The job I have the best job ever. I have been hired by Grand Banks to help coordinate the logistics of their 50th Anniversary Celebration, The Grand Tour 2006. And what an amazing celebration it will be. On May 15th, 16 Grand Banks yachts, captained by their owners, will begin a 21 day trip that will lead us up the Inside Passage to Wrangell, Alaska. Along the way, we will stop at small anchorages in remote bays. We will tie up at marinas in large cities. We will go bear watching, enjoy crab feeds, and meet First Nations people. We will dine in fine restaurants and stuff ourselves at salmon bakes. We will fish, hike, swim and take a jet boat up the Stikine River. We will float through fjords and if we are lucky we will see whales and dolphins, bears and eagles.
I joined Grand Banks in January to start the planning and coordinating process. Since then, I’ve spent my days making plans and calls, digging through books and the internet to find interesting activities and facts. These 21 days are planned to the day and in some cases, down to the hour. It will be great! It will be fun! It could be enough to make me crazy! See, there is one little variable that will determine if this trip comes off as planned. That is the weather.
Just a few weeks ago, I was talking with one of the trip participants. I said that I hoped the weather would be in our favor. She said “Oh, I do too. I remember once, bad weather held us at Nanaimo (our second port of call) for three days.” Three days! We can’t get held at our second port of call for three days! We only have two weather days built into our schedule! Three days would put us back; we’d have to make up the time somewhere! We’d have to skip an anchorage! We can’t do that!
A few days later, I was having a conversation with another participant. He asked how firm our schedule was. I told him that it was as firm as the weather would allow and then I recounted the “Held for Three Days in Nanaimo” story. He laughed (he actually laughed) and said, “Oh, that’s nothing. I’ve been held at Nanaimo for seven days before.” I think that is when the rash started….
A little about me
I coordinate. I organize. It is what I do. I can’t help myself. I organize things; you know, surprise parties, international conferences, pantry shelves, the rollout of web-based products. It is what I do. The funny thing is that while I admittedly have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) tendencies, I have them in an ADD (attention deficit disorder) kind of way. I’m that gal who takes meticulous notes, and then misplaces them.
I think I was meant to be a type A, OCD sort of personality, but somewhere a few wires got crossed. I have an excess of energy and an unhealthy addiction to caffeine. I’m good at making mental lists and keeping track of all the details, but sometimes when I try to talk to others about them, it’s like reading a phonebook out of order, while listening to talk radio and singing ABBA at the same time. There’s just a lot going on in my head, and not all of it is that useful. But, it’s ALL in there, every last little detail. While I may not always be the most efficient organizer, I think that my experience and energy help me keep things on track.
One other important tidbit about myself: I’m not a boater. I have BEEN on a boat before. Actually, the vessels I have been on were more likely ships (I KNOW there is a rule about when a boat is a boat, a yacht is a yacht, a ship is a ship and so on, but those rules are unknown to me at this point). The vessels I was on were ferries. I’ve crossed the sea by ferry in Greece, Crete, Canada and from France to the UK. And I’ve gotten seasick each and every time!!! (Yes, in several cases, hurling was involved).
I’ve had the chance to cruise on the beautiful 70’ Aleutian yacht (Sanctuary) that will be my home for 21 days. A few months ago, we cruised from Bellingham to Vancouver (a four hour trip) and I got seasick. I didn’t spew or anything, but I was green under the gills. I slept aboard Sanctuary that night, while she (boater lingo update, all boats are girls) was moored in Vancouver. I slept great and didn’t feel at all queasy, but I continued to sway for three days after my evening aboard Sanctuary.
Needless to say, I’m very excited to see how well my landlubbin’ legs and belly hold up on this cruise. Stay tuned!
You can start to understand why ole Captain Vancouver got a little nutty and cranky trying to map the area. I guess it could have been all those pesky islands, or the fact that he started naval service at the age of 15! Heading out to sea for three years of service is something I certainly wouldn’t have been prepared to do at 15.
