Re: Shoving Off

Ann covered my sentiments exactly...please enjoy yourself and don't die. you must be so excited this is finally happening! :)

On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Jonathan Gordon wrote:

Nellie is now receiving joining crew. I was invited to join a day early as I was in London already. 

Tuesday night I arrived from Iceland and spent the night on a Dutch built barge courtesy of Joe Gridley. The barge is docked in the Thames and is about 55 years old. 

I made my way to the Docklands off of Canary Warf to join the ship and found myself hovering and swabbing the foc'sle deck, the compartment at bow were the joining crew is quartered. 

Last night was my first night sleeping aboard. Breakfast was at 8. Promptly following Simon the Cookie and I set off to buy some last minute provisions. 

Because of the ebb tide, we will be shoving off at 3 pm, picking up the pilot and making our way down river to an anchorage where we will anchor overnight and  receive our training; fire drills, ship's rules and meeting our watch mates. 

There are 4 watches of about 10 each lead by a watch leader. 

The next day we set sail along the east coast for the Faeroe Islands, about a week's sail. We will continue for about 2 weeks on to Iceland where, I am told, we will put in on the north coast.

Leaving Iceland we will sail towards Greenland and the Canada so that we stay above the Gulf stream, which flows the opposite way from our course.