Writing cover letters that mention my old job make me miss it, just a little…

My friend put these photos up recently. They were taken while I was still on the boat, but are still full of awesomness. This is Tracy Arm I believe, probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. 

No, it’s not a fake background.

Yes, the horns are awesome.

Today started simlair to most of my days these past few weeks. 1am seemed to come to soon after a long “night” of watching movies and hanging out. Its my own fault but I want to make the most of my last week!

There were chores and chatting. the norm. But later I was told I could position a zodiac today. Basically, on Inian Island day (my favorite day of the trip) we go to several places in the same area. So we drop all four zodiacs in the morning but then instead of lifting them back up just to sail for 25 minutes and drop them again, we sometimes position them. Basically you get people who are licensed and drive them to the next destination. It’s what i look forward to every week, though we don’t always do it for one reason or another.

And today was perfect for it. The water was glass and the sun was shining. I asked the newest steward, sarah, if she wanted to join me. Its her day off and she has never done it before. Her and I hopped into “aries” the 50 horse power black Zodiac, while assistant engineer, chaz, got into another and bosun adam drove a third. We tore off in a sort of line out past our ship. I pulled up the rear being the least experienced and the only one with a passenger. It turned out better that way. I dropped the boat into neutral when two humpbacks were about 100 yards away from us. sarah and I chatted while the glorious scenery set a lovely back drop. I put the boat back into forward and we cruised closer to our destination. Then, we waited for our ship, the “Sea Lion” to arrive. I killed the engine and for the first time realized how astoundingly quiet it was. the two of us sat there stunned by complete silence. Then the sound of a whale breathing. Sounded so loud but it was so far. We relaxed there for another 15 minutes or so when we saw the “Sea Lion” round an island and make its way towards us. I moved closer to the other two boats which were located closer to shore. Adam and chaz had their backs to me talking and humpbacks fighting, when suddenly, behind them, one did a full body breach. All I could do was point and yell “OHMYGOD!” They all turned to only see the splash the gigantic creature left behind. It was beautiful.

We see whales breach often but usually looking down from the decks of our big ship, not up, from our inflatible boats. It was incredible. I did feel bad that everyone else only saw the aftermath, but they were quickly rewarded when the whale resurfaced to take a breath not 35 feet from Adam’s boat. We aren’t allowed to approach whales closer than 100 yards, but sometimes, they mosey on over to us… and it rules.

After that I dropped sara off at our ship which had anchored.  adam then informed me I could play with the boat a little longer. I was giddy. I took her for a pleasant drive scanning the snow-topped mountains and rocky beaches of Fox Creek. God alaska is amazing. Then I decided to have some fun. I sat down and went full throttle, and started making sharp turns. It was a rush.

Reluctantly I made my way back to the ship after about 20 minutes of fooling around. Time for the people who pay to be here to get into these things.

It’s days like this when I realize how lucky I am that I get paid to do this.

thank you

God, I cannot believe I have NOT kept up with this thing while I’ve been away. I’ll blame it on computer problems (but now I have a super duper cool Mac that can launch a space shuttle… but i cant figure out quite how to get around without a right click… still no excuse.)

there isn’t a lot of downtime I don’t want to spend reading or sleeping (though here I am cruising the interwebs for random stuff)

excuse excuse excuse. i guess it comes down to me being to lazy and tired to write and thinking, eh, i’ll tell everyone later.

Well, later has come and gone and now it’s like mega later. I’m almost done with my contract here. In fact, 5 full work days and a half day saturday.

excuse me while i shout BOO-YA!!!

I still love the idea and many things about boat life. But I’m tired, worn down physically and emotionally. I’ve been here4 about a year with a 3 month break. I get one day off a month and won’t be getting one this month. I work 12 hours a day. Granted, it’s fucking unreal that I get to do what I do and mainly, get to do it where I get to do it.

But it’s break time.

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Argh! Again, so much to write but I can barely remember everything and the order and what I’ve already written about!

Well, we are in the midst of our positioning trip north, and man, has it already been eventful.

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Tomorrow, before the sun even gets up, I’ll be putting my clothes on and getting myself to the airport. 725am my plane leaves for its almost 6 hour trip to Costa Rica. I’ll spend the night there with my friend Keith, the new Chief Engineer, and captain Dion.

Then, Saturday morning, it’s back to the National Geographic Sea Lion where I begin my adventure as their new deckhand, a position I wanted about 2 weeks into my last six month stint there as a steward.

Even though I’ve done this before, and I’ll know almost everyone there, I’m still nervous. I want to do well and feel like I really gotta prove myself. 

I still don;t know my knots well enough, and I have fallen out of shape pretty bad in my short few months off.

But I won’t be negative. I have the job I want and am going back to a place I consider a second home. We stay in Costa Rica and Panama for about a month than take the journey up, all the way to Alaska, my favorite place I have ever been.

Yes, my “office” for a few months is the endlessly, mind bogglingly beautiful, Alaska, again.

I’m nervous/excited/a mess… but so damn lucky.

Thanks to everyone at home that made my few months here very nice. Thanks for celebrating my birthday early and several times (lookin at you rich).

Thanks for everything!

Love you all and see you in 6 months!

MY BOAT VIDEO!!!

I finally figured out how to get this thing onto the Internet! There’s a lot wrong with it, which I detail in the youtube description, but I’m still happy to have it.

Hope you all enjoy!

mmcgowan:

Photo from Lindblad Alaskan, via Jetsetter.

I’m very lucky, because this IS my life, at least part of it.

Can’t wait for March 5th

So, 2010 saw me crossing off a lot of things on my bucket list. (well, not literally, year’s don’t have eyes… or DO they???)

I wanted to share what is done, the story behind it, and I’m going to start thinking of a few new ones to add!!!

4 travel out of the country

The first time I ever actually set foot out of the country was in Canada on the way to Seattle from Alaska. I literally got off the boat, for the singular reason of putting my foot on land that wasn’t part of the United States. So a friend and I hiked up an insanely steep gangway to do it:

Pictured: Me walking with a lot of purpose to CANADA!

I don’t remember the name of the town, but they had a real hard on for cows. We were only there for about a half an hour, but that was the first time I was out of the country.

I had a few other experiences. We were in Cabo, Mexico one night, where we went swimming, drinking, and shopping. (not at the same time)

Pictured: Swimming! YEEEEEAAAAAH

I also much more time in Panama and Costa Rica. So… YAY!

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So today marks my first full work-day home, and even though I’m no longer employed, it doesn’t mean I should fall back into old habits and not stay busy. I did sleep in a bit since I feel like my body is STILL recovering from a very crazy Costa Rica trip with friends.

Buncha crazy people!

So anyway, today I need to unpack and clean the disaster known as my room. I lost some weight in my six months away so I’ll also get a chance to donate a whole bunch of clothes to different charities which I’m happy about. Not to mention I now have a slew of new threads from the wonderful uncannie.

We really need to stop being so damn cool.

I’m also going to do some sort of physical activity today, despite it being cold as fuck outside (how cold IS fuck??? probably not very cold… but it IS cold outside) and hope to continue that to keep off the LBS and maybe shed some more.

But what’s my major concern? What’s a concern of so many people these days? The thing that causes so much stress, heartbreak, fights, tears, broken bones, broken homes, and broken toes (?) … the almighty dollar.

I was hoping for something a bit more religiously offensive when I google searched “almighty dollar” but this will have to do.

I no longer have a job, and while I was able to save a decent chunk of change on the boat, I have a bunch of expenses now that I’m home. My car battery died, it was egged, and someone busted out the back windshield. In order to get any job, I’m going to need to take care of that.

And job hunting, that’s something else I wanna take care of today. Since I was hoping for a new contract in a deck position on the boat, I was sad to find out they are filled for a year. So, I am planning alternatives. I contacted HR and told them I’d be happy to do steward fillins for the time being. I’m also going to try and get a serving gig locally just to help pay the bills. But today, I’m going to apply for every position that they offer at Glacier Bay Lodge.

In Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska…

This dude is pumped!!!

The plan is, to get a summer job there and live there for free in the lodge. Save up some money, and then hopefully, by then, I can have a more solid plan to get back onto the boat and save even MORE money! “Make bank” as the cool kids would say. After that I should have a nice little cushion and still be able to pay stuff off. Who knows, maybe I’ll get an apartment, settle down, have some little kids runnin around …. oh my god no… just kidding.

But seriously, the plan is,me and this crazy ass woman,

pictured: crazy ass kathy miller

are going to meet in Portland, possibly harass this guy,

pictured: this guy with a coconut

And then spend a couple of weeks road tripping to Alaska! And once we get there, it will be around our birthdays, so we plan to hike a glacier, and spend our birthdays on the top!!!

not pictured: party hats and balloons

Of course this is all tentative. I still need to get a job there (she already has one) and I need to figure out some stuff at home too, like bills, what to do with my car, etc. Anything can happen between now and then. I could meet the man of my dreams and he could propose to me at the diner and we could get married at the VFW and then I find out about his other family but I try to be open minded til he starts coming home drunk 3 hours late for dinner and he has lip stick on his collar and he said he was done with her but why is she still calling? damnit! i’m pregnant i can’t handle this! …. i should have gone to glacier bay.

So baby steps for today… make some lunch, clean, and go from there. Who’s psyched about this???

I AM!!!

My new job!!!