BST ~ Texas ~ April 07

Well, you all might have figured out by now that I love to sail. I actually just heard back today (11 May 2007) from the American Cruise Lines. They hired me for the deckhand position I applied for a couple weeks back. I am so excited! The end of May I will be in Baltimore for a couple days doing training ACL requires to work aboard. After that I'm not exactly sure what location I will be headed to next; I'm betting there will be some water around though. :D

I am working toward getting my Able Body license which is required for sailing on a lot of vessels. It almost feels like I am playing a video game trying to get to an AB, that there are all these secret steps inbetween that no one can tell you about. I have made at least a hundred phone calls to the Coast Guard just trying to get information. I was finally able to go to Baltimore and get my Merchant Mariners Document. Apparently that was the first step.

Next I went down to Texas for a week of Basic Safety Training. The first two days were fire, then next we had first aid and CPR. The fire training was a lot of fun simple because I prefer hands-on over the sitting in front of a textbook trying to cram information into the brain stuff.

(Sonya and I)

That person in the grass is the man I killed just because he was a guy... No, just kidding.

(Amy and Buck)

Along with all the other fire drills we did, we had a dummy who weighed 165 pounds that was needing to be rescued from a "blazing" container. That of course was a workout with all the fire gear on.

The next three days we studied radio communications, personal safety, pollution prevention and sea survival. Once again my favorite was the sea survival, seeing how we were able to "go swimming". :D


(Amy trying to get into the life raft... It's not as easy as one might think.)

(Steve and I)

At the end of every day we would take a test on what we had studied. Talk about stress. I hate taking tests anyways, but to have to take them on something I really want to do good at, it just didn't add to the enjoyment. I am happy to say however that I did get 100% on most them. I had an advantage though, with being at Friend Ships for nearly three years. It really helped a lot.

~

So, I have this theory that I have met to many people in my life time of 21 years. That an average person probably meets around 100 to 200 people a year. Well, it seems to be that everyday at Friend Ships you were always meeting someone new. That I would meet like 400 or more people a year. Actually while I was in Gretna for the three months we had over 800 people come through. I talk to all of them. I seriously felt like I never want to meet and get to know another soul after returning from Israel. While I was living in Virginia I only left the house to go to work (the girls drug me out a couple times at first to socialize with their friends, but, I learned pretty quick not to fall for that trick again). My name's Danette, I was with Friend Ships for almost three years. Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla Bla. And NO I'm not a Hokie! (Their mascot)

~

Anyways, so before BST I'm thinking, here I go down to Texas only to what? Have to meet more people! If I can dodge everyone this will be good, then I won't have to pretend like I have everything together and life is perfect. I mean I do do missions, so I must be close to perfect right? NO!

I roomed with this girl Amy from Canada and we totally hit it off. She works on the African Mercy with Mercy Ships as the only girl deckhand so we had a lot in common. Then there was Sonya, she was totally cool and I had a great time talking to her. I actually went out to coffee one night with this huge group and had a good time... I realized something while I was down there. That I didn't have to pretend I was perfect, or that I had everything figured out in life. People are people and no one has it all figured out, especially the ones that pretend they do. I also learned that everyone has something special about them, that everyone you run across is different in their own unique way; that by not getting to know these people, I am the one missing out.