35 Memorial Blvd

I have a new house. It is a little less than 1/2 a mile to downtown newport, the beach, the cliffwalk and the Newport shipyard. I live with 2 roommates, both are cool kids about my age. It is next to a Saloon. I haven't been yet, but I am expecting to meet some grizzled old cowpokes playing stud and getting roostered. Ill write more later

Fires, a new house and Bermuda

The past few days have been eventful up here in Newport. The week started with a 5:30 wake up in order to catch the shuttle to Windsor Locks, Conneticut. This is where Conneticut's Firefighter academy is. It is also a town devoid of absolutely anything that I or anyone that I know would find even remotely amusing. At the fire academy, we spent the first day in the classroom. This mostly consisted of slideshows supplemented by firefighter stories. The second day, we suited up in full firefighter gear. This included boots, heavy pants, heavy coat, balaclava, helmet, face mask and oxygen tank and harness. This is a lot of stuff to wear in late June, especially near giant propane fires. We practiced advancing the water hose and ran drills in which we would spray one area to keep the flames away while one of us would turn off the power to a fake AC unit or stove. The last drill consisted of teams of 3 dragging the hose into a burning building to extinguish the flames. The rooms were supposedly 400 degrees, pitch black and filled with smoke. This is a disorienting situation to be in. Really cool experience though.

Last night, after a day long class about life rafts and personal safety, Jason, his cousin and I went to a MLS Revolution game. The fan base is small when considering other sports, but the ones who show up are very lively. 1-1 draw.





After the game, we headed home, but were drawn to an enormous parking lot for an even more enormous building. It was a casino, but not the cool kind of casinos, with scantily clad women giving out free drinks, smooth blackjack dealers and african wildlife. This one was solely slots and video black jack. Jason's cousin spent some money on video blackjack, and while he was cursing at a life size video game black jack dealer, I wandered around the massive establishment. The place was larger than the patriots stadium that we had just left and contained 3 Dunkin Donuts. In this building there were probably 11 million slot games and half as many geriatrics stuffing their retirement money inside of them. I put in five dollars and instantly became confused at the colors, pictures of pirates and tropical fruit. After pressing a bunch of buttons for a few spins, an alarm went off and the screen lit up even more than it already was. I had done it, I had turned my five dollar bill into nine dollars and eighty eighty cents. I immediately cashed out and bought a donut.

As it was only 11:00pm, we decided to hit up the karaoke dive bar near our house in North Kingstown. It was the same mixture of kids singing for fun and middle-aged citizens hoping to showcase their talent. Evelyn, a product of 5 decades of harsh winters and unfiltered tobacco, serenaded us with a delicate rendition of "Redneck Woman," which she has sang every wednesday since the invention of sound. She is a sweet lady.

Today, we had CPR/first aid class. It was interesting but still tedious. The notable part of today was when Court called to ask if I would be interested in racing in the Bermuda Race with one of Ian's friend's crews. Then, I would spend a few days in Bermuda and sail back up here with the boat. The hole thing would have taken 10 days. It wouldn't have paid anything, but it wouldn't have cost me anything, either. I was really excited for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately for me, there was a snag in that a boat cannot add crew members once it has submitted it's roster. What a dumb rule! There is still a chance, however, that I could do the delivery, in which I would be flown down to Bermuda and sail the boat back with a few of the other crew members. We shall see.

I have a great house near the center of downtown Newport that I will move into this weekend. I will post pictures once I move in.

Back to school

First, happy fathers day, dad. You have been a wonderful father for the past 23 years , and really liked your work in "Deliverance"

Last week was fun in Newport. I did some work on a nice 58' sailboat called Moonracer. It was a lot of cleaning and moving stuff around, but I also helped rig the two newly made sails. Sailors have a whole different specialized language. Occasionally the captain would tell me do things in sailor which, upon seeing the blank look upon my face, he would translate it into English. He would say phrases like, "take up that halyard line on the starboard side of the mast," "if you need the head, use the one in the port aft," and "Shiver me timbers! Thar be a whenchy sprog!" So I learned a lot this week. I learned how to look less confused when someone yells sailor at me.

On Wednesday after work, I went to hang out with Neikia and her friends at her pool in downtown Newport. She went out with for a friends birthday party, so I went out with her cousin and some of his friends. We started at his friend's house, but when the cops came by to complain about noise, we moved to his friend's house. The house was in Massachusetts, which is a completely different state from Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, you can go to a party in a different state and still make it back to the other side of the state in the same night. Don't worry parents, we had a sober driver.

For tomorrow, I have to wake up at 5:30 to make it to the sailing school to get the shuttle that goes to a firefighter training facility in Connecticut. That will be the first 2 days of the course. the rest takes place in a classroom in newport, except for saturday's portion, which takes place at a pool. On friday, Kenan and Allison's New Zealand friend , Matt Freeman, is having a solstice party fairly near where I live.

Other than that, Ive been going to the beach, playing some ultimate, riding my bike and enjoying summer.

Hot like home

On Saturday, I went to the chowder festival and tried each of the 36 types. While some were great, there were a lot of mediocre entries. I say 15 of them were worth ordering at a restaurant. The 2 best were a mussel chowder and a New england clam bake chowder. It was hot, the live music was decent(mostly classic rock covers, buffett/james taylor and reggae). There was an alarmingly large number of middle aged women in jean shorts that had been hitting the Heineken Light tent a little too hard. Walking in front of the stage was wading through a sea of denim Fupas*. I guess that is what city festivals are all about.

Later that night, I met up with neikia and some of her friends. She lives in a huge old house right on Thames street(middle of downtown). They recently built a huge roof porch that overlooks all of Newport and the adjacent shipyards. She grew up in town and knows everyone, so we were able to avoid cover charges at the bars we went to. It is a good bar scene from what I have seen so far.

Working in the Engine room yesterday when it was 90 degrees outside was hot. I spent the day scrubbing generators and pumps and other strange mechanical equipment that make noise and exude levels of heat usually only found in solar flares. The good part about yesterday is that I also got to work a "watch." This consisted of getting paid to eat an enormous BBQ rib dinner, watch 3 hours of America's Funniest Home Videos and make sure that the boat did not explode/disappear. Then Jason and I went down to pint night(blue moon=no blatz splatz).

I just signed up for a course to get my STCW(Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping). Its a basic level course dealing with live firefighting, CPR/First aid, and general maritime safety. It is a week long and often necessary for getting a job on a boat that is doing any substantial travelling. Its expensive (1k), but as I am not paying for rent, a couple more days of day work should cover it. Here is a picture from the course itenerary on the confidentcaptain.com website.


*What it a FUPA? "A FUPA is a Man or a Woman so afflicted by obesity that their pubic area is used to store patches of soft fatty waste. Often sighted at work, the food court at the mall and Walmart, they can be spotted in families, or occasionally traveling in groups called 'schwaggles'."

Simple Green

During the last two days, I did day work on the CV9. I spent most of the days in the engine room with a bottle of simple green cleaning spray and some rags scrubbing up the grime. The previous captain had not been diligent in keeping the engine room spotless, and since that is the accepted state of all rooms in a luxury yacht, I had the pleasure of using an enormous amount of the stuff. Though this is not a glamorous job, I do have some good contacts as a result. Also, the pay is pretty good. I made $15/hour with free hot lunch and a paid 45min. lunch break. So it is nice to have $270 in cash after two days of work. Im working for the same boat monday as well.

Today, I'm going into town first to hit up a "Chowdah" cookoff and then to meet up with a bartender from the IYAC bar who offered to show me around town. She used to crew on boats and was able to give me some good advice. Sunday, its frisbee, Court's baby shower, then barbeque and beers and maybe bars. Sunday is a good day for bars because many of the tourists leave so its not too crowded. The Ravers play that night (Local reggae: http://www.myspace.com/theraversnewport)

Found a job

Today, I awoke at 7:45, about 5 hours earlier than i prefer to wake up. It was a little hard to get going due to the fact that Mondays are Pint Night at a bar in Kingston and last night the featured beer was Newcastle Brown Ale. I think the name is derived not only from the beer's color, but also from it's abilities as a diuretic. The condition was first introduced to me by my cousin Michael who calls it the "Blatz Splatz."


Aside from that aspect, the day was excellent. about 75 degrees and sunny. I spent some of it at the Newport Shipyard talking with a captain of a couple of nice sail boats named Aaron. His boats are the Wild Horses and the White Wings and can be found at http://www.w-class.com/. Though he didn't have any day work for me, we was able to make some calls on my behalf. He also offered for me to join the race team for sails in the area. This would be unpaid, but it would be really fun and i would learn a lot. After a few sails, there is a good chance that I could be picked up on the race team.
After speaking with him, I walked around the area and asked if anyone needed day work. At the fourth or fifth boat that i asked, I found work for Thursday and Friday. It is a 131foot yacht called the CV9. Should be some good money and a good way to get my foot in the door.

I then headed down to the IYAC, which is a sailing bar in downtown Newport where Court used to work. Hopefully, I can get a job as a doorman here. Neikia, the bartender, was my age and had experience in the yachting industry. She gave me a beer as well as some good contacts that would be looking for work now and into the fall. this was good because she seems well-connected and hey, free beer. She invited me downtown with her and her friends on Saturday.

Tomorrow, I have an interview with an agency at 10am and then i plan on passing out some business cards at the local shipyards and sailing bars. At noon, I'm going to meet up with Aaron and his team for a short tour on the White Wings to test out its new motor. Now, I'm headed to a barbecue with Katie from the frisbee crowd and some of her friends.

Day three

On Sunday night, I went to a frisbee friend's house for some steak and beer. It was nice to hang out with some of the people that live here and could give some advice about the area and could give some good connections. For cheap beer, the famous Narragansett is a good local thing.

Today, I set up two interviews with people well connected in the area. The first is a captain that I will meet tomorrow at 9 for an interview about day work, either for him, or for people he knows. His boat is a 72 foot sailboat called "Wild Horses." I walked by it with Court today and it is a hell of a thing. The other potential connection for tomorrow is a yachting agent who might be able to help me, but as I do not yet have any skills, I imagine that she will be able to provide further connections for day work.

Today I also moved from Court's house to her kind-of aunt Cibby's house in a nearby town. It is about a 20 minute drive to Newport, but it is worth it as the area is amazing. Its close to the sea, but its deep in the woods(recent bear sightings) with a huge back yard and a great (irish setter?) dog named Lou. I am living with her house sitter Jason who is a student at URI. When I arrived, I was offered a PBR. Because of this, I know he is a good kid and the type that would definitely do 347 proud. Tonight, we went out for pint night(tonight was $2 Newcastle) at a local bar and had a great time. Should be a fun month.

Day one

This morning I went to play some pickup ultimate at a high school in Newport. 16 people showed up and we ended up getting a full sided game going. It wasn't very high quality, but it was good to run around again. After, we ate some watermelon at one of the girls' house then jumped into the sea. It was icy and refreshing, but if you stay in for more than a minute, you get a headache. After that , I walked around town for a bit and then checked the internet for housing. This is an expensive place. Its looking like rent will be at least $500/month. I am hoping to stay at a family friend's house while she is out of town until July and I'm sure I will have something figured out by then. I always have my tent. Tonight, I am going to head over to BBQ and drink some beers with some of the frisbee folks and then head downtown. It is good here. Please leave any Newport connections in the comments. cant have enough connections.