Mark's "quit my job now I'm traveling" thread

Stopped in both places in the last 7 days. Nashville was nice, but too hot for us to explore too much. Would definitely like to go back and stay a few days when it is cooler. Same goes for Denver, although the temps were more favorable.

 

Lets see, Florida began with exploring the Keys, making friends with all of my new co-workers, and appreciating the natural beauty of my summer home and the creative beauty of the boats in the harbor. I was happy to find a gym on base...although it is not air conditioned (essentially in a shed) and the gym equipment is rusty and old and the machines dont work and they weights go to 30 lbs then jump to 45 and stops. Regardless i tried to work out as much as i could just to keep some muscle memory. I began by doing things from blowing my first paycheck eating too many oysters and drinking too much my first trip to key west, Viewing Ernest Hemingway's house, seeing my first (but certainly not last) Mallory square magic show, seeing the famous key west cocks first hand, ending up in a gay bar, feeding tarpon, watching more tequila sunsets and delivering a boat to sea base!

And this was all in about...the first 7 days. If that doesn't set a tone for the rest of the summer...I don't know what will.

 

Yeah I was gonna say with all that traveling your gainz might deplete.

 

Those tarpon tho

 

I quickly discovered working here was like college...just with less studying. We all stayed in dorms with about 4 people, stayed out late playing and exploring, and got up early to do our jobs which varied from retail, to scuba dive master or boat captain. In our downtime we would do fun things like bleach and or braid hair, make creative breakfasts, create fake tattoos, catch and cook lizards, and sample local drinks.



My first week on a tall ship schooner went pretty damn awful. I was with another relatively new deckhand as well so I wasn't really trained...I just made mistakes and got corrected a lot. I did so bad I was almost asked not to come back to the boat. After I got done with the first trip I called the captain and thanked him for the time on his ship and all that I had learned. I think that tipped his opinion and i got a second chance to prove myself and on the second trip out with Captain Ron, I made a 110% improvement. Instead of being taught I was doing the teaching. In one week I went from ruining winch wraps to running the deck and coaching the participants on the boat how to run the sails. After this second trip I salvaged my worth and set my place that was always welcome on the Nellie.

 

totally. gone haha. I mean not entirely im still lifting and doing manual labor but its not consistent like my 5 day a week gym lifting lifestyle I had for a year and a half previously. But thats what traveling and exploring comes with. As long as my diet doesent turn straight to shit...and i do workouts every now and then I can go get them back later.

 

I tell this story anytime anyone mentions Key West. My family used to have a house in Marathon. In the Keynoter (the local paper for anyone that lives in the Keys)
Anyway as the story goes:
A man was arrested on (day does not matter) for indecent exposure riding a bike down Truman Drive on a Bike wearing nothing but a sock. It was not on his foot.

You do have some Odd balls down there.

 

In!

 

During the next few weeks I worked on the boat and experienced tons of great sailing, spent a lot of time trolling for fish and prepping and eating those fish, learned the lingo and life of a schooner bum, and learned that there was more to this job than just sailing. Seeing how much these kids, and adults, lives were changed and bettered from just the one week on the boat was inspiring. I loved how much of an impact this trip made on the groups that came to experience it and loved how much I got to know the kids and adults and how much they taught me in return as well. I did a very good job of assimilating with the kids and being their friend while still being an authority figure and a mentor to be listened to when it got time to work and sail. During these weeks we experienced big storms, a boat they never laid on a mooring ball or anchor in any predictable way, sail with a cruise ship, learn more about cheap fun in key west, and get my first personal run in with some back woods crews from Louisiana

 

Hahaha ive seen some pretty damn weird stories out of the local paper. This place is very unique and very weird as hell.

 

yea I guess a lot of them come out of the Hog's Breath Saloon

 

Awesome! Good luck bro!

 

Lets see, other exciting things that happened in the first month or so of summer...

Week two the boat was coming into dock and the transmission cable snapped so instead of full reverse it went stuck on full forward. After throwing a dock line over a pilar, fouling the prop and dropping the anchor as the boat steamed torward the half shell raw bar, it came to a stop at an angle to the dock and the bow sprit basically over the restaurant. Only have pics of the damaged dock.




During the summer I lived on all 4 boats we run in the program, a very rare opprotunity as most people only work on one or two. I got to experience very different captains, different operations of each vessel and different challenges with each. I also took a selfie on each one and a picture of my fine living quarters!


Nellie:









Gypsy:










This infected knee happened while on the Gypsy, took about a month to heal




Yankee:








The Rover:

 

Jelly jelly jelly

 

I spent a lot of time in key west...and of course ate and drank pretty good amount of daaaaaank food! As well as making food on the boat of course.










Oysters to die for!











My friend (in the pic above) and I along with our crew went out for dinner one evening. She asked for some lemon in her water. When the waiter brought it out there wasn't a lemon on there. So she politely asked for a lemon and the waiter brings out this beauty of a glass. The whole table just died laughing as she sat there wondering wtf this thing was.




Best Pina colada in KW in my opinion

 

As you can see, naps and hammocks and passing out places is just a way of life down in the islands!





Being the Keys, the sport fishing capitol of the world, we caught a few fish and some lobster. All were cooked and eaten within a day, all were absolutely delicious!









This fish has a good story...we were trolling, heard the rod zip, started reeling it in. Eventually we got it on the boat. I got the hook out super clean and didnt want it to die so i told my buddy to get the fish book. We measure it, 22 inches, he checks the chart and tells me 22" is good and its a permit, then walks off. In the moment i head "we have to have a permit to keep it". So we take a picture with the fish, kiss it, and let it go. Only when i checked the fish log did i realize the NAME of the fish is a permit, and we could have kept it. On a scale of 1-4, 4 being the whitest and tastiest meat...it was a 4. Oh well. the permit gets to live another day!

 

Various pictures from my trips out on the boat and around the keys

Cocks are citizens of key west, and wonder around streets, inside restaurants, everywhere

Out cruising on the grand nellie

anchored at one of the keys


exploring a key west fort

most popular beach in key west

baby canon


just lounging on the bow sprit during a sail


the famed western union leaving for repairs


us on a boarding party to pillage pudding cups and prigles


were sailros...what do you expect



spinnaker flying was one of the coolest things we did


mile 1 in key west



found out you can take the inner pudding cup sack out


my days off


one of our crews on the nellie

sunsets on the ocean

sunsets at base

watching movies in the mooring field

 

AAAAAAnd at this point I have made it back to Boise after driving 2700 miles in about 6 days. The truck returned with ZERO issues, that makes ZERO issues the entire trip. That little taco is indestructible. Will be posting pictures soon of the return trip, though not horribly eventful, I was tired of spending money and wanted to just finish the drive.

Europe in 6 days!

 

Safe travels on your journey to Germany today!

 

Looks like a sweet time.