I'm a little behind in posting this the latest scoop is: I got a job in mid-August working on another cruise ship, the Georgian Clipper (operated by
Heritage Cruise Lines). I didn't mean to get another boat job -- I wasn't even really looking for work when I found it, it just happened. In any case, it's much closer to home this time: we sail out of Kingston for four-night cruises hitting Picton, Brockville and Gananoque, passing through the Thousand Islands region. I'm working as a stewardess. The days are long and back-to-back cruises are absolutely gruelling. But it's a bit of money coming in, which I desperately need since I
still haven't been paid by Windjammer.
(As an aside: the Mandalay is supposed to be on its way to Trinidad for maintenance but is under arrest in Panama, having been seized by the ship's agent for non-payment pretty much since we arrived in Panama in May. Either the company will send money down to release the ship, and hopefully there'll be some earmarked for me, or else the agent will soon acquire the ship, and all its debts, including outstanding crew wages, which they will be obliged to pay. Either way, I should be covered. I've thought about seizing the ship myself, which I'm within my rights to do as a crewmember who is owed wages, but I'm not really in a position to cover all the lawyer's fees and docking fees up front before having them all reimbursed once the matter is finally settled, not to mention that it's proving rather difficult to find a lawher who'll take on my case without actually going back down to Panama and knocking on doors. So all I can really do is try to stay in the black and dream about all the things I'll be able to do with my pay when it finally gets here.)
Anyway, back to the Clipper. A lot of people ask me what I do. The answer is pretty much everything except sail the damn boat. I start at 6:30 or 7:30 a.m. (I alternate early mornings with the cruise director, though she's better at the early shift than me and often lets me sleep that extra hour), set out coffee and juice for passengers and make sure that all containers stay full until breakfast. Serve breakfast. Wash the breakfast dishes. Go downstairs and clean the cabins (make beds, clean bathroom, etc.), vacuum the cabins and hallway. Go upstairs and set the table for lunch. Serve lunch (a three-course meal). Wash the lunch dishes. Maybe catch an hour's rest. Serve cocktails in the afternoon, bring passengers snacks, vacuum the dining room and lounge, be available to talk to pax should they need entertaining, make sure the bar is stocked. Set the table for dinner. Serve dinner (all four courses). Sometime before the end of the meal, run back down to the cabins and turn down the bedsheets, bring fresh bottles of water, leave chocolates on pillows, tidy the bathroom in each cabin. Come back upstairs and wash the dinner dishes. Set the table for breakfast. When all that's done, I finally make up a plate of leftovers, put my feet up and have a bite to eat with the rest of the crew. (By that time it's nearing 11 p.m., and since we work in close quarters and get to enjoy the comeraderie of other crew members all day long, we usually dine and dash off to bed post haste.)
There's only room for 18 passengers on board, but there are only five crew (I'm the only steward), which means that in between everything else we do, we also have to do lines (ropes) when we're docking the boat or casting off -- a total pain in the ass when we're docking during dinner service, I might add.
The great thing about this job is the time off. We do five-day cruises and then, since the boat hasn't had very heavy bookings this fall, we've been getting seven to nine days off in between cruises. For me it works well -- I get plenty of time off to work on some writing and othe projects I've got on the go. Last cruise ends October 1, so after that I'l be joining the ranks of the unemployed, but I'm hoping to use the month of October to really focus on my (as yet non-existent) magazine writing career, do lots of hiking in Frontenac Park, and start putting in daily sessions at the gym. Hopefully by the end of the month my overdue Caribbean salary will have come through and I can go to Hawaii or someplace warm for November.
