“Wait — you mean you weren’t a passenger but you actually had to work?”\u00a0 asked one girl, in disbelief.<\/p>\n
“Yes, but that’s what we signed up for.\u00a0 To learn what it was like to be an 18th century sailor; to learn the basics of seamanship in the age of sail.\u00a0 Actually, it was fun.\u00a0 Sort of like Adventure Club for adults.”<\/p>\n
I went on to explain how we sailed across the northern Pacific Ocean from Vancouver to Hawaii, and that it took twenty days.<\/p>\n
“How did you know where you were?” asked one astute young lad, about eight or nine years old.<\/p>\n
I showed him a chart and explained briefly (and inadequately) about sextants are used in celestial navigation.<\/p>\n
“Yes, but how<\/em>?” he pressed.<\/p>\n When pressed by the child for a better explanation, I found myself blathering and dithering and saw all of their faces glaze over at once, like a dark cloud of confusion had passed overhead.\u00a0 Ye gads!\u00a0 Leave it to a child to find your weak spot…<\/p>\n “I bet Captain Cook would have liked to have had GPS,” the boy said.<\/p>\n “Hey, wait!”\u00a0 said another.\u00a0 “Was Captain Cook real?\u00a0 I thought he was a Disney character.”<\/p>\n “You’re thinking of Captain Hook, not Captain Cook.\u00a0 Captain James Cook was very real, and so was his ship.\u00a0\u00a0 And my character, Patricia MacPherson, was made up, by me.\u00a0 But she might have been real.\u00a0 She could have been real.”<\/p>\n We moved on to the method of time-keeping aboard an 18th century sailing ship.\u00a0 I brought along a 30 minute sand glass and a brass ship’s bell which I let them take turns ringing.\u00a0 One ring on the half hour, two rings on the hour, three, and so fourth until eight bells signified four hours had passed and time for the watch on deck to go below and get some rest.”<\/p>\n “That bell sure is loud,” someone remarked.<\/p>\n “That’s so you could hear it all over the ship,” a clever girl explained.<\/p>\n “Exactly so!” I said, pleased that the ship was beginning to come alive for them now as it had for me.<\/p>\n We shared ideas of what inspires us — and I was inspired by how they enjoyed playing with words and letting their imaginations out of the cage.\u00a0 I’m going to draw on that energy and delve back into my own writing with the boldness of youth.\u00a0 And I am going to brush up on celestial navigation so that the next time a kid asks me I can give them a better explanation!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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