@fabledquill @walnutwiddershins I'm glad you asked!
The "how did you get to do this" and "what did it cost" can be answered here—while the price may look a little pricey, all your accommodations and meals are taken care of during your voyage, and I would say it's well worth the money. If you have dietary restrictions, those can be accommodated, too—I'm vegetarian, and one of my professional-crew watchmates had celiac, and both of us were well taken care of.
My duties involved standing watch on a 4 hours on, 4 hours off, 4 hours standby schedule—I was on A watch (midnight to 4 AM and noon to 4 PM, or 0-4 and 12-16) with two professional crewmates and the first mate as our watch officer. The other watches were led by the second mate and the bosun respectively, and included two professional crew and two guests each.
While on watch, I would take the helm for a portion of the watch (absolutely nerve-wracking my first time, but my favorite part of sailing once I got used to it), do at least one of the hourly boat checks (checking to make sure everything's safe, the bilges don't need to be pumped out, nothing is where it shouldn't be), and help in any sail handling and adjustments that needed to be performed. This mostly occurred during watch, but there were a few times standby or all hands would be called up for a particularly intense piece of work, and then a shipmate would come wake me up, I'd put on my shoes (or boots and foul weather gear, if appropriate) and run up on deck prepared to haul on some lines.
The professional crew, and especially my watchmates and watch officer, were wonderful people and easy to get along with. While I was far less experienced than any of them, they were always ready to teach me new skills and lend a hand when needed, and by the end, I felt like a real part of the crew. I miss them already.
The other guest crew? Well, I've already written about the nightmare guest here, but even without that notable outlier, I was glad I didn't have watch with any of them, because that meant I hardly had to interact with them. I was talking with @thebaffledcaptain before my voyage about how the two kinds of Age of Sail enthusiasts are queer people and Boat Owning Old Guys, and since my good friend I had initially signed on with had to bow out due to a family emergency, I was outnumbered by the second type four to one. Y'all, the MANSPLAINATION and simple disrespect of these men towards the female crew members, and especially the women in positions of responsibility—our first mate, bosun, and chief engineer were all women—was ASTOUNDING. Still, though, that reflects on these men, not on the ship nor on her professional crew.
Overall, the experience was really wonderful, I learned a lot, found my happy place, and would and will do it again. Not only that, I'm working on the volunteer paperwork for my local tall ship as we speak— so I'd say it was successful.
