September 1, 2010
Follow me as I blog about my voyage with the Tall Ship Unicorn from Mackinaw Island, MI to Erie with Sisters Under Sail. This is all part of the Tall Ships Erie 2010 festival Sept. 10-12. It's the only all-female tall ships crew in the world! Stay tuned, more to come!
Tallship Tales: Six Erie Women Set Sail
GoErie.com Blogs: Her Times
Sunday, Sept. 5, 9:35 p.m.
We just set sail from Mackinaw Island! We boarded ship at 4 p.m. The first thing we did was climb up the the shrouds 58 feet high. Wow! It was frightening. I almost made it to top when my fear of heights set in. Everyone else was fine.
After that, we had two hours of safety drills. We are all in one small room in the bow. There are six bunks and very, very close quarters; no room for anything, but yourself.
We are on rotating night watch. Claudia and I have the shift from 2 to 6 a.m. Every half hour we will have to plot and check the engine room. We are really working. Rachel came down with a bad chest cold on Sat. and is still not feeling well.
Must get up on deck — boy is it dark out here!
Tallship Tales: Six Erie Women Set Sail
GoErie.com Blogs: Her Times
Tuesday, Sept. 7, 7:57 a.m.
We are going through the St. Clair River now. We dropped sails at 6. a.m. It’s rainy and cool today. Everyone but Claudia and I are resting; we have the 6 a.m. to noon watch shift today.
We are with partners — one crew member and a watch officer — when we’re on watch. While on watch, we have to check the engine room every half hour and plot our course as well.
The bunk room is 10-by-6-feet six with six of us sharing that space. Still no showers yet and we’re looking rough; no beauty routines here. This is quite an experience!
As I write this, it is Wed. afternoon. We sailed the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River. It was a beautiful day; our best day yet. We got into some rough waters last night around 2 a.m. off Point Pelee. It was scary to feel the ship rocking on the big swells. I was on watch and going off deck was frightening, but our young sailors on the Unicorn never got rattled.
Tallship Tales: Six Erie Women Set Sail
GoErie.com Blogs: Her Times
September 8, 2010
The conditions improved by daybreak. We went North to travel the Lake Erie coastline and we are now heading south on Lake Erie — fully under sails, (no motor) for the first time on our trip.
Everyone is doing well despite strong winds that have us just trying to hang on. We should be in Erie waters soon.
Click here to view our Tall Ship Tales In Pictures!
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