Boy, I really can pick them...
Jul. 27th, 2018 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
graculusWell, that subject line's probably not completely fair because what I just experienced wasn't directly caused by me, but the concept still stands...
To set the scene: I signed up as a volunteer this summer on a whale and dolphin survey off the Hebrides in Scotland.
It's a period of time spent on a sailboat, a good chunk of which is spent doing survey work (in this case, looking for marine life and also logging birds and stuff like floating rubbish and lobster creel buoys). You take it in turns over the day to do all of those tasks, as well as cooking at least one evening meal - there were 6 volunteers, so you also get time off during the day between tasks. There's no guarantees what you'll see or even where you'll end up, as the latter is partly dictated by the weather and tides - for instance, one day we got stuck because of fog so didn't weigh anchor till late morning, a few hours after our usual start time.
Which is fine as long as everyone plays the game. Our particular group was fine apart from the woman I was sharing a cabin with - for starters, any issues I had with sleeping onboard were all related to either her snoring or her complaining about how much the boat was rocking. The wheels started to fall off the wagon when she started being unwell and then brooded about it for hours on end rather than what she should have done (in my opinion) which was just carry on anyway. Since I only got a little queasy at one stage, which meant I had to miss a slot when I was supposed to be logging stuff on the computer below decks, I find it quite hard to summon up much sympathy for her. We then went from 'just put me on shore somewhere' (which really wasn't feasible where we were) to her complaining about pretty much everything about the trip.
In short, I don't think she'd realised what she signed up for, though it's pretty clear in all the information you get sent beforehand. It's not a pleasure cruise, there's work to be done, and nobody was asking more of her than they were of everyone else. To be honest, the first danger sign should have been when I needed to get my waterproofs on and she was just faffing about in the cabin, only for her to snap at me 'don't rush me, it's my holiday'.
Anyway, we got back to harbour the night before we were due to finish and she was off as soon as possible, at least once she'd had a good moan to someone from the office. Because, even though it was included in the material sent to us, she didn't see why she should have to spend any time cleaning the boat and she'd spent a lot of money on this trip (which was the same for everyone else, of course, and she was living in Amsterdam so not actually travelling trans-Atlantic!).
Apart from this, I enjoyed myself and got a bit sunburned, as well as seeing lots of minke whales, harbour porpoises and Risso's dolphins (a new species for me!). I also got to go back to Lunga and visit the puffins again, this time when there was literally just us there and not a boatload (or two) of tourists!
To set the scene: I signed up as a volunteer this summer on a whale and dolphin survey off the Hebrides in Scotland.
It's a period of time spent on a sailboat, a good chunk of which is spent doing survey work (in this case, looking for marine life and also logging birds and stuff like floating rubbish and lobster creel buoys). You take it in turns over the day to do all of those tasks, as well as cooking at least one evening meal - there were 6 volunteers, so you also get time off during the day between tasks. There's no guarantees what you'll see or even where you'll end up, as the latter is partly dictated by the weather and tides - for instance, one day we got stuck because of fog so didn't weigh anchor till late morning, a few hours after our usual start time.
Which is fine as long as everyone plays the game. Our particular group was fine apart from the woman I was sharing a cabin with - for starters, any issues I had with sleeping onboard were all related to either her snoring or her complaining about how much the boat was rocking. The wheels started to fall off the wagon when she started being unwell and then brooded about it for hours on end rather than what she should have done (in my opinion) which was just carry on anyway. Since I only got a little queasy at one stage, which meant I had to miss a slot when I was supposed to be logging stuff on the computer below decks, I find it quite hard to summon up much sympathy for her. We then went from 'just put me on shore somewhere' (which really wasn't feasible where we were) to her complaining about pretty much everything about the trip.
In short, I don't think she'd realised what she signed up for, though it's pretty clear in all the information you get sent beforehand. It's not a pleasure cruise, there's work to be done, and nobody was asking more of her than they were of everyone else. To be honest, the first danger sign should have been when I needed to get my waterproofs on and she was just faffing about in the cabin, only for her to snap at me 'don't rush me, it's my holiday'.
Anyway, we got back to harbour the night before we were due to finish and she was off as soon as possible, at least once she'd had a good moan to someone from the office. Because, even though it was included in the material sent to us, she didn't see why she should have to spend any time cleaning the boat and she'd spent a lot of money on this trip (which was the same for everyone else, of course, and she was living in Amsterdam so not actually travelling trans-Atlantic!).
Apart from this, I enjoyed myself and got a bit sunburned, as well as seeing lots of minke whales, harbour porpoises and Risso's dolphins (a new species for me!). I also got to go back to Lunga and visit the puffins again, this time when there was literally just us there and not a boatload (or two) of tourists!
