The Hawaiian Chieftain, the beautiful boat on which we learned to look like we knew what we were doing.
The Lady Washington,buddy of the Hawaiian Chieftain, and yes, the movie star from the first Pirates of the Caribbean (she was, as you all should know, The Interceptor).
AND SO...
THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE MAST! Okay - so the program is called TWO weeks before the mast (there's more meaning there than meets the landlubber's eye), but we spent two weeks training to be salty sea dogs on tall ships and we liked it so much we just couldn't leave!
Truly, we entered another world as foreign as any we've seen this year - foreign language and all, and slang to boot! Full of adventure and excitement - sailing a tall ship, climbing the rigging, having my brain explode with so much new information, and it's all got to be done FAST and RIGHT because the wind's just so and the sails need to be like that and you'd better not touch the wrong thing because there are a lot of big things on this ship that are only doing what they're told because of a little ol' rope (I mean LINE!). WHEW!
And the crew! The crew (12 - 14 including us) is full of 20-somethings with a passion for sailing, for tall ships, hard work, the vagabond life, tattoos, rum, and saving sea scouts when they run aground.
I don't have time to write much right now, so you'll just have to settle for pictures (worth a thousand words you know). Having had a few days for reprieve and repacking, we're heading out in just a few hours - for the Redwoods (big trees), then Lassen National Park (big volcano), then a return to Utah (big red rocks, of which we can't seem to get enough).
I'll update with some witty and worldly words (ha) sometime in late August when we return to the land of easy access to computers. Maybe more pics too, or poetry, or puns, or pika-translated prehistoric petroglyphs. Something plainly pertinent anyway!
Till then -
Prepare to wear ship!
Board sheet heads'ls!
Sheet out mizzen!
AVAST!
Ready about!
Midship the mizzen!
Let luff heads'ls!
(Everything on a ship is said with an exclamation point!)
Laying aloft!
Laying aloft AYE!
Welcome to the Hawaiian Chieftain!
Aye. Two scallywags!
A stowaway.
Feet and head on right is (are?) Raina.
Sailors really ARE salty sea dogs! (Earl and Yeti, oh yeah, and Marc too.)
The spacious crew quarters.
Into the Seattle Locks, behind the Lady Washington.
They even let me drive.
Raina learns to drive a tall ship before she learns to drive a car.
The Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain hang out together.
Aloft, room with a view.
Here we are aloft. Notice how tightly I'm gripping the shroud.
Our first mate, JB (with the parasol everyone coveted), our engineer, Noah, and me, seriously navigating.
Raina with Earl the girl.
Helping in the head rigging.
Raina in the rigging (left, Sabrina on the right).
Littlewolf inspecting the guns. 
The sailor's equivalent of chatting over the backyard fence.
Chieftain and Lady Washington.
Make sure to keep that woodwork shining!