on the Rhone for the duration of our dive, and I thought it was a lovely little wreck, though I can see how it could be disappointing on a crowded day. There were plenty of fish and, it being a protected area, massive prehistoric-sized lobsters: they must have been nearly two feet long!
That afternoon we spent moored off the beach and I watched Eric try to catch a couple of massive barracuda (at least three and a half feet long) that were circling the boat. No luck but it was good sport anyway. He got one of them on the line for about ten seconds and it jumped nearly half-way out of the water! Phil and Paul and the rest of the boys went for a spin in the dinghy and came back with half a dozen conch which, after an epic struggle to get them out of their shells, Phil sliced up, marinated and pan fried as an appetizer the next day.
After our dive on Sunday, we finally had enough wind for a bit of sailing, and we headed for a deep offshore trench so Eric could do a bit more fishing. He hauled in a massive mahi-mahi (dolphin fish), at least a 30 pounder. Too bad I had to leave before dinner! But as the shadows lengthened we sailed in to Roadtown’s port (on Tortola) and, after tying off at the marina, it was time to say goodbye to the Caribe. Instead of wandering around Roadtown trying to find the launch station for the Legacy (which was anchored in the middle of the bay), the boys ran me out to the ship in the dinghy and I boarded the Legacy with style. And that was that: the end of one little adventure and the beginning of a much longer one.
Now I’ve finished my first week aboard the Legacy and it certainly hasn’t been dull. I’ve been trained by Ben, the current dive mate, who is apparently the best in the fleet. He’s also a bit of a drama queen, but I guess that’s part of what makes him so suited to the job. Anyway, the guests love him and he's grown on me as well, despite my first impressions. He’s got a sink-or-swim training philosophy that’s taken a bit of getting used to: my hyper-rational analytical self kind of likes to be talked through something before being asked to do it, whereas he’ll just tell you to do something and then provide instruction only once he sees that you really have no idea what to do. It’s not the diving that’s a challenge—I can lead a dive on a new dive site no problem; done it tonnes of times before. Client relations is no problem either, although I’ve got to brush up on my stupid small-talk jokes. It’s all the boat stuff, like raising and lowering the RIB and tying it off to the ship at the beginning and end of every day, driving it, maneuvering it close to the ship, etc. that worries me, at least until I’m a little more practiced.
Otherwise, though, it's been great. The crew treat me like a princess: I hadn't really realized the potential advantages of being one of only three females amidst a crew of 45. If I was really lazy, I could get out of an awful lot of work—though that's not my way. As it is I'm having a hard enough time getting the guys to let me tie the ropes off and climb in and out and up and down things; when they see I'm struggling they tend to do it for me, which I can appreciate, but that's not how I'm going to learn my job.
Ooh, as a mate (as opposed to crew), I don't have to wear the blue and white stripes: formal dress is navy-style "whites and stripes"—white epaulette shirt (eventually I'll get a couple of stripes) with white bottoms. Casual dress is simply Windjammer-wear: any Windjammer souvenir t-shirt with (depending on how strict the captain is) Windjammer shorts.
Now I'm leaving the Legacy. For better or for worse, the dive mate/activities mate manager has decided that I'll complete my second week of training aboard the Polynesia instead of staying on with Ben. Like us, the Poly is anchored in St. Maarten today, about 100m from us, so the move was pretty easy. But it doesn't make much sense to me, particularly since this week Ben actually had two dive mate trainees, me and one other who started the week before me. Which meant that, with three sets of hands, there was just that much less work to go round and that much less opportunity to learn stuff. Ori, the other trainee, is going to be the permanent dive mate on the Poly. He's gone over today too, to have one week of handover with the current Poly dive mate (who, incidentally, will be going over to the Legacy next week to replace Ben, who's leaving the company). I don't see the advantage to my training of having me not only switch ships in the middle of it, but of also completing both weeks of training with an excessively large dive team, since most of the time I'll be working on my own, but whatever. In any case, it's pretty cool to see how three different ships are working within the first three weeks of being with the fleet, and the Poly is much smaller than the Legacy, and the Mandalay is smaller yet, so at least I'll have a gradual transition to the smaller ship.
Anyway, it's mid-afternoon of my one 3/4-of-a-day-off this week (in St. Maarten). Time to chill until later; then it'll be time to par-tay.
That afternoon we spent moored off the beach and I watched Eric try to catch a couple of massive barracuda (at least three and a half feet long) that were circling the boat. No luck but it was good sport anyway. He got one of them on the line for about ten seconds and it jumped nearly half-way out of the water! Phil and Paul and the rest of the boys went for a spin in the dinghy and came back with half a dozen conch which, after an epic struggle to get them out of their shells, Phil sliced up, marinated and pan fried as an appetizer the next day.
After our dive on Sunday, we finally had enough wind for a bit of sailing, and we headed for a deep offshore trench so Eric could do a bit more fishing. He hauled in a massive mahi-mahi (dolphin fish), at least a 30 pounder. Too bad I had to leave before dinner! But as the shadows lengthened we sailed in to Roadtown’s port (on Tortola) and, after tying off at the marina, it was time to say goodbye to the Caribe. Instead of wandering around Roadtown trying to find the launch station for the Legacy (which was anchored in the middle of the bay), the boys ran me out to the ship in the dinghy and I boarded the Legacy with style. And that was that: the end of one little adventure and the beginning of a much longer one.
Now I’ve finished my first week aboard the Legacy and it certainly hasn’t been dull. I’ve been trained by Ben, the current dive mate, who is apparently the best in the fleet. He’s also a bit of a drama queen, but I guess that’s part of what makes him so suited to the job. Anyway, the guests love him and he's grown on me as well, despite my first impressions. He’s got a sink-or-swim training philosophy that’s taken a bit of getting used to: my hyper-rational analytical self kind of likes to be talked through something before being asked to do it, whereas he’ll just tell you to do something and then provide instruction only once he sees that you really have no idea what to do. It’s not the diving that’s a challenge—I can lead a dive on a new dive site no problem; done it tonnes of times before. Client relations is no problem either, although I’ve got to brush up on my stupid small-talk jokes. It’s all the boat stuff, like raising and lowering the RIB and tying it off to the ship at the beginning and end of every day, driving it, maneuvering it close to the ship, etc. that worries me, at least until I’m a little more practiced.
Otherwise, though, it's been great. The crew treat me like a princess: I hadn't really realized the potential advantages of being one of only three females amidst a crew of 45. If I was really lazy, I could get out of an awful lot of work—though that's not my way. As it is I'm having a hard enough time getting the guys to let me tie the ropes off and climb in and out and up and down things; when they see I'm struggling they tend to do it for me, which I can appreciate, but that's not how I'm going to learn my job.
Ooh, as a mate (as opposed to crew), I don't have to wear the blue and white stripes: formal dress is navy-style "whites and stripes"—white epaulette shirt (eventually I'll get a couple of stripes) with white bottoms. Casual dress is simply Windjammer-wear: any Windjammer souvenir t-shirt with (depending on how strict the captain is) Windjammer shorts.
Now I'm leaving the Legacy. For better or for worse, the dive mate/activities mate manager has decided that I'll complete my second week of training aboard the Polynesia instead of staying on with Ben. Like us, the Poly is anchored in St. Maarten today, about 100m from us, so the move was pretty easy. But it doesn't make much sense to me, particularly since this week Ben actually had two dive mate trainees, me and one other who started the week before me. Which meant that, with three sets of hands, there was just that much less work to go round and that much less opportunity to learn stuff. Ori, the other trainee, is going to be the permanent dive mate on the Poly. He's gone over today too, to have one week of handover with the current Poly dive mate (who, incidentally, will be going over to the Legacy next week to replace Ben, who's leaving the company). I don't see the advantage to my training of having me not only switch ships in the middle of it, but of also completing both weeks of training with an excessively large dive team, since most of the time I'll be working on my own, but whatever. In any case, it's pretty cool to see how three different ships are working within the first three weeks of being with the fleet, and the Poly is much smaller than the Legacy, and the Mandalay is smaller yet, so at least I'll have a gradual transition to the smaller ship.
Anyway, it's mid-afternoon of my one 3/4-of-a-day-off this week (in St. Maarten). Time to chill until later; then it'll be time to par-tay.
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1:01 p.m.
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