Gazela - Philly to New Bedford, Mass

My son, Wyatt, and I recently had the amazing opportunity to crew aboard the 1883, Portuguese tall ship Gazela Primeiro from Philadelphia to New Bedford, Massachusetts and back to Philadelphia.

We worked as crew.  Which means we work.  There are no passengers on board.  We were on "A-Watch", which was the 4-8 watch.  We worked from 4am to 8am.  We had off from 8am to 12noon.  We did "Ship's Work" from 12noon to 4pm.  Then, we had our second main shift of the day, from 4pm to 8pm.  Then, we had off, again, from 8pm until 4am.

Working as crew, we had the opportunity to do just about every job on board.  Shift work consisted of:

1. Helm (Steering the ship)
2. Fire Watch (walking from bow to stern, below decks, through the engine room, through all the storage holds, etc. looking for fires, leaks or anything that wasn't normal)
3. Deck Ready (basically a free deck hand to help Cook with galley duties or helping with deck washes, etc.)
4. Lookout 1 & 2 (posted on top of the galley, looking for other ships, small boats, things that ought not be floating in our path, etc.)
5. Runner (running back & forth from lookout to helm to report any of the aforementioned hazards)

We also had the opportunity to go aloft to assist with sail handling, furling, mast & yard scraping.  the top of the masts are at +/- 96' above the deck.