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photos by Jim Craven 18th-century sailing: It's not just an adventure, It's A Job The bark Endeavour makes her way into Coos Bay Friday, where she will stay through June 18 for public tours. The replica of Capt. James Cook's ship is on a round-the-world cruise, offering a real sailing experience to crew members who pay for the privilege. TOP: Endeavour crew members stow a sail for the ship's stay in Coos Bay. Crew members are required to go aloft to work sails when ordered to do so; those who are unable or unwilling to climb rigging are advised not to sign on. If you go What : Endeavour, a three-masted bark on her North American voyage. When : 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through July 18. Where : Coos Bay city dock. Cost : $10 adults, special family rates. Information : Call 269-8921. Web site : www.barkendeavour.com.au Amateurs contend with rolling sea, rolling stomachs, high rigging to take an old style ship into Coos Bay By BILL VARBLE Tom Vorhies saw the bark Endeavour dockside at Morro Bay, Calif., and had his socks knocked off. As he stood smitten, gaping at the working replica of Capt. Cook's ship, a crew member called down, "You wanna sail with us?" The 52-year-old engineer thought for two seconds and decided he did, very much. That was in late May. Now, on a sunny July day in Coos Bay, Vorhies surveys the deck with new eyes. "I think they had a hell of a tough life," he says of old-time sailors. Vorhies and many of the other three dozen amateur sailors aboard Endeavour say they faced seasickness, fear of heights and other challenges sailing up the coast of California and, at least in retrospect, loved it. "It's the best thing I ever did," Rachel Anderson says. Anderson, 22, quit a marketing job in Scranton, Pa., to join the crew. She sailed from San Diego to Newport Beach, Calif., then from Eureka to Coos Bay. Monte Yunker, 42, of Sacramento, Calif., relaxes on the deck of Endeavour during a break after lunch. He said late-night watches and sleeping in a hammock were the hardest parts of his voyage from Eureka, Calif., to Coos Bay. "I think it's in my blood," she says as she swings around the shrouds and heads up, up, up to help her mates with chores. Vorhies is an ex-merchant seaman, so he knew his way around an ocean. And when he signed on for the Eureka-to-Coos Bay leg of Endeavour's round-the-world journey, he was looking for adventure. But at sea, he'd barely started learning the names of things (25 sails, more than 100 working lines) when he was ordered aloft as the ship pitched. Looking up the 128-foot high main mast, he had a revelation. "I realized this was no joke," he says. Voyage crew members pay for the privilege of working ($750 for the Coos Bay leg) much like sailors of old. They agree to follow orders. They are warned not to come if they blanch at the idea of going aloft at night to handle giant sails. They are advised to carry insurance. This is not your father's cruise ship. Each crew member joins one of three watches working in shifts 24 hours a day. They handle sail, swab the decks and sleep in hammocks in a lower deck. There are a few amenities -- a modern galley and marine heads (those "seats of ease" thrusting from the bow, traditional sailors' privies, are for show, not go). As onlookers gather on the deck to gawk and gulls wheel and squawk overhead, crew members may be forgiven a bit of a swagger as they stow gear and make things shipshape. Those new calluses are growing mostly on middle-aged office worker hands. "The first two days were hell, says Linda Allen, of Los Angeles. "I was the green-bucket queen." The green bucket is for emergency use during seasickness attacks. "Smile," it says on the bucket. "You'll feel better soon." Allen, a lawyer's assistant, gave herself the voyage for her 50th birthday. She's always been afraid of heights. She had to force herself aloft. She came to love lolling on the bowsprit (the spar sticking foreward from the bow) in her off hours watching dolphins surf Endeavour's bow wave. "Last night was beautiful," she says. "We were all on deck to look at the sky and the stars." The first time she was ordered aloft, Giana Norman, a mother of two, had a moment of fear so intense she thought she must have been crazy to sign on. "Oh, no!" she thought. But Norman, 37, and her husband, Michael, 48, persevered, and she now sums up the journey as "the time of our lives." Monte Yunker, 42, a software engineer from Sacramento, Calif., says the hardest part was never getting a good night's sleep. "You're up at different times different nights for your watch," he says. "I missed my waterbed," he adds with a laugh. Alberto Kywi, of Ojai, Calif., the chief information officer with a hospital system, also has a thing about heights. Trying to go up the rigging seasick was the scariest moment of his life. "I can't do this," he said. "There's plenty to do on deck," officers told him. "They're not going to push you up there," he says. "They don't want somebody to go up there and freeze." He found it tough sleeping in hammocks with people hanging like bunches of grapes, sometimes bumping as the ship swayed. In a week at sea, he saw some fishing vessels, a few ships and no pleasure boats. An unexpected bonus was a total disconnect from the rest of the world. "I don't know what's going on," he says, smiling. John Stacey, 72, of Monterey, saw Endeavour in 1993 in Australia and again in 1995 in Aukland, New Zealand, when she was given a 21-gun salute (Cook mapped New Zealand from the first Endeavour). "I'd been interested ever since," he says. Three weeks ago, Stacey, who's retired from the U.S. Geological Survey, was walking near his home and there she was, under sail, coming around Lovers Point on Monterey Bay. Resistance was futile. Stacey signed on as a supernumerary, or one who doesn't meet the physical requirements of voyage crew and who occupies the gentlemen's cabins aft. This doesn't mean he lacks for duties, however. He starts to explain, but one of his mates calls. "One of the most marvelous experiences of my life," he says over his shoulder as he disappears into the general bustle. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA