tbh it's an interesting gig. We all live on the ship full-time, even in port. We have a captain, chief mate, second mate (who is also chief engineer), bosun, cook, and five able seamen (myself included). There are currently two women in the crew: our bosun, who is dating the second mate, and a deckhand who has a boyfriend back home but is in an open relationship, meaning she's off the ship usually one or two nights a week with some random Tinder match. From an inceldom perspective it's not a bad place to work...most of the guys in this industry, even the stereotypically chaddish types, are single because we all live a pretty rootless existence. Being a single guy and not dating/trying to date is not seen as weird or unusual, and in fact very little conversation revolves around women/dating/sex etc.
The work is hard and the days are long; not much has changed in the last 200 years. In port, our routine is usually to spend about an hour cleaning the ship after breakfast (this includes washing the deck and cleaning "soles and bowls", meaning belowdecks compartments and toilets); then we open for dockside tours and break into maintenance projects. If it's a normal weekday maintenance continues all day; projects can range from painting to splicing rope to laying aloft to work on a rigging project. Usually chief mate gives you a short list of stuff he wants you to get done that day, then you fuck off and do it. It's pretty relaxing as you're usually working by yourself and you can listen to music, podcasts etc while you work. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays we go sailing in the afternoon. We take paying passengers out on two-hour sails, give a short talk on the history of the ship, and fire our cannons. It takes about half an hour to prepare the ship to sail, and about an hour to clean up after we dock and disembark passengers.
At sea, when we're on transit, we have 4/8 watches (four hours on watch, eight hours off). When you're on watch you are usually on with 1-2 other ABs and a watch officer (either the captain or a mate depending on what watch you're in). One person stands lookout/runs the deck while the other is at the helm, with the WO down below at the nav station monitoring AIS traffic, weather etc. Every hour on the hour you switch out the helmsman/lookout and a boat check is conducted - this consists of sounding the bilges, cycling the generators, checking battery levels, inspecting the engine (if it's running, which it rarely is outside of canals or tight harbors), and marking the ship's position on the chart. During your eight off hours you can do whatever you want, although you still have to lay up on deck if there is an all-hands call.
The ship is currently in Tampa Bay, where she'll be stationed until late March. Then she goes to Galveston where she'll compete in a race to Pensacola, then she backtracks to New Orleans for a festival. She'll return to Tampa for a few days to provision and refit, then she'll start sailing north to Massachusetts.
