I interviewed Amy last year around this time, and since she’s just come back to work at Niagara after a season away, it seemed like a good time to once again (lovingly) harass her with questions.
So, without further ado:
Where have you been since you left Niagara?
I went to Maine to work on SSV Corwith Cramer as a carpenter. I was there for three months; we took off sections of cap rail, did triage, and reinstalled them. Mostly, I worked on cabinetry down below, removing bunks and shelves so we could access wire runs and survey the hull. I learned about interior carpentry and finish carpentry, and got to spend time in Belfast, which is a charming little town.
That sounds like something a grandmother would say.
It’s the kind of town where my grandma would live. Well, it’s a small town on the waterfront with a giant shipyard in the middle of it. Which the locals didn’t particularly care for. Maybe my grandma wouldn’t want to live there.
And you went abroad, right?
I volunteered on Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted topsail schooner out of Kiel. Mostly I rustbusted and painted, but I got to hang out with Germans and get back to my deckhand roots.
Here, the interviewee paused for a dance break with the second mate—understandable, since Led Zeppelin’s Misty Mountain Hop was playing in the office.
Then I went to Flensburg, Germany, a former Dutch port that’s now home to many historic vessels. It was pretty dope.
What’s it like to be back?
I’m excited to be back doing carpentry on a boat that I love.
Here, the second mate interrupted to correct her with: “The ship that you love,” and we started arguing about whether or not it’s okay to casually refer to ships as “boats.” It took us a while to get back on track, but finally Amy concluded:
Back on the team, man. Getting the band back together. In Maine, I worked mostly as a solo carpenter, so it’s nice to be back with my Niagara friends and to work on projects with them.