November 1: Storms, Fires, and Tours a-Go-Go

So another month begins! It is hard to imagine that the weather in Minnesota is cold and blustery while down in Chattanooga we are still wearing t-shirts and shorts. At least the sailors are. I am in long pants and a long-sleeve shirt. We have had incredible weather here with only one evening that produced wild storms.

On my day off last week I enjoyed a really wonderful art museum called the Hunter Museum of American Art. They had a pretty good variety of objects and a very interesting photo exhibit of portraits of people that were master craftsmen in old skills like basket weaving, fiddle making, and furniture making. 

When I came out of the museum, the weather had turned and it was pouring. I had heard from some folks that a major storm was coming that may have tornadoes so I thought I had better return to the ships. Once there, the ship had been closed due to the fact that a tornado had skipped down the opposite bank and lightening was hitting pretty close. We waited out the storm under the raised aft deck but still got wet. The ship's upper structure has dehydrated so much because it hasn't been in the ocean for so long. The waves of the rivers aren't really enough to keep the ship totally water-tight. No worries about  sinking. The rivers do just fine keeping the hull swelled. It was interesting to watch the intense weather but it wasn't any worse than what we have in Minnesota. Later we heard that the Chickamauga dam was hit by a tornado and that this is really unusual weather for Tennessee.

As for the fire, one morning when I was getting breakfast ready, I turned on the oven to get ready to make cinnamon rolls when all of a sudden, a fire broke out under the oven! It burned the mop and created panic in me. All i could think of was that I was going to cause the destruction of my ship! 

I called to my crew: Fire! Fire! Where's the fire extinguisher???? One appeared and we sprayed the chemical to put it out. I was rather shaken to say the least. We have no idea still what caused that fire but I have been able to continue to use the oven after the captains inspected it. In fact tonight was the first full crew dinner since the other cook, Constance, left and we had Stouffers lasagna. No Simeks here that I have found. It went well and the crew seemed to enjoy eating all together. 

Right now we have both the captains back so we are 11 in number; 6 on the Pinta and 5 on the Nina. That makes for actually half as many to do tours. This port has been crazy with the whole tour thing. We started out so dead - no one was coming for the first 3 days.  Then it slowly steamrolled to today where we had over 800 school kids, all before 2 pm!  Then we had another 100 or so home-schooled kids after that. We just are doing the tours all the time. Do a tour, then walk up and grab the next. When it is that busy I help with orchestrating where the tours start: they can start at either bow or stern on either ship. This helps streamline the traffic and we can then even accomodate the public who are coming in as well.  

Days like today can be hard and long but they really are exhilarating and very full and enriching. I love talking with the kids and hear their questions. It is funny to think that I know enough about ships and Columbus to talk for a full 45 minute tour.

Well, we are nearing the end of our stay here in Chattanooga and are preparing to be under way to Knoxville. We will be leaving here at day-break on Wednesday morning and will travel non-stop until we get there at 2 pm the next day and start all over again. While underway like that we are on hour watches. Three people on, three on-call and six asleep. As cook I am the only one who can sleep through the night but it is hard to do when the crew is working all night. We did this going from Davenport to Grand Rivers: about 3.5 days and will do it again going from Knoxville to Columbus Mississippi. That will be about a 5 day trip. Then I will be on my way home.

Every day has been really wonderful and enriching.  Hard to imagine that I will have been "a-sail" for just 2 days shy of 3 months.

Well, that's it for now. Tonight I enjoyed a shower and got my laundry done.  Simple pleasures.

take care all!

Kathy