Here's where Erin & I bore you with a little bit about where we come from, how we wound up sailing, and how we wound up together.
I'm not going to go into too much just this:
I grew up on the move. My father was in the Navy, so we seldom stayed in one place for too long. Now you may think, "Oh, That's too bad", Well... Not really. I'm sure it was a little hard to get used to, but I did & eventually got addicted to travel.
After High School, I spent an enlistment in the Air Force, and enjoyed as much of the benefits of travel that the USAF could offer me. Not long after returning to Florida from that, I left to go to school in San Francisco, and was there not nearly long enough. And.. Not too long after returning to Florida from that adventure, I started looking into finding another type of job that would pay me to travel from place to place.
In 2002, I did some Volunteering on a Tall Ship / Theater called the
Amara Zee or "Caravan Stage Barge", and decided that the hook was firmly set & I was going to get a job on a Tall Ship.
In 2003, walking on my way to a Bar-Tending job, I came across the Schooner
Amistad docked on the Jacksonville waterfront. After about a week of coming around and bugging their Captain endlessly to give me a job, they left Jacksonville (without me) to head back to their home in Connecticut. About a month later I was flying up to join the ship for a 4 month contract as "Purser" during their 6 month Great Lakes Tour & wound up staying on for 8 months.
After 2 months of being on land after that, I flew out to California to join the Hawaiian Chieftain for 4 months, then straight to Connecticut to sail aboard the Soundwaters for 3 months, then right back out to Cali. to sail again on the Chieftain (where I met my lovely Erin while she was working on the Lady Washington), then right on to the Bill of rights (with Erin), then after a short vacation with my love and my family I am now on the US Brig Niagara out of Erie, PA.
"Bill of Rights" : http://www.schoonerbillofrights.blogspot.com/"Niagara": www.brigniagara.orgTo view a bunch of Photos of my Summer on the Niagara, Click:
http://brigniagara.blogspot.com/Enough about me..
Now how about Erin?
Hey all, Erin here. Welcome to our site!
So... my background...
I grew up in the Tampa Bay area, in warm, humid, Florida. Despite all that crazy heat I decided I liked to play sports, so my parents spent their free time driving me from one practice to another when I was a child. It was because of this, that I believe I developed an appreciation of hard play and teamwork, and that extended into adventuring into the wilderness as much as a metropolis would allow.
Believe it or not, despite living less than 5 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico, I didn't discover sailing until I was 16, when I was introduced to the HMS Bounty by a friend. Apparently, the ship had been docked at the St. Petersburg Pier during the winter months for the last few years, and I had failed to notice it before. But I made up for lost time very quickly, volunteering after school and on weekends as much as possible. The camaraderie of the crew and the satisfying work required to sail the vessel, fit my peg perfectly. I joined them off the New England coast that summer, and I repeated the dance the following winter and summer after that.
Then, I graduated high school, and chose to pursue academics at the landlocked Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Lots of great geology, ropes courses, and whitewater kayaking later, I graduated again and spent six wonderful months learning about blacksmithing, weaving, pottery, woodworking, and dancing at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. But my wandering feet soon returned me to ships. In July of 2004, I joined the crew of the Lady Washington and sailed with them for 6 months as storekeeper and bosun's mate, as she ventured thru Washington and down to California. When I was unsure of what to do next I met Bhodi, fell in love, and the pieces fell together for me to continue sailing, first on the Hawaiian Chieftain, and then the Bill of Rights. Bhodi and I road tripped back to Florida, from where he departed to the US Brig Niagara, and I beat it back to Arizona, to work as a geologist at Wupatki National Monument. Maybe some day I'll be able to combine the ocean and geology, but for now it seems to elude me.....
And as for the rest, we'll be together and we'll be sailing! Stay tuned.....
~ Erin
Greetings, Friends and all!!
(photo by member of Californian crew)
