It's a sailor's life for me, yo ho ho.

Well, sort of, except not, since we're in port, and not actually out on the oceans.

For three days now, I've been in the galley (kitchen) which is next to the skullery (dishroom), cooking for people to sit and eat in the mess (dining room.) I'm really enjoying it. It's definitely a lot of work (the crew is now up above 20) but so far it's all been with another cook, and when it's not, I won't be cooking for so many. The nicest thing is probably the regular schedule: I work from 7:15am to 8pm, give or take, and then I'm done for the day. I can usually take an hour or two between lunch and dinner, unless I'm preparing something fairly complicated. After doing one gangplank watch from midnight to 4am, and then again from noon to four, I'm perfectly happy to not do that again anytime soon.

Some specifics on the food: for each of the last two mornings, I've made fresh juice in a donated (new) juicer: mixed fruit, and apple, the first morning, and this morning watermelon and apple/watermelon. For yesterday's dinner, I made an apple pie. But not just any apple pie: a vegan apple pie approximately twenty inches in diameter, and four inches deep. It took, beginning to end, about three hours. It was well worth it in the end, as it was well received. I considered making fruit sorbet for tonight, but don't have access to an ice cream maker. Possibly chocolate chip cookies.

Being in port, it's really quite pleasant living. Sure, I'm physically living on a ship, but have easy access to hot showers, gyms, high speed internet connections, and we have a lot of wonderful food donations come in, meaning a pretty constant flow of fresh fruits, veggies, bread, and other fresh stuff that is not the stuff of most high seas diets.

I'll continue to try to post, and try to get some pictures up. As I fall into a routine, though, I sort of wonder whether it's all that interesting to just write about the day to day stuff...