Life at Sea!

(This was written on 11/26/10 when I was at sea. I have more to write about, BUT! Pre-written, easy to post :)

How am I supposed to ever live on land again when the things I’ve seen here so far far exceed most things I ever see on land. Home is easily where my heart lies, but holy hell, this is unreal. The past few weeks have been some the craziest ones I’ve had in life thus far. 

One night while at my neighbors house in Fort Lauderdale, my dear friend Kelly texted me, “Email me your resume, now”. I felt like I was in trouble with mom. Turns out her friend Robin works on a yacht named M/Y (Motor Yacht) Double Haven, and they needed a 3rd Stewardess. She forwarded Robin my resume, and the next morning, November 10th I had a phone call from the Captain of the boat. Later that night I spoke with him and Robin, the Chief Stewardess. 1 hour later I was offered the job. Captain said he would email me with all the full written details the following day as to prevent confusion.

The next morning I received the email, and after all the details was a small paragraph. It read that the owners of the boat had the last and final say on all hires, and that they had to show them my resume and see if they wanted me on the yacht. My heart sank a little when I read this, thinking I already had the job. I had some nerves running through me for quite some time from then on, knowing I had to wait a few days to hear back about the final answer. Do I get the job or not.

The email was Thursday, and I got another one the next Tuesday. I had been checking my emailed about 10 times a day, with sweaty palms each time google mail was loading. Starting to lose hope and feeling as if it wasn’t meant to be, I figured I’d check one last time Tuesday night around 12:30 when I was going to head up to bed. Sure enough, in my inbox was an email from M/Y Double Haven, sent 8 minutes ago. Good news - the job was mine.

I ran upstairs to tell Mom and Butch, and Mom was down 20 minutes later to help me book my flight to San Francisco. The plan was that I’d stop out in SF for a few days to see Jacqui and Phil before I shipped off to Asia, and I was fortunate enough to be able to follow through with this plan. Booked a flight for 2 days later, and the rest is history.

A 15 hour flight to Hong Kong, then 3 more hours after that down to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. I left SF Sunday night, and after 18 hours of traveling arrived finally in KK, Tuesday morning. I practically missed my whole Monday with the traveling and time change. Very weird! We are 13 hours ahead of East Coast USA out here. The Captain picked me up at the airport, and I was given the whole day to settle in and get used to the boat. In KK, they were docked at a hotel marina. The boat was docked there for about a month, and they were given free access to everything in the hotel. Tuesday night we spent in the infinity pool and by the pool bar while watching the sunset set over the ocean on the other side of the pool. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful here.

The crew! Amazing. I could not be more lucky for my first job. The crew all get along so well, great energy, and see themselves as a family. You have to be in this kind of job to work well. It’s not like you get to leave work and go home and complain, bitch, and whine about your coworkers, because your home is work. You can’t escape it, which is good and bad.

Crew: 3 officials, 3 stewardesses, 3 deckhands, 2 chefs, 2 engineers. List of crew and where they’re from.

Captain: Gordon (Scotland/Australia)                       

1st Mate: Bruno (Everywhere, originally France?)              

2nd Mate: Berin (New Zealand)

                 

Deckhand: Owen (New Zealand)

Deckhand: Tyler (Cinderella, we call him Cindy) (Curacao)

Deckhand: Wes (USA - Chicago)

Engineer 1: Mike (Originally USA, now Thailand )

Engineer 2: Tyler (USA - Iowa)

Chief Stew: Robin (Canada)            

2nd Stew: Caitlin (South Africa)               

3rd Stew: Adrienne (USA - Boston)

Guest Chef: Karl (Originally Germany, now Bali)

Crew Chef: Emi (Philipines)

Wednesday was my first day of work. 8-5 with an hour for lunch, and two 15 minute breaks. The day goes by very fast because there is so much to do. We were preparing the boat to leave for Hong Kong on Thursday (the next day) so there was a lot of taping doors shut, securing anything and everything, and much more. We also did laundry and more everyday tasks. Needless to say, I’ve been learning SO MUCH and my brain is about to explode.

Thursday, we woke up and did regular cleaning schedule activites and more preparation for departure. We left port about 13:00 (Yes, I have to use military time. Have changed my watch to it and everything to get used to it). 

We left port and although it was sad for the crew to leave (as they had been there for a month) it was beautiful to get away from the island a little bit and see what it looked like from afar. It is breathtakingly beautiful. They have a jungle on the island that is older than the amazon. Something crazy like 126 million years old. You have the beautiful blue waters with palm trees and beautiful scenery, with an incredible background of the most beautiful forest green mountains. What a sight.

I didn’t think I was seasick. I was wrong. We were pretty much done for the day and could do whatever we wanted, but on a boat you have limited space and options of course. I went up to the sundeck to get some fresh air and try to not get sea sick. It helps so much to be outside, see the horizon, and get fresh air to help cure sea sickness. I didn’t get REALLY sick, but I sure didn’t feel good. I watched the beautiful sunset from up there and just took it all in. The fading mountains in the background and the beautiful colors the sun was casting upon the waters, amazing. 

My watch hours at 6-9 am so I rose early the next morning to come to the bridge (where the all the controls are and where the captain and the mates drive the boat) to be on watch. On watch you just help watch out for other boats, logs, whatnot. Every hour we have to log a bunch of coordinates and other important things in a book. It’s quite interesting, and of course I just ask questions constantly. I’m sure they love me. This morning I was with Bruno for 2 hours, then Gordon for 1. Everyone rotates throughout the day but you’re always welcome to come up and hang out in the bridge anytime of day. That is where I writing this right now, it’s got the panoramic windows up here so it’s a great view. Plus its not below deck, helps with my sea sickness. 

Today (Friday) I was useless. I got up for my watch but right after just felt miserable. I asked Bruno what the seas we are in would be considered, and he said calm. Shit. I am supposed to start work right after my watch shift, but Robin noticed how sick I felt and told me to just lay down, sleep, and get better. I refused because I felt guilty not working but she said it would only get worse if I didn’t try to take care of it now. It shouldn’t last long, I generally never get sea sick but sometimes just takes a while for your body to fully adjust to the constant fight of being at sea. The swells of the waves haven’t been bad, at all, but I’m feeling it. Around 4 pm I was finally able to get out of bed, and I came up to the bridge and then went out to the foredeck. That is the deck out at the front of the boat, its right in front of the bridge. The people on watch can see you and its strictly crew area even when guests are on board. I figured some fresh air would help and I didn’t feel like going all the way up to the sun deck (on the “roof” of the boat) or the middle level deck (upper aft deck). I was feeling much better and brought some reading out there.

This next part will be the hardest thing to put in words. The incredibleness begins with sitting on the foredeck of the boat, and realizing that we were finally away from all land. Absolutely nothing around me but deep blue water. Nothing. Not even a boat in sight right now. You see a few birds here and there that try to swoop down and catch the flying fish that hover above the water for a few seconds, and laugh because they fail miserably every time. I was seriously rooting for the birds after a while because I couldn’t believe how awful they were at catching. Aren’t they supposed to be good at this stuff?!

Anyways, at this point I am enjoying the swells and the ups and downs of the boat. It was beginning to feel like a rollercoaster, and I love those! I was closing my eyes just absorbing the warm air and wind blow my hair off my face, and soaking up all the sun I could while listening to the waves crash against the side of the boat. Nothing but that sound in the world. True serenity really, It’s unbelievable to really have nothing around you. I have the comfort of knowing people are in the bridge right behind me but I’m also out on the deck alone just enjoying what mother nature has blessed me with at the moment. I felt so alive, and for a few minutes life felt like it made sense. But then I realized that I’m Adrienne and it never makes sense to me. :)

After about 30 mins of alone time, Cindy (yes we all really do call him Cindy) came out and sat with me. We were talking for a few minutes, when he then asked if I just saw that dolphin. 

Wait. I’m sorry, What? A REAL dolphin?!?!

For those of you who know me, you may or may not know I have always been obsessed with dolphins and they are one of, if not THE favorite animal of mine. I jumped out of my seat and we went over to the railing (don’t worry Mom, I’m fine) to get a better look. Sure enough the people on the bridge saw it too and told most of the crew and everyone started coming up. I went up to the very bow of the boat (like in Titanic! Except my Leonardo wasn’t here. Sadness.) We leaned over slightly to see them, and there was about a pod of 20 or so swimming right beneath and along side the boat.

This was, the most beautiful, breathtaking, awe inspiring, amazing, stunning thing, I have EVER, seen in my life. They were right there! Right next to us all swimming right beneath the surface of the water! From the bow of the boat to the water is probably about 10 feet. I was 10 feet above these majestic creatures just swimming and playing with us. You could hear their clicking and their calls, and one of them was accompanied by a little baby dolphin swimming right next to its momma. They were jumping in and out of the water just playing and doing their dolphin thing. To see these beautiful animals 100% in their natural habitat doing their own thing that you always hear about dolphins doing was just unreal. I couldn’t believe I was watching this. Having always loved dolphins, I dreamed about seeing them like this, and until you actually see it, it’s hard to believe it really exists sometimes. They hung around for probably 5 minutes. The boys were saying sometimes they hang around for hours or like today, just a few minutes. I don’t care how long it was, I couldn’t believe I got to see it. I was so sad I didn’t have my camera, but I didn’t want to risk going inside to get it and miss seeing them. I guess this isn’t too rare of a sight, so I’ll try to snap it next time :) They had the most spectacular patterns on them. Just all shades of blue and gray and little bubble or circle looking colored designs on their stomachs.

That for sure, is one thing I could never, ever forget. It even made ME feel beautiful. To be with these wild creatures so close to me and so many of them, it was almost overwhelming, but I could have watched it forever. And apparently... this pod was a small one. If I get to see even more dolphins swimming along with us sometime, I think I’ll pee my pants, and we all know this is highly likely.

Also, the night before, I came up to the bridge and watched the sunset a bit, and watched the moon rise. The moon was this deep orange color as it came over the horizon, and it was the biggest I’ve ever seen it. It wasn’t a good night for stars, but man did the moon look fake. It was so beautiful, so huge, and so unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I continued to hang out in the bridge, and we hit some rain. Small storm, but it did have some thunder and lightening. It wasn’t bad but the lightening was SO bright. You could see full bolts hit from the sky all the way down to the water. It hurt to look at, but man was that beautiful to see over the dark night on the ocean. It would make it look like it was daylight out for a second, but also ruined the night vision you’d been working on getting for some time. They try to keep it as dark in the bridge at night as possible to see other boats better.

Beautiful, beautiful life.