Pelee Island

We left Collingwood on the 26th and arrived in Windsor on the 29th.

Today I got to go with the students on their first port program to Pelee Island. I got to go because they wanted to have a BBQ for dinner; Phoebe and I had to prep everything ahead, all three meals. For breakfast we grabbed granola bars and fruit, lunch we had sandwiches and muffins and for dinner I grilled chicken and corn. On the ferry ride back I finally handed out brownies, I carried them around all day, it was torture for the students to keep looking at them.

When we got to the island we rented bikes and had a tour of the island, they have a long history of really good agriculture and vineyards. After the tour we had some free time, Jenn, Bryn, Matt and I kept our bikes and went to the southern most point in Canada.

When we finally got back to the ship around 11 a bunch of fireworks lit up the sky across the river in Detroit, I think they were having a Jazz festival this weekend.

Provisioning

So much food! We received our Sysco order today, I'm exhausted.

It went as well as it could have. There are lots of totes for produce and green bins that we were able to carry everything on to the ship with and leave all the cardboard behind. I was on the dock with Kim checking the produce and the items to see if I really wanted them, I did send a few things back because I didn't want them or they were not what I had expect at all.

Phoebe was down below in the dry storage, Jesse and Carlos were in the freezer and Bryn and a few others were in the walk in. Their end was a lot more difficult because things were being shoved at them and they didn't know when it would ever stop, they also had to find room for everything.

At the end of the day not everything fit, we need to find a home for about 40 cans, 20 bags of flour, potatoes, onions and some other large bags.

 

Arrival in Toronto

Jesse and I left Oregon late last night and finally arrived in Toronto today in the afternoon. We waited at the airport for two crewmembers to arrive, Erin and Jason, the four of us got a ride to some house in the woods where we met more of the crew and the teachers. They hadn't done this before, having people meet away from the ship so they have time to talk over lots of things. How to interact with the students, expectations, rules and decisions were made of how to deal with student infractions.
Most of the crew is returning, there are only five new people, three teachers (Kim, Raphael, Anna Marie), 1 AB (Jesse) and me (Caz), the cook.

Packing to Leave

Everything is ready to go, we just have to pack our bags and catch our flight. I ended up doing some real work before even getting to the boat; I ordered food for 65 people for a month. Not being there made it a little more difficult, I don't know what equipment they have, what spices they still have in stock or what kind of cleaning supplies they use.

Luckily I know the current cook, Jessica, so it was just a matter of getting in contact with her and I know Dina who use to work for Class Afloat when they had Concordia. Jessica and I mostly discussed what equipment they had on board along with the current inventory and an interesting habit of the Norwegian crew. The captains especially like to have a meat and cheese platter with breakfast and lunch. When I talked with Dina she covered aspects more related to the kids, the foods they like and how to befriend them so they can help you.  The main galley is far from the walk ins so it will be beneficial if I can trust some kids to get me things and not worry that they are picking at other things in the fridge.  Also to start some kind of baking club be it bread or desserts, it’ll be something fun for them and a break for me.

Off to sea

The past few weeks have been really intense and life changing. On July 6^thI got married. Twelve of our sailor friends from Bounty come and they camped out for a few days before and after, so the wedding wasn’t just one day, it was a week long event. People slowly found their way back home and things returned to normal on the little farm. Jesse and I have been living on land for the last year and a half; we knew we wanted to get back on boats some time in the fall, we just didn’t realize that for us fall start August 19^th.

Jesse was browsing ASTA’s billet bank and found that Sorlandet was looking for a cook. Sorlandet is a Norwegian tall ship who is being rented by a Canadian company called Class Afloat, they take Canadian high school students out to sea for a semester or two. I went to the Class Afloat website and read the requirements for cook and knowing that it was a big boat serving a lot of people I thought I didn’t have enough experience to be cook, so I applied for cook’s mate. I ended up calling John, a friend of mine from Bounty who is currently on Sorlandet as their first officer, he said I’m over qualified for the cook’s mate and that I’d do fine as the cook. A few days later Class Afloat called me and said they wanted me for the cook. We had a good chat about the job and exactly how many people I’d be cooking for, 20 pro crew and 40 student trainees.

I’m really excited for this new job and really nervous, I’ve never cooked for 60 people before, but the more I learn about Sorlandet and her amazing galley, the better I feel. Not only is everything relatively new and stainless steal it’s also computerized. I talked with the current cook who is a friend of mine, Jessica, she’s filling me in on all the fancy gadgets and Dina, another cook friend, is giving me advice for working with teens, she worked on another of Class Afloat boat, the Concordia, who sank in February 2010.