First Days

Well my first couple of days have been a bit rough. It's really hard to be in a new place that is almost entirely foreign to you and to not know anyone. I'm adjusting to living on a boat in a temporary cabin that is actually one of the passenger cabins. It's tiny and has a tiny sink and a bed and a really small amount of storage space, but it's livable. I am, however, a bit worried about moving into the super-tiny bunk that I'll be living in once the cruises start. Not sure how that will work out, but I'll just wait and see instead of spending time worrying about it. The captains of my boat are nice and the crew is nice enough. I don't know anything about boats and feel very much like I am in the way, but that's life. I wish I had known to wait and arrive right before the first cruise goes out, but that's life too. I'm learning, right? I'm putting myself outside of my comfort zone and trying something new. It's an experience, that's for sure. The shipyard is big and there are a couple of other boats here that are also schooner cruises. Everyone is working hard on the detailed stuff getting the boats ready. I've been painting this and sanding that, oiling this, and painting some more. We launched the little boats that go along side the schooner yesterday, which was neat. Monday we're putting the sails on ... at least that's what they tell me. It's a pretty boat and I hope it's even prettier once we've finished outfitting it to be ready to sail. I'm eager to meet the mess mate and the cook as I'm the only galley hand here right now. The rest are all deck hands. I'm the assistant cook on the Heritage so we'll see how that works out. I wish I were cooking now rather than painting and sanding, but that will come soon enough.

Rockland is a really cute little town. There's a nice little downtown area with a wonderful little coffee shop/bookstore that I spent some time in this morning. It's a coffee roastery and coffee shop and bookstore all rolled into one. There are lots of other cute little shops that I've mostly just peeked into, but will probably explore more as time goes on. There's a big grocery store - thank goodness - and some other little chain restaurants/fast food places that are familiar to me just for comfort's sake I suppose. Otherwise I haven't really had much of a chance to explore. Oh, but I did find the public library - it's wonderful. It's a beautiful building with lots of great books, nice places to hide, and free wireless!

For now I'm focusing as hard as I possibly can on the beautiful weather and the neat little area that this is rather than worrying about what's to come. Things could be a lot worse ...

I'm going to go continue enjoying my day off and my relaxing in the library.