Thursday 21 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 21 October 2010 בס"ד

I woke up throughout the night with frequent sharp stomach pains, and so returned to the forepeak to sleep in my bunk. Woke up at 0715 and saw duct tape across the toilet seat of the port forward head. At muster we learned that somebody clogged the head, and left it! Well now, that ain't cool. But I saw the bright side in the situation and asked to be part of the unclogging effort. Bracken taught me how to do it, by disassembling the head piece by piece until the problem is identified. In this case, it was just petrified doodybombs and a build up of rock hard calcium deposit lining the piping that forms from the chemical reaction of salt water and urea. So, got some slotted screwdrivers, and started chipping away the human waste. That took a short while, and then I did a super-thorough bleachdown of the entire head and all buckets and tools utilized. I then laid in with ship's work, and was assigned to TSP all the bitts and then paint them surf grey with Brad. He got port side and I starboard, and it took us until just before lunch to finish the job. Had lunch, took a power nap, and at 1300 I was put on lashing duty with Dapper and we lashed the old skiff atop the strongbacks on the galleyhouse. I then lashed the Pukapuka outrigger and the Rarotonga dugout canoe in the hold with Siri, which required some creative effort. I was sent aloft on the fore to downrig the swingrope after that. Cleaned up the deck, and Rebecca had me grab some beer, t-shirts, and hats from the forward sole that the ship was going to give to the islanders. Then I went to the Monomoy to make fast the bow painter when I learned a valuable lesson. The topsides had been painted white, and as I climbed down I got white paint on my toe. Trying to carefully step on the Monomoy gunwale, I ended up pushing the stern out and the gap between boat and barque rapidly increased while I was stretching out between the two, hands on the tgallant rail of Picton Castle and feet on the gunwale of Monomoy. WT was watching in amusement explaining to me that I'm pretty dumb for getting into this predicament and I was forced to let my feet go and was then clinging to the topsides of the ship by my fingertips. Of course, there was no danger since we were at anchor in calm water, but an obvious lack of common sense on my part that could have great consequences in different conditions. Once I made the bow painter fast, I carefully hopped back aboard, and helped haul up and lash down another outrigger that we just acquired atop the galleyhouse. Soon after, yet another outrigger arrived that I guess the Captain traded for, and the same process repeated. Rigged up the snatch blocks for the port davits' boat falls to hoist the Monomoy. But first the Captain wanted to test the carrying capacity of the boat, and I along with 19 others loaded into the Monomoy and circumnavigated the ship under oars. The idea being that Bligh had a comparable-sized cutter that he and 18 of his men were marooned in after the mutiny on the Bounty. They sailed and rowed about 3000+ nm from near Tofua to Dutch Timor, and only lost one man when they stopped ashore for food. We usually go sailing with no more than a dozen people, and it's not crowded but it's not spacious, and even less so when we have provisions. Anyway, we rowed around the PC and then went aboard to hoist up the boat. I was then sent into the rescue boat with Bracken, Logan, Nadja, Shawn, and DB. Our goal was to attempt to hoist up the kedge anchor ourselves with pure beef power, and we got the emergency hawser coil aboard. We tried to haul it up but it was well dug in and there was no point. Shawn and DB returned to the ship to work at the windlass. We heard Brad leading a windlass shanty as they weighed the port anchor. All of a sudden a good hard breeze started blowing out of nowhere and I looked to Bracken and said, “I wonder who whistled for that?” (It's a nautical superstition that prohibits whistling aboard a ship as it sounds like screaming wind in the rigging, and it is feared that it will conjure up terribly strong winds that are harmful rather than helpful. It should be noted we learned somebody did whistle at the windlass with Brad's shanty and was quickly shut up by the Mate and those present.) So we brought the boat around the bow and passed up the emergency hawser to be put round the capstan and hauled up in that fashion. We took the boat over to the starboard davits, made fast the boat falls, and exited the boat as it was lifted out of the water, running to the quarterdeck to lay in with hoisting. Then I went to the fosclsehead to help tail the emergency hawser past the starboard ladder to be flaked out on the well deck. After that was done and we were underway, up and loosed the fore topsls, and we set headsls, topsls, and courses. We were sailing again, bound for Luganville once more. The Captain called me over to the bridge and told me to assist Dixon as he does some Vanuatu magic. I went below in the salon with Dixon, who took out of a bag a toxic plant and instructed me on how to hold it without having the poisonous leaves touch me (apparently it's like bad poison ivy?). He prepped himself in the head, doing what I don't know. Then we went to the hatch, and as I held the plant up, he positioned himself in a way that the leaves would go into his mouth but not anywhere else and then ate them. It was kind of unusual trick to perform, but he explained to me that it's a right of passage-type thing and he may have had to trade several boars to learn the secret and the art of performing this act. Then, hands to take in the spanker! Dinner, read some Mauritius Command, and I nearly shit my pants in my bunk out of nowhere while reading. DB, Brad, and Davey were present and saw me just shout AHHHH GONNA SHIT MUH PANTS! and grab my ass and run up the ladder in a most random fashion. Luckily I made it in time (sorry to be gross, readers, but this is life on a tall ship, uncensored). Wrote in my log, and borrowed the ASTA book that has all the tall ships in it and planned my future.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Asanvari, Maewo, Vanuatu; Wednesday 20 October 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0800, went ashore on the 0900 skiff with a load of books that I helped drop off at the yacht club. I went with Dave, Dapper, DB, and Megan to the nearby waterfall. Dapper went exploring up the mountain, but the rest of us just went for a dip in the extra-refreshing water. Bracken, Ali, and Georgie came by, and also Nadja, Meredith, and Siri swam across the bay over to us. Bracken was saying that there'd be another Monomoy expedition if anybody was interested, as there had been one yesterday that filled up and now that everybody who wanted to go had gone, it was a first come first serve situation. I signed up, and returned to the ship at 1130 for lunch. Right after eating, we packed up for Monomoy sailing. We got underway and headed in a southwesterly direction to sea for a while, ripping along. Then we came about and tacked a few times to come to submarine rocks. We dropped the anchor and several went snorkeling. I went for a dip myself. After a while, some of the snorkelers got the go ahead to drift through the rocks and we'd pick them up on the other side. So they went for a bit and then we weighed anchor and sailed through the rocks and collected them. Then we sailed northerly towards a beach up the coast of Maewo that had black rocks. Some of us went snorkeling again, some swam to shore and explored a waterfall. I didn't really feel like hiking, but I did swim to shore to go pee. When I looked back at the Monomoy, the sun was glaring down on the water. I knew there were submerged rocks, but I didn't know where, and I was wondering how I'd swim back and dodge them. So after a moment of pondering, I just decided to swim. Sure enough I swam right into a rock within two yards. So I stood up, and then realized that I can look underwater (duh) and so I looked and saw it was the only rock anywhere and I'm an idiot. Got back in the Monomoy and the others gradually returned also, and we set on our windward beat back to the ship. After much tacking, we arrived at about 1830. Had some dinner and watched Date Night in the forepeak. I set up to sleep on the hatch and passed out.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Asanvari, Maewo, Vanuatu; Tuesday 19 October 2010 בס"ד

I stood anchor watch at 0100 with nothing of note occurring. Woke up at 0800 feeling a bit fatigued. I went ashore at 0900 with a load of schoolbooks, which we took to the local school after stopping at the “Yacht Club.” All the schoolchildren sang us a welcome song and then after that we got to check out the schools. This school, though structurally modest, had quite an up-to-date educational curriculum it seemed by glancing at the projects the kids had around the classrooms. It was a nice school, I thought. We then were led on a walk by Nixon, who I think was the son of Chief Nelson. He took us to the end of the point by the “submarine rocks,” which are two rocks that were bombed by US airplanes during WWII that the legend says were confused for Japanese submarines. I find this improbable, since they're right next to shore, surfaced in obviously shallow coral reef, and they were probably used as target practice, but who knows? We returned to the yacht club, where I chilled for an hour with a few others of us who were feeling that same fatigue I was... and we were starting to think maybe it wasn't just exhaustion but some sort of bug. Went back to the ship on the 1130 skiff, had lunch, and came back with some others who wanted to snorkel around submarine rocks. I just took advantage of the beach for some good old fashioned beach narcolepsy that seems to strike me whenever I lay down on sand. Woke up a few hours later and went to the yacht club at 0330. The Captain showed me a local guy who was grinding kava using a meat grinder and told me I should do it for my forearm workout. I gave it a try, and it was difficult but fun and I started feeling better again. Here they don't filter their kava with water through a cheese cloth like everywhere else; they just use the natural water from it (since kava is a ground root) and it's therefore much stronger. I had paid Bronwen earlier the required 800vt for the Kastoms Dans here, and after we ground up the kava, the dance began. It was pretty cool and the guys had some cool moves. I ran out of vatu to pay for the following kava ceremony and dinner, and so after the dance I went to return to the ship. The Captain saw me, insisted I stay and that the ship would spot me. So I stayed, had some kava, which was quite tasty and noticeably stronger, and had dinner, sitting at the Captain's table. Stayed til 2000, and caught the skiff back, when we were struck by a rain squall that only lasted the duration of the skiff run. Dried off, went to bed.

Monday 18 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Asanvari, Maewo, Vanuatu; Monday 18 October 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0715, and at the post-breakfast muster, we found out there would be a select few chosen to go on a MONOMOY EXPEDITION to the next island, 17nm away. All hands looked around, wondering who would be chosen amongst us. After muster, I did domestics, and then Bracken pulled me aside and gave me the nod. OH YEAH! I help set up food provisioning with Yo, and our group got ready and rigged up the Monomoy. The day was already hotter than any other day we'd been in Vanuatu, and we knew it would be a scorcher. We departed at 1018 into a glass calm sea. We started rowing and sang Happy Birthday to Dave, who turned 21. We rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed, with a quick swim call here and there to rinse off the buckets of sweat. A breath of wind came and we set sail, cruising at about 0.5kts. Liam actually jumped overboard with a line and tried towing the boat. We left the sails set and continued rowing, and shortly after the Picton Castle overtook us under steam. Those who were initially jealous of not being able to go were probably quite thankful as they passed us, since they were sweating to death in the shade aboard the ship. We had no shade, and we were rowing and rowing and rowing and rowing and rowing and rowing and rowing in the windless calm sea. Luckily I love rowing, otherwise it would probably have been a terrible experience. We ended up rowing about 6nm or so, when once we cleared the lee of Pentecost we picked up a fresh breeze. I got to take a trick at the helm, and we had a MOB drill. We sailed for the rest of the way to Maewo, making it close to the island before we had to tack several times to make it into the pretty awesome looking bay. We got a radio from the Mate saying we'd better hurry or they'd eat all of our steak dinner, so we rowed the last ten minutes singing sea shanties and arrived at the Picton Castle at 1809. All of us were much darker and probably several pounds lighter. We had dinner, and I helped clean up in the scullery. I found out I'd be standing anchor watch at 0100, and that we were in a tricky anchorage, with little if any room for swing. I took a shower and trimmed my moustache, and then passed right out, exhausted from 8 hours of small boating.

ALL BROS ON DECK was shouted into the forepeak at I didn't know what time when I was startled out of my sleep. We were sent to stand by the windlass, and then a few minutes later were sent to set the spanker and then take in the spanker. All hands were on deck by now, and I helped stream out the emergency hawser from the chain locker. The kedge anchor that's normally in the port breezeway was put into the rescue boat made off to the hawser, and I was sent to stand by the Panama chock in the after port breezeway. The rescue skiff came around port side and pushed the stern with her bow fender on, but then the hawser ended up being fed through the starboard chock by the sea sink. After all was hauled tight and made fast, the Captain mustered us and explained exactly what just happened. The wind seemed to be coming around, and we needed to put out a stern anchor to keep up from swinging. While we were very good at being quick and ready, it wasn't a crazy emergency and probably not even an all-hands event. Anyway, I was woken at 2230 and it was all over by about 2330. I went back to bed and went DTW.

Sunday 17 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Bwatnapne Bay, Pentecost, Vanuatu; Sunday 17 October 2010 בס"ד

I woke up and I just couldn't take the nasty stank on my pillow, so I got a bucket and put bleach water in it and agitated my pillow in it for half an hour. I then took the pillow out, rang it out as best I could, and shook it on alternating sides until no more water was coming out of it, and hung it up to dry. I cleaned my bunk out and got items ready to trade, as there was a scheduled trading fair today at 1230. I brought out the big stuff this time, as I heard that the trade was better here. Frying pan, sleeping bag, some lengths of gangion, a claw hammer, and other stuff that was pretty much just taking up room in my bunk. I went ashore on the 1130 skiff and set up to trade. As soon as I set up my little booth, people came up and started putting stuff on layaway, asking me to reserve it for them. They took the 1230 commencement time quite seriously, anxiously awaiting the local honcho to announce when trading may begin. At exactly 1230, the whistle blew and people came flocking. Baskets were the big sellers here, and my first trade was for a grip squeeze workout thing for a colorful handwoven basket. I traded the hammer and frying pan each for an entire boar's jaw, complete with two tusks each. Things went quickly here, and before I knew it I had a dozen baskets and two animal jaws. I gave the smaller jaw to Dapper in exchange for a screwdriver, which I thought I might get a good return on. Besides, what am I going to do with two boar's jaws? I ended up getting a huge basket in which I could store my smaller baskets in with it. I went back on the skiff at 1430, hands full of baskets. Ducky told me we'd probably be stowing momentarily, so I stuck around and harnessed up. Sure enough, the call came, and I went up on the fore. I was surprised to find Niko next to me, as he hadn't been aloft since shortly after Canada because of a scooter accident injury. I worked with him refreshing him on the finer points of stowing and we got several sails done. I help set up for dinner upon the quarterdeck, and we had pizza, or “white fella laplap,” as the Captain described it to some of our local friends (lap lap is pretty much a concoction of whatever ingredients are on hand mixed together and served in pizza-like squares). I went back ashore at 1900 for a smaller kava dance than yesterday, but still fun. Bracken said something to a few of us about how it would be awesome to sail the Monomoy to the next island. We all agreed of course, and fantasized about Monomoy expeditions around the world. Afterwards, I returned to the ship and passed out.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Bwatnapne Bay, Pentecost, Vanuatu; Saturday 16 October 2010 בס"ד

I went ashore after lunch, where we had a brief welcome ceremony with some songs. I hung out, reading a bit and I filled my forearm fitness thing with pebbles from the beach. Chatted with some locals, and made friends with kids who liked my forearm thing. Then Davey and I went with a group of kids on a walk to a spring that flows into the sea. I didn't have my swim trunks with me, but they went swimming and I was taught by a kid how to skip stones (yes, I didn't know how to do it before). These kids could get at least a dozen skips out of one stone, and send it well over fifty yards. We walked back and Davey and I went to a creek bend where some other crew were hanging out. Liam loaned me his shorts and I went for a dip, trying to swim against the current and doing a treadmill-like action. We returned to the village at 1600 for a kava ceremony, but that never happened, so I took a nap on the grass. Caught the 1700 skiff back for dinner, and after dinner passed out in the forepeak like all the other bros. At 1830, we all kind of woke up from our groggy state and instantly threw a spontaneous pregame party, and mixed a danger container to bring ashore. Took the 1900 skiff in, and had a good dance with the locals and the string band. Here they serve kava at a small tiki-type bar in reused bottles, and we had several bottles. This time no negative effects like last time. Had some danger juice and returned to the ship and passed out, exhausted from dancing.

Friday 15 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor, Bwatnapne Bay, Pentecost, Vanuatu; Friday 15 October 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0715 and after breakfast and muster, did domestics. I noticed the latch on the chain locker hatch had broken off, and so I told WT, who told me where to get a new latch and to install it, which I did. After that, up and loose all sail, then heaved on the windlass to weigh anchor. It turns out we'll be carrying a passenger from Banam Bay with us until we return to Luganville, a man named Dixon who is kind of a Vanuatu VIP. Anyway, we set all sail and made our way towards Pentecost. After I was stood down from watch and 8-12 took the deck, I laid in with sanding the new Monomoy mast. Before lunch, we took in all sail because we were passing in the lee of the volcanic island of Ambrym. After lunch when 12-4 took the deck, I continued sanding the mast from 1200 to 1500. I stood fourth helm steering NxE 1/2E and then NE. I was relieved midway to stow sail. I returned to the helm and was now steering by terrestrial piloting and Captain's orders. I took us into Bwatnapne Bay and we dropped the port hook. Once relieved from helm, 12-4 took the first anchor watch, and I was instructed to wirebrush and corroseal the 2-shot marker on the port anchor chain, which I did. Once the other watches had gone ashore for the welcome ceremony, most of our watch did our workout routine on the quarterdeck. I discovered that when doing leg-lifts on the quarterdeck I make awesome backfart noises. Because I'm mature like that. Yeah. Hung up the anchor light at dusk, and we had dinner and celebrated Josh's birthday. Cleaned the galley and immediately stood 1900 anchor watch. As we mustered a mystery cargo ship came close and seemed to heave to about two shiplengths away. I kept my eye on it with Rebecca, and it unloaded cargo onto small boats that went back and forth to shore, much like we would do. Rebecca and I had a good talk about cargo ships and her experience in Kwai. Got a radio call from the Mate requesting a 2000 skiff run. After my watch, took a shower, read, and went to bed.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Banam Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu; Thursday 14 October 2010 בס"ד

Today is Nadja's birthday. Aboard the ship, I read more Mauritius Command, then passed out until lunch, as I was still recovering from being kavafied. I woke up completely refreshed, ate lunch, and went ashore on the 1300 skiff. I went walking with Georgie, Vicky, and Dapper along the beach looking for a spot to chill before the Kastoms Dans (customary dance). Vicky had to leave soon after we found one to go do clinic stuff, and so it was the three of us. We were sitting around telling stories and talking about people when all of a sudden, I just crawled over to a nearby tree and started violently puking my guts out. It all kind of went black for me once this started happening, but according to what I heard from Georgie and Dapper, I was saying the funniest stuff between pukes. Examples include: “I need to chew my beans better,” and “Take an action photo!” Dapper did take a photo, and it's pretty funny. Anyway, the two of them just kind of sat with me for several hours making sure I didn't die, and we all missed the Kastoms Dans. Just at dusk, I managed to recover my senses, and was like, “What the hell just happened?” So we walked over to the village and met up with everybody having the after-party at the community center. I was thinking of leaving for a soon-scheduled skiff run, but as I arrived the Captain saw me and thought I was on my way out, not in, and told me I shouldn't leave since this is once in a lifetime sort of stuff. Not wanting to tell him that I was puking away my life force for a few hours, I stuck around and actually had a low tide of kava. That helped me recover better, and at some point Shawn and Dave got me in on doing a dance for the villagers Palmerston style. We did it, and it sucked horribly, but hey, I was back in action! Danced a little bit, and caught the last skiff back to the ship.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Banam Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu; Wednesday 13 October 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0800 and got ready for the 0900 skiff ashore. We loaded the skiff full of goods and people, then went to the spot where I guess they had gone last night. However, it was discovered after unloading the skiff that we'd have to carry the stuff a long way OR we could just take the skiff over to a closer location with a local piloting. We reloaded the skiff and then Dapper and I and some others walked to the village while the skiff went around the bay. We forgot to reload a bag of frozen fish, though, so I carried that. As we walked, we instantly got guided by local children, who were not well-versed in English but were trying their hardest to communicate with us as we went along. We dropped off stuff at the Community Center, and met up with the skiff people who were watching the locals skin a pig with a machete. A group of us then went on a nature hike with a local guy named Jake, who had actually sailed with Picton Castle before. On the hike, we followed a path that led to the top of a mountain and saw a cacao plant, a huge banyan tree, and other stuff. I was stung on the foot by a mystery black bug, and I really hoped I wouldn't die, not that it hurt much, but just because who knows if it's toxic or not? Anyway, I didn't die. Dapper and I walked back to the village so that Jake could help guide the others and we kind of just made our way through the paths and found the dirt road. Overall the hike was about two hours. Once back at the village, we hung out in front of the community center for a bit as it drizzled rain. For lunch, the villagers prepared a feast and a string band came and played songs. After the feast, we went into the community center and started to prepare for trading. At first, everybody was just waiting for instructions, but after a bit I just set up my own little booth. I traded suntan lotions, floss, deodorants, and other things for this fair, and in return I got large shells, boars' tusks, and even some fresh produce. The chief's son-in-law was quite funny since he had a megaphone and insisted on only speaking with it. It was like his baby and he'd just walk around talking in the megaphone. After the fair, I played with kids drawing faces in the sand with a stick. Then a kava drinking event was set up at the kava station(?) and for 100vt you got a “high tide” or big bowl, and for 50vt, you got a “low tide.” I enjoyed four high tides in rapid succession, since I actually like the taste of kava. In Fiji I drank way more than that and the only effect was drowsiness, and since this tasted pretty comparable, I didn't think that the Captain was being accurate when he said Fiji kava was like Coca-Cola and Vanuatu kava was like pure cocaine in comparison. So after the kava I walked back with everybody to the skiff landing to wait for our ride back to the ship. While sitting there, things started getting pretty wacky. I started seeing triple, which was pretty nuts, and I had difficulty walking or even standing upright. My mind was functional, but my body just wasn't responding. I made my way with difficulty to behind a tree and had a quick vomit, but I felt just fine. Anyway, my friends helped me get in the skiff and back aboard the ship, where I ate a very little of dinner and then passed out (in the recovery position, of course).

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Banam Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu; Tuesday 12 October 2010 בס"ד

The morning watch began with massive amounts of working out with almost all of us who weren't on helm or lookout. It was followed by storytime. Not much else happened, and I was fourth helm steering SE xE 1/2E until we were told to up and loose tgallants, topsls and courses. Then I had to pass the main topmst staysl, and we set the sails and spanker with the 4-8s. All was said and done by 0415. Watch below DTW. All hands wakeup at 0930. I went to the aloha deck for some coffee when I spotted a cucaracha scurrying along. I took my nasty hat and made it even nastier by thwacking it and then tossed it overboard. Soon thereafter we dropped anchor, and WT told me once it was at bottom to wirebrush and corroseal the 1-shot marker of our starboard bower. I did that, and then he told me corroseal firehose manifolds. The 12-4 took the first anchor watch at this time. After the 1-shot marker had dried, I painted the red and white links. There was a fun dance party on the well deck while I was working with some locals who had rowed out in their outrigger dugout canoes. I corrosealed the tgallant rail in the after port breezeway, then had lunch. After lunch, wirebrushed and corrosealed the 2-shot marker (as we had let out another shot). It wasn't long before it started downpouring, and the watch went to slacking running rigging. I also helped unload and organize French schoolbooks from the hold. While down there, we discovered some potatoes that got smushed and became maggot-infested, so to maggot duty it was, and we brought all the potatoes on deck, chucking the bad ones and keeping the good ones. Tidied up the deck, and then helped galley by making juice. All shipswork was complete, and I sat down on the aloha deck to read some Mauritius Command. I read the part where they baptized the pollywogs and had a laugh out loud, remembering how the same happened to me not long ago, when I looked up and saw the Captain standing there. He said to me, “What is the deal with this bucket?” and I looked and saw the sea bucket was made fast with a heaving line. Then, he asked me, “Who is on galley? Brad! Go find Brad.” So I found Brad and brought him back and he, Dapper, and I were minorly reprimanded for being unseamanlike. Apparently the bucket's line had nearly parted, so it was temporarily made fast with a heaving line, and since we were all sitting around we probably should have been good sailors and gotten a more appropriate line and spliced it to the bucket and whipped off the bitter end and made it fast properly. Even though I had just sat down to read and didn't notice it, I agree with the Captain because if I'm on deck I'd better be in the habit of making sure everything is well before I lounge around, especially if it's right in front of me. Anyway, had dinner with some locals aboard. I then read some more Mauritius Command (below), took a nap, and stood my anchor watch at 2200. The final skiff runs came in during my watch, but nothing eventful occurred.

Monday 11 October 2010

Picton Castle bound towards Banam Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu; Monday 11 October 2010 בס"ד

All-hands wake up at 1000. We did some sail-handling as we came into channel between Espiritu Santo and Aore Island outside of the capital, Luganville. Up and stow, and I went to the main topsls. We had to wait an hour or so to clear in, during which time we retarded our clocks an hour. 12-4 and 4-8 got to go ashore once cleared in, 12-4 from 1200 to 1430, 4-8 from 1200-1700, and once 12-4 relieved 8-12, they'd have from 1430-1700. We did two skiff runs in, where we had to do some tricky piloting figuring out the channel through the reefy bits. This was the time to pick up some goods for possible trading, and so once ashore most people hit the ATM and picked up however much Vatu they wanted. After the bank, got soda at a cafe, and WT allowed a few of us to check our Facebook on his iPhone by an internet hotspot. Also enjoyed a cold brew called “Vanuatu Tusker” named for the boar's tusks that are supposed to be the major status symbol around the archipelago nation. Stopped at a store and bought some shorts and swim trunks, and a frying pan to trade. Then headed back to the jetty to get back to the ship. Once aboard, got to painting the inner planking of the old skiff green. After that, did a general sweep of rust and dirt, then rigged up the snatch blocks to the boat falls. At 1700 we hoisted up the skiff after all hands were aboard, weighed anchor, and got underway towards Malekula. While weighing anchor, I went to the chain locker as usual and taught RobUK and Ducky how to properly flake the chain. Right after we were underway, I was working out on the pullup bar when a friendly competition began amongst pretty much everybody. We created the new “workout challenge,” which was pretty much how many full extenstion pullups and backups one could do (one rep being a pullup and backup). I got 5.5, but the winners were the Mate and Clark, with 7 each. It seems today was Canadian Thanksgiving, so we enjoyed traditional Thanksgiving fare. I began to read Tiina's copy of “The Mauritius Command,” and started taking Doxycycline for anti-malarial purposes.

Sunday 10 October 2010 (VANUATU)

Picton Castle at sea; Sunday 10 October 2010 בס"ד

On morning watch, two of our watchmates were ill and bunkridden, so our already small watch shrank to Rebecca, Nadja, and six trainees. It actually turned out to be pretty cool, because smaller watch means more to do. We chilled upon the quarterdeck for a while working out and telling stories. I cleaned the galley and did the hot water. I stood fourth helm steering WxN 1/2N, and during this time on the port bow we could see the orange glow of the volcano on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu, which was really awesome. I plotted our position fast at the end of watch and we were stood down. Woke up at 0800 for galley. It was Robert, Mitch, and me on duty for Sunday galley, and after cleaning breakfast up we had a very Fred lunch of rice and beans seasoned with Adobo, accompanied with fried eggplant that Robert cooked, which was a big hit. Around this time we stopped at Bwatnapne Bay, Pentecost Island to quickly run the Captain ashore to ask the Chief permission to visit after we'd cleared in at Luganville. Unfortunately, the chief had passed away since the last time the Picton Castle visited, but his son gave us permission. Afterwards, we set a course towards Luganville, Espiritu Santo. For dinner I cooked a pasta salad with garbanzos and other Mediterranean schtuff you might find in my kitchen back home. Robert fried up some marlin, and some of the grease that splattered on the stove caught fire at one point, before it was quickly extinguished. After dinner I created a forearm workout device recommended to me by both Rebecca and Bracken. It's an old bleach bottle and I filled it up with seawater for the time being, then put a jug sling on it and used a length of gangion shorter than the length of my shoulders to my feet made fast to the bottle and then to a stiff cardboard tube from a spent roll of canvas. The idea is to roll it up and down while holding it in front of you, and you will get jacked forearms. Bed.

Saturday 9 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Saturday 9 October 2010 בס"ד

Morning watch now hosts routine workout sessions, with forearm exercises, pushups, and 6-minute sixpacks. We told stories for a while, and then I polished the stove. Stood fourth lookout and reported distant lightning flashes dead ahead. Woke up at 1030 and read some Casino Royale. Once on watch, I helped Brad set up an inner jib patch “station,” which was a piece of plywood lashed to the jib boom. Most of the watch was bracing at one point and then we did the epic three-man spanker set with Rebecca and Jan line-handling and me aloft freeing the hanks. Swapped third and fourth lookout with Brad so that he could stitch the patch on the inner jib, and so on third lookout the only thing I had to report was a big flock of seabirds dead ahead which might indicate fish. However, nothing bit the lines. Final hour of watch I was helping Nadja with ingredients for pies she wanted to make and I came up on deck from the hold and saw that [person] had fainted and vomited (in what order I don't know) and was being attended by Vicky, Shawn, the Captain, and the Mate. Everything was alright, thankfully, and there were no injuries. After watch, got ready for South Africa Day, which had been repeatedly postponed since we actually erased that day from the ship's calendar when we arrived in Fiji. Davey helped me dress up as the Tokolosh, which is a scary little South African monster thing. We had a Brai (SA for BBQ) and I actually had a lot of fun pretending to be this mischievious little monster, running around hiding under pinrails and sneaking up on people with a cackling chuckle. After the celebrations, I finished reading Casino Royale and went to bed.

Friday 8 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Friday 8 October 2010 בס"ד

There was lightning in the distance as I went on deck for morning watch. I stood first helm steering W and then WxN. Second hour I worked out with everybody and then we braced sharp, then braced square a bit later, and I had to go pass the headsls. Cleaned the stove, made coffee, and did wakeups. In the afternoon, I painted the rail on the port quarterdeck that I had rustbusted at anchor. Then I painted the trim around the scuttle hatch green. I stood fourth helm steering WxN, and then WNW, and then WxN, so that Rebecca could do sextant sights. After watch, read some more Casino Royale. At 1630 we had a Vanuatu muster, during which I was invited by Ollie to mess with the Captain. I got dressed up nice and joined Paula, Siri, Robert, Joanie, and Ollie for dinner with the Captain. We talked about such things as Ollie's new acting gig in TV show “The Killing,” the harness debate, and the Captain's experience working in NYC at South Street Seaport and the Museum of Jewish Heritage (with a funny story about the “Jewish Boat”). I was impressed when the Captain quoted Hillel the Elder. After dinner, went to my bunk and went DTW.

Missing Tiger, my little sailor hombre.

Thursday 7 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 7 October 2010 בס"ד

On morning watch, I pretty much spent any of my free time working out on the quarterdeck. I plotted midnight on the actual chart and on a universal plotting sheet. I cleaned the galley, boiled water for hot water and coffee, and then took in and set the main tgallant staysl. I did wakeups at 0330, and told everybody it was nice out but when they came on deck, a squall passed by, so I was “that guy.” In the afternoon I actually walked out on the martingalestays to put more aluminum primer on the bobstays. After, I nipped bunts aloft, but then we ended up wearing ship, and so did bracing and then passed the headsls and sheets. At one point we heard a “HANDS TO SECURE THE BOAT!” and ran to the skiff which started sliding off the hatch with one of the huge rolls when the straps had been removed. Stood fourth helm steering WNW and then NW 1/2W and then WNW again. At 1630 we had another workshop on rigging, then Robert and I tried playing chess but we failed because it was too rolly and the pieces wouldn't stay put. I started reading Casino Royale, which I bought in Suva, and then watched some of the Patriot in the forepeak with others. The focsle had a wild party for Rebecca's birthday, but I was too tired to peek my head in. I did see that our coconut moonshine was requisitioned for this event, and I heard it made all that consumed it absolutely insane. Luckily nobody died or went blind.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Wednesday 6 October 2010 בס"ד

For morning watch I stood third helm steering WNW, and had a course change to NW xW. I reported a squall on the quarter, and after helm I plotted our position on the charts. Fourth hour was spent slacking lines from the rain, and then bracing up. I also did final shipcheck. Afternoon watch had me sanding the old skiff, which I forgot to write had been placed on the hatch and strapped down to work on it. I also helped Bracken remove difficult nuts and bolts from its gunwale. I then osphoed the bulwarks by the seasink and veggie locker. Stood fourth lookout and reported a squally bit. After watch I finished reading the Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean book. Then I emptied out and cleaned my ditty bag. Finally we had a bro-executive meeting, which Niko took the minutes in binary code since he's an android. Note: It's been quite rolly.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Tuesday 5 October 2010 בס"ד

Morning watch was uneventful for the first two hours. I was slated for third helm but I switched with Brad so that I could clean the stove, because I'm weird and I like to do that. Stood fourth helm steering WxN 3/4N.

Afternoon watch I TSPed and painted the forward galleyhouse bulkhead. Then I went out in the headrig and applied aluminum primer to our new bobstays. I stood fourth lookout with nothing to report. I shaved my face, except my awesome moustache, and attended the workshop at 1630 on rigs and rigging. After, I helped Lauren with her photos and in the process jacked all of them, as usual.

Monday 4 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Monday 4 October 2010 בס"ד

Saturday morning began with an 0615 wakeup and making breakfast with Sophie. I did the 0730 skiff run on my own, leaving at 0720 and therefore arriving on time, which was appreciated by those ashore. Came back to the ship, ate breakfast, and caught the 0800 skiff ashore. Liam, Dapper, and I went walking around town, grabbed coffee, and ended up doing some last minute shopping for a few hours, and I finally found a bookstore with books, and I picked up a few. I also bought a small clock to hang in my bunk, a yellow t-shirt and a Fiji rugby hat, and an external hard drive so that I can back up all of my photos, videos, logs, etc. After we were done, we wanted to go to a rooftop bar at this one hotel in town, but upon arriving we found the doors open but the bar closed. So, we sat down and made plans and shot the shit for about half an hour or more before people came and actually opened up the bar. We decided to have one big beer, which ended up being two, and eventually after a while we realized we'd been drinking quite a bit. Georgie and Logan arrived at some point during this after having seen “Vampires Suck” at the cinema, which they said sucked. They joined us, and then we went to the grocery store to pick up some stuff and ended up going to see Dabangg again, which is even better after having many beers. After Dabangg, we all ended up going to a house that a few other crewmembers had rented and partied there for Bronwen's birthday. Pizza, beer, and I passed out on the couch.

I had been pretty mosquito-bite free for the whole stay in Fiji, but that night on the couch I slept shirtless and pretty much the entire left side of my body was a big bite when I woke up. I caught a cab with others back to the yacht club ready to get aboard and get underway. When we got there, however, we learned we'd be at anchor another day and so I had the day off again. Dave, Dapper, and me went with Georgie, Ali, Vicky, and Alex to get coffee in town, and then we split up with plans for a 1600 rendezvous at the rooftop bar. We took a cab to the house and rescued Davey, who was still passed out and locked inside of the rented house (he had known we'd be another day). Together, the four of us took the cab to Colo-i-suva park, where we paid the entrance fee of like $5 and walked down into the park to the lower waterfalls. At the pool at the base there was an awesome rope swing set up from a huge tree, and we had a few goes swinging off and doing tricks. Then, while drying off, a group of about two dozen local guys came down and started going crazy on the rope swing, and one of them even climbed up to the top of the tree and jumped in (I'd guess 50+ft at least). We hung out with them for a while, then headed up to check out the upper waterfalls. I ended up passing out on a picnic table for an hour, increasing my mosquito-bite count. We walked back to the access road, and hitched a ride with a pickup truck to the park entrance, passing some of our fellow crew on the way. Just down the road from the park entrance is a hotel/resort looking place called Raintree, and they had a big sign that said PIZZA SUNDAY ALL DAY, so of course we made our way right for that. Donald, Lauren, Adrienne, and Paulina were there already, and after ordering our pizza, we played a game or two of billiards. Enjoyed the pizza, then took a cab back to the rooftop bar hotel place at about 1630. When we got there, the door was padlocked this time, and the girls were not in sight. So we headed back into the city, and we passed two guys sitting down who told us they had seen the girls walk by not long before. So we tried being detectives hot on the trail, and I thought they'd probably go to the nearby internet cafe, but I was wrong. Anyway, used the internet for a few minutes to send Georgie a Facebook message telling her where we were, with hopes she'd see it sometime soon, and then went to a park. Passed out on a bench for a while, then went back to the internet to check. She had gotten the message, and said they were at the Holiday Inn bar for a bit and then having dinner at Maya Dhaba. We passed Maya Dhaba and saw them there, and told them we'd just go to the Holiday Inn bar. We went, and saw another huge crowd of Aussies watching what I think was the Super Bowl of Australian Rules Rugby, since my friends told me that wasn't exactly like standard rugby. We watched some, then it was getting late so we left to walk back to the yacht club. On the way, we were all hungry and realized we only had about $5 each, so we headed to the McDonalds for cheap food. While walking there, a group of four prostitutes desperately pleaded with us to render their services (not only are we touristy looking and therefore wealthy, but we're also four handsome guys, so I don't blame them). Stopped at McDonalds, which was exactly like any other McDonalds, then went back to the yacht club and caught the 2300 skiff in.

Woke up, loosed sails, did domestics, stowed the ship for sea, and waited to clear out. We learned that [person] was no longer part of our crew and had been expelled from the ship for inappropriate/illegal behavior ashore, of which people had vague details. Once cleared out, pumped on the windlass to weigh anchor, and we were underway. It was after 1600, so I was stood down shortly thereafter. Organized all my crap and stowed my bunk, now bed. Time for some serious sea-hab. Happy Birthday Karla!

Friday 1 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji; Friday 1 October 2010 בס"ד

On Wednesday, I caught the 0800 skiff ashore, and with Brad and Rebecca we got in the rental truck and headed off. First we stopped at a gas station to grab some snacks, and then we stopped once more in the first town outside of the city to grab some postcards at a post office. It was about 45 minutes or so then to the town of Pacific Harbour, where Dan, Dave, Davey, and Georgie had stayed at a resort called Uprising which had hostel-like cheapo dormitory sleeping. We all hung out for lunch, or brunch I guess, and then left for Sigatoka, a city about an hour or so further west. Dave, Davey, and I sat in the back of the truck with the surfboard gear and a lot of beers. We were driving a while and stopped at some resort called The Beach House (I think) and pretty much just waltzed in and took over. Played some ping-pong, some billiards, swam in the pool, etc. Funny story happened when one of the resort staff came out with an order of fries for Georgina, and since she was out swimming, we bros playing pool took it in her behalf and ate all the fries. Then when Georgie came back, we apologized for eating all her fries and went to buy her more, but she was like, “I didn't order any chips.” We were confused, and then we found out that this one girl and her friends were sitting at this table with very impatient looks on their faces and it turns out one of those girls was an Aussie named Georgina and we ate her fries, so we apologized and bought them fries and I bought them sodas as well (since they were drinking sodas already). Anyway, what are the odds of two Georginas in Fiji? Better than one might think. We soon took off for Sigatoka, and we stopped at this nice little handicraft shop. The one guy who worked there saw my Maagen David and told me that his name is Binyamin, which was pretty cool. I bought a shirt, and we left again and made it past the city to the sand dunes that lie near the coast. At one point as we were just about there, we were driving down a small road through a village and we passed by a group of people. One of them saw me in the back of the truck, saw my Maagen David, and shouted SHALOM to me. Go figure, I'm in a rural Fijian village and people are greeting me in Hebrew. We made it to the dunes, and climbed up to the top and attempted sand dune surfing, but I guess surfboards don't work that well or we needed to coat them in something in order to go down quickly, and so we ended up just slowly sliding down on the boards. What was more fun was rolling down the dunes and getting dizzy. Did that for a while, then drove back into Sigatoka proper to stop and have dinner at an Indian restaurant. The place was pretty empty, and after we ordered, the owner (I think) and a local guy were outside having a kava ceremony and invited us to join. So I learned the customary way to drink kava in Fiji, which is to have a scooper person scoop out a cup for you in a coconut shell, at which point you clap once, say “Bula” (the universal Fijian word), drink the kava in one chug, return the coconut cup, and clap three times slowly. Had many several cups of it, and it does taste a bit like dirty water, but not in a bad way, and it makes a comfortably numb (Pink Floyd?) sensation in your lips, gums, and tongue. Had a delicious dinner, and talked with them about the big important rugby match that would be going on Saturday. Then we left for Pacific Harbour again, and had a great ride there. Luckily it didn't rain, since me and Davey and Dave were still sitting in the back of the truck. Every time Dave would move, sand would fly off of him and get in my face. We eventually made it back to Uprising and got the dormitory room, which was like $35FJD a night (cheap). Chilled out on the porch with some English people who had been living at a village for a few months, and made our own kava and just relaxed. One by one, people started going to bed, until it was just me, Dapper, and this girl Lara staying up until like 0400ish drinking kava and shooting the shit. Then I climbed into my bunkbed and passed out.

Woke up a few hours later and Rebecca had taken Georgie, Dave, Davey, and Brad back to Suva in the truck (this was planned of course since they were the on-watch), and Dapper and I had breakfast there. This old guy who was also staying in the dorms joined us, and everything was cool until he somehow got into a half an hour long tirade about how 9/11 was an inside job and just rattled on to an obviously unpleased audience. At first you just smile and nod, but after a while when he's still going on and on and on, I decided just to be like, “We have to leave,” instead of telling him to fuck himself, although retrospectively I wish I had just told him that right from the getgo. We caught a cab back to Suva, and dropped off our stuff at the yacht club to go back to the ship. Then we went into the city on a quest for books. It didn't prove very fruitful though, as the bookstores are kinda weakly stocked in anything interesting. We caught a playing of Hot Tub Time Machine at the cinema, and after that we went into provisioning mode and started stocking up on rum, hardware, and other miscellaneous things. Went back to the ship, had dinner, and then went back ashore after. Caught a cab with Bracken and Dapper into town, and I headed off to book a hotel room so I could have one more night with high-speed internet (something I'm unlikely to find until Bali) and upload all my photos and videos. I was going to go back and meet them at the bar, but it started to torrential downpour and so I just stayed at the hotel and got online uploading. I also managed to download a few of the hit songs from the movie Dabangg. In the wee hours of the morning, I was able to Skype the USA and I spoke with Jo and then called Karla after. Karla told me that Camille had passed away. Even though I knew she was in the hospital and that she was sick, the news was still pretty unexpected, since for most of my life she wasn't very healthy. I'm very glad I got to speak to her one last time the other day, and Karla told me that she thought she was cool shit talking to her grandson in Fiji and had told all the nurses about it. After this phone call, I called it a night and went to bed.

Woke up, got breakfast, and caught a cab back to the yacht club to catch the skiff to the ship. Once aboard, I was put on galley duty with Sophie. We jammed out to Dabangg tunes and other music all day. For lunch we made sandwiches and salad, and for dinner we made braised carrots, creamy chicken mushroom pasta, and Sophie made some delicious pies. I'm glad I was on galley with Sophie today since she's pretty much the most pleasant person on Earth and I was able to do stuff today without being terribly sad about Camille. Dan and I volunteered to do the 2100 skiff run with Sophie, which turned out to become an adventure of sorts. Dan was the coxn to the yacht club, and when we arrived, we picked up Dave, Davey, Robert, and Leonard. Dave and Davey begged us to take them to the ship so that they could get appropriate footwear to go to the nightclub and then return them ashore so they could go out. It took a lot of convincing the higher-ups, but we got the go ahead. There was a quiet smiling man holding our bow line for us for all of this, and we assumed he worked for the yacht club or something. Then as we loaded our passengers, Davey was like, “Oh, this is our new friend and he would like to drive his skiff out to his boat and stow it and if we could pick him up from his boat and drop him off ashore he'd be most grateful.” We were like Oh boy, but the poor guy tried explaining to us himself and he was obviously a straight-outta-Moscow little Russian dude with mediocre English and we're just like okay, since we're headed back anyway. So I pilot us back to the skiff, Dave and Davey grab their shoes and we go on the return trip. I'm still the coxn, and I asked which yacht was his and they said it was a small yellow one. Well, it was dark and there was more than one yellow yacht, so I drove us around the mooring field from boat to boat until we finally found him. We came up alongside, and the little guy is struggling for dear life to crank up his skiff by himself, so Davey hops out and gives him a hand and it was a bit of a fiasco getting that little dingy up into his bow. Then we load him up and head back to the yacht club. It turns out, he is going to be in Fiji for a few months and he's going to screw off into the country somewhere and not need to return to his boat, which is why we we're doing this. Anyway we dropped him and our bros off, and then Dan piloted us back to the ship. We made it back at 2200, making it an hour-long skiff run, which is now called Mission Bropossible. Now aboard, and going to bed.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji; Tuesday 28 September 2010 בס"ד

Stood my anchor watch this morning at 0130-0245, with nothing out of the ordinary. Before breakfast, Dapper cut my hair with the clippers, bringing my whole head down to a #1, so I went from looking like a rabbi yesterday with a huge beard to now looking like a “Mexican gangster” with my buzz hair and big moustache, as I was told by several surprised crewmembers. I had found out the other day that I'm going to need additional visa pages in my passport since I'm going to run out of space before the end of the voyage, so Bronwen had given Brad and I the forms we'd need and told us she'd arranged something with the US embassy. Once we got ashore, we first helped the sailmakers lay out a sail and then headed to the embassy. Not knowing how long we'd be, we told our fellow bros who were headed out of the city to meet us at a certain time at the yacht club and if we weren't there, leave a note with the bartender. We got to the embassy at about 0900 and things seemed to be moving quickly, although we were skeptical about the speediness of the bureaucratic process. By 0930, we were in line and handing over our passports with our paperwork and the nominal fee involved. They told us to come back in an hour, so we went out into the city, and I bought a new backpack to replace my disintegrating tiny one and a pair of gym shorts, and then we got a quick bite to eat. Headed back to the embassy, and saw the Captain there waiting too (I imagine his passport needs to have 10x the amount of visa pages the ordinary one does). We were quickly called up and received our passports with additional visa pages, and that was that. Crazy how fast it worked, but so it goes. We headed back to the yacht club and found a note with the bartender saying to meet at 1700. We managed to hitch a ride on a conveniently-timed sailmakers' skiff run back to the ship and had lunch aboard at noon. Caught the 1300 skiff back ashore, and I headed into the city to do some shopping. I just ended up purchasing some miscellaneous things like twine and such, and I checked out the municipal produce market and bought some ground kava (which is a root plant that is a big part of Fijian ceremonial drinking and apparently it gets you kind of drunk, but in a different way than drunk? I don't know yet, haven't tried it). Made it back to the yacht club at 1700 and hung out for a bit when Liam came by and told me that there is no way the bros can get back here tonight seeing as how they are in a town about an hour away and he had the rental car. However, tomorrow morning Rebecca would be taking the rental and heading back that way. So caught another conveniently-timed skiff run to the ship at 1800 to drop my stuff off and have a quick bite, and then caught the 1900 skiff back to shore. Hung out at the yacht club til 2000, then met up with people and went to the city for a proper dinner. Afterwards, we went out to O'Reilly's club and did our usual PC takeover dance party. Back at the yacht club for the 2300 skiff run and now bed aboard.

Monday 27 September 2010 (FIJI)

Picton Castle at anchor at Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji; Monday 27 September (local) 2010 בס"ד

On Friday, they let the 12-4s sleep in, and I was awoken by the sound of us dropping anchor. Nothing too exciting while we waited to clear in, then the skiff took us in to the Royal Suva Yacht Club, where our time and date instantly changed from Friday at 1100 to Saturday at 1000.. From there, Dan and I dropped off laundry with the club service, and a group of us headed in to town. We ended up stopping at an internet cafe for a bit, and I went on for a few minutes. After I bought a USB keyboard at some small electronic store and Brad carried it for me since it didn't fit in my disintegrating backpack. Then we went to a Chinese restaurant. Dapper, Bard, and I continued exploring and made our way to the Fiji Museum, which has a great exhibit on the Vakas of Fiji, as well as other things. I also bought two books at the shop on the Fijian language. After the museum, we went to the nearby Holiday Inn, and I got ar oom for the night. We hung out drinking in the hotel bar and lounge, watching a very important Australian Rules Soccer (I think) game, which I didn't understand at all, but the Aussies in the bar were going wild for. After the game, went around town looking for clubs or bars and wound up at a really seedy sketchy karaoke bar with an awesome laser light show. There were about six other people there and we rocked the mic. After this I headed back to the hotel, started typing up my logs since Raro with my new keyboard, and took advantage of high speed internet to upload a ton of photos, videos, etc.

On Sunday, I woke up and got to work typing and posting things online with plans to meet Dapper at the lobby at around 1100. I managed to call the USA on Skype, and I spoke with a few people, including Karla and Camille (who were at the hospital because Grandma wasn't well). At 1145 I was tired of waiting so I went walking into the city to find a bite to eat for lunch, when I ended up running into him anyway at about noon. After lunch, we went walking around to check stuff out, but the city is pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon. We did investigate a big event going on in the park across from the government building, which turned out to be a “Pathfinders” jamboree event (Pathfinders being like Scouts) and the kids were having competitions of various kinds. We tried watching it but it was kind of the thing that you only watch if you have a kid participating in it, so we moved on. After a while, I just went back to the hotel to take a nap since I'd been up all night online, and we planned on meeting a group of us at the Bad Dog Cafe at 1600 to have drinks before we headed across to the cinema to watch a Bollywood movie. Got there at 1600, but Bad Dog was closed, so we all just kinda hung out on the sidewalk for an hour and then went and got tickets to “Dabangg.” The movie theater had it's own candy shop, with the pay-per-kilo scoops, so I bought a 1.5kg bag of CANDY including several varieties of HARIBO COLA DUDES! Pretty much like throwing a crackhead into a “Best Crack in the World” convention. So we watched this movie Dabangg, not knowing what to expect, and it was easily the most awesome movie I've ever seen in my entire life. After the movie there were 25 of us going crazy outside imitating what we just saw with nonstop laughter. We all headed over to this Indian restaurant called Maya Dhaba and had a huge Indian feast, and afterwards I was too hung over from candy and Indian food to move so I went back to the hotel, used the computer, and passed out.

Woke up today bright and early at 0615, had some Continental breakfast at the hotel, and then caught a cab back to the RSYC with some of the other crew who were on my watch staying there. Got the 0730 skiff back to the PC, and after domestics my job was to remove all the rigging hardware from the starboard aft corner of the sole with Brad so that we could access the holding tank for the salon head. Had good fun doing that, and Brad and I decided that we both enjoy moving stuff so we should open up a moving company called “Frad Movers” (Bred not sounding quite as good). After that, went to rustbusting on the port quarterdeck rail with Brad, but he went with the sailmaking team ashore (we're laying out a good number of sails here at the RSYC since we have the open space to do so). Kept rustbusting, and after a while the Captain came upon the quarterdeck and asked me if Brad was around. I told him Brad had gone ashore. He asked me if I could operate the skiff. I said that was pretty sure I knew how but I had never done it before. So he was like, “Well, come find out.” I dropped my stuff and went with him in the skiff, and he drove it to the Yacht Club, only telling me once to avoid this one spot because it's shallow. We came alongside, and he hopped out, and said, “Do it like that,” and then left, so I was on my own to be a coxn and get the skiff back to the ship. Fortunately, I wasn't lying when I said I was pretty sure I knew how to operate it, so once I figured out the feel of the throttle, it was a piece of cake bringing her back and I even had a decent docking with the ship as I swung the skiff around and put her in place. I felt pretty cool, although it's not terribly difficult in the fairly calm waters of Suva harbor. Then I went back to rustbusting and corrosealing the rail. I then went with Sophie to do the 1700 skiff run after work and was the coxn again, this time getting pointers on how to do that perfect eggshell docking alongside at the RSYC. After dinner, I used Shawn's clippers to take my beard down to a #1, except my moustache, which I left full length and just trimmed appropriately. I'm scheduled for a 0130-0245 anchor watch since we have a small watch and we're doing one hour and fifteen minutes of watch.

Friday 24 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Friday 24 September (apparent) 2010 בס"ד

Awesome morning watch. We have had reduced sail to slow us down a bit so that we can enter Suva in the morning, but after half an hour (in which we had candy), we were going too slow so we spent a lot of watch loosing and setting sail and bracing. I loosed the main tgallant and royal and the main tgallant staysl. Our sail handling is sharp and it shows. Cleaned galley and my only job was to do wakeups and final shipcheck. We can see Suva and we should arrive at the pilot station at 0700, ship's time. Right now on the PC it is 0430 on Friday 24 September, but off the ship it is 0330 on Saturday 25 September. We'll be switching sometime today. The 12-4may wake up at 0700, or they might let us sleep, depending.

Thursday 23 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 23 September 2010 בס"ד

Morning watch was well-illuminated with a full moon. First hour I hung out upon the quarterdeck and told Megan the “10-mile run” story. Stood second lookout, and reported a very very faint disappearing reappearing light two points off the starboard bow, which I figured might be a small vessel very distant being periodically obscured by wave crests and troughs, but nothing came up on the radar to verify this. Otherwise, nothing to report. Cleaned the stove after shipcheck, then listened as Brad read aloud from Chapman's for a while. In the final twenty minutes, I was put on helm because the binnacle light had gone quite dim and [person] had trouble seeing the lubber's line. I was steering W 3/4S and it was easy to keep her steady. Right now we're about 20nm from the antimeridian 180°, and so right now I'm as far west as I've ever been and when I wake up for afternoon watch, I'll likely be as far east as I've ever been too. Go figure.

Afternoon watch had me on first lookout and already in sight was the island of Moala abaft the port beam. At 1230, I noticed another island under a cloud formation, as I remembered the Captain explaining to us in the talks about Polynesian navigation that clouds form over islands (oversimplification), and I was pleased with myself for utilizing this knowledge. If nobody had ever seen this island before, I could have named it Fredland, but it turned out to be Ngua. Pretty much the rest of watch was dedicated to painting seizings on the shrouds and backstays. At the end, I got a good video of Mate Mike, Donald, and DB hauling in a big Mahi, and DB smashing its brains in with our annihilator mallet. At 1630, a quarterdeck talk on Fiji and also on the voyage to Vanuatu and then Bali. Then got photos from Jan and Liam and after dinner gave photos of Palmerston dancing and fishing to Bronwen. Posted on the scuttle are crude blueprints and info on the Zebroid, whose name will be changed to Tiare Taporo after an old schooner that did runs in the Cooks many decades ago. Played Robert in chess, then read some and passed out.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Wednesday 22 OR Thursday 23 September 2010 בס"ד

First hour of morning watch started with no coffee, because the 8-12s forgot to make it (DEAR G-D WHY?). So Clark and I went to the galley, he to brew up some coffee, and I to sharpen Donald's knives, most of which were as dull as spoons. Shortly after we began we had to go brace up a bit sharper. Also set the main topmst staysl. Resumed sharpening til 0055, when I took second helm steering WxS 1/2S. Halfway through, we had a fish on, and I was relieved by Nadja to assist in taking it in. It was a Mahi, and Dan did most of the work since the 12-4 watch is light on seasoned fishermen. Once it was dead, I was back on helm while they gutted it. After helm, went back to the galley to sharpen knives and clean and polish the stove. Final hour I hung out on the quarterdeck, mostly chatting with Rebecca. At the end of watch we were talking about the date change at muster when Rebecca told us that although we're not yet at 180° (the antimeridian), we've crossed the actual International Dateline and technically it's tomorrow. We're not sure if we'll carry on until Fiji with today as 22 Wednesday or change the date while underway. Note: The 22^nd is/was the equinox.

Woke up this morning at 1030 and reorganized part of the salon library and found “The Cruise of the Conrad,” by Alan Villiers, which I grabbed and is now on my to-read list after Jewish Pirates and the Captain's book. First half hour of watch I finished painting the black Monomoy gunwale. After that, I TSPed the cowl vent pipes and forward bulkhead for a while, then I painted the gudgens (or pintles, I forget which is which) of Monomoy white. Finally I used Green Knight on some eyebolts by the sea sink before going to steer final helm. At first, I was steering WSW, but had a hard time keeping her steady. Then we braced a point sharper and changed course a few times until I steadied on SW 1/2W. We also passed by some small rocky islands of Fiji during my helm. And, also, we caught several fish in the four hours of watch (wahoo and mahi). We have filled all of our freezers with fresh fish as we're catching them faster than we can eat them. At 1630, a weatherfax workshop on the quarterdeck, where we learned to read weather reports and forecast maps and apply the information to sailing. Of course, just the basics, as it's a very complex subject. After a beef dinner, Fred stories and videos, and then I read aloud from Chapter 6: Small Outboard Boating from Chapman's Piloting, since in Fiji those interested should get a chance to practice small boat coxning. Now some reading before watch. We're not changing the date aboard until we arrive at Suva. Happy Sukkot!

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Tuesday 21 September 2010 בס"ד

Apparently I was truly dead to the world when I finished my last entry because sometime shortly after, we landed not one but TWO insanely huge tuna, comparable in size to the marlin. I found out this morning when I woke up and enjoyed ceviche and tuna sashimi for lunch. First hour of watch I organized and coiled a big messy pile of lines, then helped Bracken test the new Monomoy rudder to make sure it fit in place before the finishing touches. Stood second helm steering WxS 3/4S. Third hour I sanded down the rudder, then the Captain came and told WT how to tell me to penetrol it correctly, so that I didn't develop “carpenteritis” and overdo a simple sealing job. Then I penetrolled itand then finally spot painted the black trim on the Monomoy gunwale. At 1630, a quarterdeck talk about weather again, discussing fronts. Then David Brown and I studied Bowditch chapter on oceans for an hour or so. For dinner we had awesome BBQ tuna steaks, then watched some American Gangster in the bro-cage. Took a shower, and looked at pictures in “Windjammers” and read more of Jewish Pirates. Now bed.

Monday 20 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Monday 20 September 2010 בס"ד

Found it difficult to nap before morning watch because of stifling heat, but I got about fifteen minutes in and after two cups of coffee, I was good to go. I wasn't assigned any duty except wakeups, so first hour we messed around with my knot book and practice line, learning the zeppelin bend and tugboat bowline. Rebecca took Dapper and I to the focslehead to relead the tgallantmst stunsl sheet forward of the fore stay, because it had been chafing on the foresl. Second hour I cleaned galley, then weathered a small squally bit. Third hour, we literally spent cracking up on the quarterdeck telling stories about a certain ridiculous trainee. Did wakeups at 0330, now to bed and I have galley duty today at 0800.

HOLY SHIT! At 0615 I somehow woke up to Donald saying on the well deck “BIGGEST FISH EVER!” and so I ran out in my underwear with a camera and saw the 6+ft 160+lb blue marlin we'd just pulled in. The 4-8 watch had hauled it in and were in the process of killing it when I arrived to take several action videos. I returned to bed after about half an hour of fuss, and woke up at 0800 for galley duty with Mitch and Liam. Cleaned breakfast, did our galley task (cleaning the aloha veggie lockers), replaced ice packs in the coolers, cleaned out the scullery cooler because it was nasty, and hadnled the dayman 1030 coffee & snack break before setting up for lunch. After lunch, we caught another fish, though this one was a very small wahoo. Since it was already dead when we reeled it in, we kept it. Dan loaned me his book “Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean,” by Edward Kritzler, and I read up to page 75 while chilling and going back and forth to refill coffee and hot water as needed. A massive amount of pilot whales came by the ship too while we sailed over a relatively shallow spot of the sea (140ft). At 1630, a quarterdeck workshop on the fundamentals of weather and the coreolis effect creating winds from high and low pressure spots and the ITCZs (aka doldrums). Set up for marlin steak dinner (awesome) and cleaned up galley, then had crappy banana wine with Liam, Mitch, Rebecca, and Paulina. Now bed because I'm dead to the world.

Sunday 19 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Sunday 19 September 2010 בס"ד

Friday afternoon watch had me sanding and scraping the wooden trim of the galley house by the scuttle. I also sanded and oiled some tools, then stood fourth lookout. Hung out after watch, took a shower, and after dinner waited until sundown to begin my observance of Yom Kippur. Went into the hold and quietly recited the first book of Tehilim, then went to bed.

Saturday I literally spent the entire day in my bunk, either sleeping or reading psalms. I didn't have to get up to use the head or anything, and I kept my curtains closed so I wouldn't be disturbed. We had retarded the clocks an hour in the night, and so I managed to get 25 hours of fasting in a 24 hour period. Broke fast with bread leftovers from dinner. Then at 2000, we had a bro-meeting, since Niko and Dapper were on galley, meaning that we had all bros at one time. I took down the minutes in He-bro, and many important topics were discussed like always. Then had a bro-meeting afterparty, with Logan and Siri present, and I told my “Joe's house” story. We moved the party to the hold at the Reggae Riggers' Lounge. Then got ready for morning watch.

First hour of watch we did compass-boxing exercises, which I've been good at for a while now, but I helped one of us who still has trouble with the whole concept. Second hour, talked with Jan about top ten films of all time, then stood third helm steering SW xW 1/2W. I had to use the head about fifteen minutes in and was temporarily relieved. After helm I did wakeups at 0330. Now time for sleep.

Afternoon watch began with setting stunsls and cruising along on a beautiful perfect sailing day. No ships work on Sundays, so I hung out on the quarterdeck. Got some sextant practice getting a noon sight with others. Also practiced tying knots on the stackhouse handrail like the good old days. Stood third lookout and nothing to report. Halfway through lookout, the riggers came upon the focslehead and rigged up the fore royal to a gantline to send it up and bend it on, so I tended the tagline as the sail went up and did deck calls. Fourth hour was on the quarterdeck. After watch, a talk on Fiji, then a marlinspike til dinner. At the end of dinner, Sophie saw a fishingline start jittering and sure enough, FISH ON with a massive marlin jumping out of the water. Unfortunately, it got away and it bent a four inch hook pretty well in the process. Helped clean up dinner, then to the forepeak for some stories, videos, and beer. Now some quick shuteye.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Dear interested reader:

My laptop keyboard is on the fritz, and it was not possible to type any logs while underway since having left Rarotonga. Now that I'm in Suva, Fiji, I managed to buy a cheapo USB keyboard so that I can type again. However, because I'm a month behind on typing, it is not possible for me to catch up with typing while in port. There is not enough time where I'm not doing something, and when there is, I need to find adequate space to break out this keyboard along with a power outlet so that the computer doesn't die while I'm typing up logs. So, the logs from after Pukapuka will not be posted until we arrive in Bali, Indonesia. That still isn't until at the earliest mid-November, so I apologize for the wait. Thanks for following along with my adventures though. I didn't ever plan on typing up a blog until I found people had interest in my daily logs. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out photos at Flickr or photos and videos at Facebook.

- Mike "Fred" Weiss

Friday 17 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Friday 17 September 2010 בס"ד

First hour of morning watch I helmed steering SW xS1/2S. All sails were set except the gaff topsl, fore royal, and flying jib. Once I filled the log, I went to clean the galley and teach Megan how to polish the stove. However, half way through, we came out to the well deck to go over sail-handling with everybody, which is becoming a routine since I think a lot of people from the first leg were still weak on it (sometimes myself included), so they're amping up the teaching efforts. I have been studying more in my free time, and am actually quite confident now in all of my setting and taking in, and I think it shows. Anyway, we actually did some sail-handling when we feathered the yards, and I eased the lee braces. I also helped Nadja rig up a preventer line on the spanker boom (our normal line is MIA). Finished in the galley and started making coffee with Jan when a squally bit was coming close so I stood by while Jan finished the coffee. It missed us, and then I cleaned the mugs in the scullery. We got an assignment for tomorrow night to learn a knot or star to teach the others, but I won't be on watch because I got permission from Rebecca to take off for Yom Kippur the other week.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 16 September 2010 בס"ד

Got a weird wakeup and went looking for coconuts in my bunk before I realized where I was and what was going on. I woke up crammed into the sealing, meaning we were now sailing on a port tack. First hour of morning watch, we adjusted the braces to reduce chafe since it was quite rolly. Second hour I did 100 pushups with Rebecca. Stood third helm, steering SxW and then Due South. Final hour I made coffee and hot water with Dapper.

First hour of afternoon watch I was standing lookout with nothing to report. Rebecca came to the focslehead and when I asked what was up she said she was contemplating a bigger foresl. Second hour I wirebrushed and oiled ratchets, then third hour I went with Leonard to nip all the bunts. Fourth hour Leonard and I wirebrushed and corrosealed part of the windlass. After watch, Dapper and I got some coconuts emptied into a jar, in preparation for an experiment in making coconut hooch. Finished reading “From Kauri Trees to Sunlit Seas,” then after dinner played chess with WT (he won). Then added sugar and yeast to our coconut juice and poke a pinhole in the lid to relieve pressure before hanging it up in a quick-rigged gimble in the port forward corner of the forepeak to ferment. Hopefully we don't die or go blind. Just reviewd the manual, now bed.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Wednesday 15 September 2010 בס"ד

It squalled throughout the night, but my night watch was relatively calm, the ship not swinging out of the NNE-SSE sector. Woke up at 0715, had breakfast, and did domestics and deckwash and soogie before two school groups of about 25 kids each came aboard. I gave tours to the students, having a translator teacher come along since most of the kids only speak Pukapuka language. Then the kids played drums and did dances on the hatch, often pulling us up to join them. After the two school groups, we got ready to go ashore again. We got ashore, and the Mate was trying to organize a trip to the airstrip motu at the south end of the atoll. Before we met up to do this, Dapper, Brad, and I went to Lima's (one of our passengers') house and asked if it was cool if we stayed with him. He said yes and after our motu trip to find him and he'd take us to another house of his. We almost went on the trip, but as were waiting at the beach, a squall approached and we saw the ship let go the mooring line and take in all sail before motoring away. Then the massive rainstorm passed over so a few of us found shelter at somebody's house and played cards on the porch until it passed. We then walked around a bit and found a little shop where we bought some soda (that we had previously unloaded from our cargo hold). Then we went back to Lima's, and he and his sons walked us to our house. His wife and niece were preparing it still, so the four of us walked around, checking things out, but then it would squall intermittently, so we'd stop and take shelter with other islanders for the duration. We did this for a while and met some nice people. Then we returned to the house and had a massive feast with coconut latkes (made from sprouting coconut, which is like cotton candy on this inside). We were then adorned with flower leis, and we headed off to the community center for the dance party, but stopped at the nursery first were everybody was pregaming. Shortly after, we got the dance party going with the Mate as DJ Pukapuka #1 Dance Pah-tay 2010. At first, very few locals joined in; they all pulled up on their scooters and watched us like we were weirdos (which we are). Then we learned it is the Pukapuka custom to dance only when asked by a partner, so we all kept going out and grabbing people and once we invited them in, they started dancing away. Crazy dance party went late, then an even crazier afterparty at the nursery. Good times. Went back to our place at about 0230.

Woke up to a massive breakfast feast, and then Lima took us around to show us the sights, which included a penis statue built into a curb, and the three churches of the island. His family presented us with three mini-shell necklaces each, then we went to his boat and bailed it out for him before he returned us to the ship (the PC had returned to mooring after the squall passed). Shortly after we got back aboard, she started moving close to the reef and in a minute we let go the hawser and motored away. Once we had everybody aboard, many many locals also came and sang and dance and ate with us. I also helped lash an outrigger canoe the Captain acquired atop the galleyhouse. Finally, they left us and we motored off, there being no wind. 12-4 took the deck and we tacked the yards around, set some fore-and-aft sails, and I removed chafe gear from the hawser upon the galleyhouse. I stood fourth lookout, and had to go and loose the flying jib and pass it around to the new tack. After watch, I took a shower because I truly stank awful of BO from the dance party still, and then I got a lot of photos from everybody and hung out in the fly-infested forepeak (Pukapuka is a lovely island, but has about 1000 flies per cubic foot, and we got some stowaways).