Megan the Nautie Mermate
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A LADY SAILOR
The word METTLE resonated with quite a few of you which; pleases me greatly as it resonates so loudly with me! I'm a total sucker for a good quote. (I'm especially a sucker for a good quote that looks pretty.)
I've decided that I'm going to start sharing them as I find them.....and I'm going to call them METTLE Makers.
Last night, I layed in my rack and browsed through my WILD book. As strange as this sounds I felt like I was still recovering from my Suez Canal Transit. I felt beat and we were advancing clocks so I was going to get one less hour of sleep. I stayed awake late so I could enter the deck gangs overtime and update their Watch Standing hour logs. I knew that I was too tired to read so I scanned my iPad for sections of the book that I highlighted, and re-read pages with bookmarks. Like the first time I read it, it made so much sense. Have you ever read a book and thought, 'I'm reading this at exactly the right time. I was supposed to read this right now.'? This is how I feel about this book. My first highlighted quotes can be found on page 12 (or at least it's page 12 on my iPad).
"But a woman who walks alone in the wilderness for eleven hundred miles? I'd never been anything like that before. I had nothing to lose by giving it a whirl."
"When I believed that all the things I'd been before had prepared me for this journey. But nothing had or could. Each day on the trail was the only possible preparation for the one that followed. And sometimes even the day before didn't prepare me for what would happen next."
I can't think of more accurate or appropriate quotes that would sum up my Chief Mate experience to date.
Bridget left me a lovely comment a while back: "Mermate showing her mettle. ssssssssss…..ahhhhhh."
To which I responded: "@Bridget – You can live vicariously through me any day! I think I’ll have to write about my mettle soon :) I’ve been finding tons of inspiration lately that I think you might like!"
Since then, I've been thinking about the word METTLE. For some reason, this word seems delightfully old-fashioned to me. I've been thinking about this word a lot. I especially thought about it while reading WILD. Cheryl Strayed....talk about some mettle!
A couple days ago I got a note from my Mom saying, "I am looking forward to reading about what helped your "mettle" while in transition to your new job! I think you mentioned it on your blog in a response to Bridget."
I took this Chief Mate job because I figured, 'why the hell not?!'. I told myself that it was now or never. To quote Cheryl Strayed, "I had nothing to lose by giving it a whirl."
I knew that it would be hard work, and I knew that it would require some mettle but, I knew that if I didn't do this 'next big thing' when the opportunity presented itself, that I would regret it. Regret it a lot.
Where am I finding my mettle? From lovely little notes that my family drops into my inbox. From quotes that I find written in my Little Book Of Happiness. From my friends who read my blog and teach my new words like mettle. From my Mother who follows through on my new word.
It's true that I'm finding mettle in all those lovely little places however; the reality is I'm finding my mettle in a much more primitive fashion. When I don't find my mettle, things don't get done, things break, people stop working, house sanitary doesn't get accomplished, the Captain gets angry and, the ship doesn't run as smoothly. It's sink or swim. Without my mettle I start to sink. My motto this trip has been: I Refuse To Sink. I can't tell you how many times a day I tell myself this.
Cheryl Strayed's day on the trail is the equivalent of my day at sea. Sometimes, the day before doesn't prepare me for the day at hand. Nothing can prepare me sometimes, for the ease in which things begin to unravel.
When things begin to unravel I try to stop for a second - sometimes this means walking away from people who are irritating me. I work on solution based problem solving. I ask myself some questions. I make a cup of tea if time allows. I brew some iced tea for later. I fold an origami crane. I tell myself to muster some mettle and then I remind myself that there is no sinking allowed!
Obviously, sometimes there is no time for any of those things and then, I FAKE IT.
WILD said to me: Find your Mettle. Don't Sink. Fake it.
What is WILD saying to you?
The Suez Canal. Transiting the Canal is an almost indescribable experience. Preparations for the Canal Transit begin days before actually arriving in Port Said. The atmosphere on the ship is resigned. It feels like perparing to enter a battle. Provisions are set aside, security points are reinforced, doors are locked, and things that can be stolen are hidden. Schedules and timelines are established, paperwork is completed, affairs are put into order and then everything gets checked one last time.
The night before the transit I went to bed knowing I'd only get a few hours of sleep and that when I woke up all hell would be breaking loose.
We anchored around 0100 while waiting for our convoy to begin. While at anchor we received food stores, water, and disposed of plastic garbage. The boat arrived at 0300 so that we could heave anchor and be underway by 0530.
The first of many challenges. The stores crane was broken. It wouldn't start.
An hour of trouble shooting later and our transfers have been made.
Stage two.
Approach the canal. The battle commences.
Boats come alongside honking their horn. Arabic is being yelled. Demands for cigarettes are being made.
The Pilot wouldn't board the vessel until the Pilot Boat had received two cartons of cigarettes.
Stage three.
The Officials arrive. Peace talks commence.
The Agent wants paperwork with original stamps. The Suez Canal Inspector wants a stowage plan. The Electrician wants someone to heave up his projector lamp. The Electrician is also very angry that he is not being given a stateroom while aboard the vessel and is demanding to leave. Six cartons of cigarettes later everyone is happy.
Stage four.
The mooring boat and mooring boat crew arive. Strategic Planning commences.
The mooring boat must be hoisted using the ships stores crane and lashed to the side of the vessel during the transit. The vessel will eventually need to moor in the canal while waiting for the north bound convoy to clear. The mooring boat will take our lines to the sides of the canal. We now have Egyptians scurrying around the vessel and our Roving Security watch must be extra deligent to not allow them in the house.
Stage five.
The vessel must moor. This requires lowering the mooring boat and sending them our lines. There is no tug available so, this evolution must be extremely well controlled. Once moored we must now raise the mooring boat back up.
Stage five point five.
Unmooring. One of the lines gets burried on the drum. We are unable to pay out slack as this line is now incredibly tight and on the verge of parting. The Bosun and Myself run from the Bow to the Stern when our lines are safely aboard. The Stern lines are heaved up quickly so that the prop is clear and the Captain uses the engine to alleviate strain on our burried line. We are able to manually heave this line in since the winch is of no use. No one was hurt and the line didn't part.
Stage six.
We are nearing the end of the canal. The pilot disembarks, the mooring boat crew leaves.
Stage seven.
We need to pick up our security team as we exit the canal. There is a net full of gear. Again, our stores crane is broken and won't slew. The security team boards the vessel and heaves all their lines by hand. They are amazingly efficient.
Stage eight.
The vessel takes departure. Sending departure messages takes about an hour. The mileage while in the canal can be extremely convulated and some our voyage efficiency softward did not like our numbers. This is NOT what you want to be doing at midnight thirty after a full day of battle.
Stage nine.
Bed time for four hours before waking up again for watch.
I did manage to take a few photos with my phone....
(also, I apologize but, this post was not proofread...)
While on watch this afternoon I got to talking with my watchstander about another ship....which lead to talking about how awful this ships Captain was... AB: I don't have too many violent tendencies anymore...but, if I did....this is the kind of guy that I would attack immediately upon seeing.
ME: -blank stare-
AB: There are probably about three people I'd attack immediately. One of them beat up my best friend who is a chick. If I ever see that guy again I'll for sure kill him.
ME: -blank stare continues-
AB: Actually, if I saw this Captain, I'd probably just slap him really hard across his face...
ME: Silently thinking, 'note to self: this guy has violent tendencies' and wondering, 'does that mean he's psycho?'...
If you're new to Nautie Mermate and are wondering what the heck M.L.I.S.W stands for read the original M.L.I.S.W moment here. If you'd like to read other M.L.I.S.W moments check here.
...I hate most about my new job might be... Inspecting the cargo holds.
Every morning I don my headlamp and head into a dark cargo hold. Wanna talk about the perfect place for your imagination to run wild? I'm telling you: It's Freaky In There. Fuh-reee-key!!!
Everything creaks. The hatch covers over your head creak, the cargo pulling against their lashings creak, the tween deck pontoons creak. Everything.
It's dark. Obviously. Well, maybe it's not obvious. There are cargo hold lights but, they're on the upper level, so if the tween deck is in place then there is no light in the lower hold. Very Dark.
There are spiders. Webs everywhere.
Most importantly: There are lots of hiding places.
A few days ago during my routine morning inspection I had an incredibly vivid imagination session. It went something like this: I was down in the hold when I happened upon a stowaway. They were very startled to see me there however; they wanted to make sure I wouldn't tell of their existence.....so they tried to capture me.
An imagination on a separate ocassion went like this: Are there people banging on the inside of that container? I think so....ohmygod! We have a container full of smuggled humans!
Before I begin to tell you how I make my trips into the Hold slightly more bearable, I'd like to state for the record that I realize my method to increase the bearable-ness might be considered a safety issue however; since we all know that Cargo Is King and, we also know that the cargo must be inspected daily I will go ahead and venture forth with my admission. I've taken to wearing my iPod on my cargo rounds.
In fact, I have a Cargo Hold playlist.
A little KT Tunstall anyone? Belting out a few lycris like these seems to make everything better:
I felt a little fear upon my back He said "Don't look back, just keep on walking."
The best way to hate something a little bit less? Make a playlist. It works for me everytime.
The bright blue waters of the Azores are well behind us - the Atlantic has darkened substantially in color in the last day and a half. This means one thing to my brain: we're almost to the Strait of Gibraltar. The horizon is hazier, there are more ships in the vicinity and most importantly the office has emailed asking us to increase speed. Civilization is close.
