Monday 17 May 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Monday 17 May 2010 בס"ד

I've decided that I should write in my log twice each day since it feels like I have two mini-days everyday. The time right now is 0410, and I've just been relieved from watch. The first hour I spend reviewing and being quizzed on boxing the compass by quarter-points. I feel confident that if I was told to steer, let's say, SWxS ½ S, I'd know how to determine that course quickly. We also brainstormed ideas for Norway National Day, and I'm going to attempt to fashion out horns and put them in my hat to make a Viking helmet and also use baggy wrinkle or robands for hair. The seconds hour I spent pretty much just stargazing from the quarterdeck and figuring out constellations. I know a few now, and even from the few days we've been at sea I'm already growing accustomed to the sky and can tell which general direction we're headed. I saw a few good shooting stars, one of which actually left a trail behind it. I had third helm, and I started on a due S course, but the winds started to change a bit and so Rebecca had me steer SxE and then SSE, where I remained for the remainder of my helm. I did the final shipcheck and ran into Nadia and Katie sneaking into the hold to hide rice krispie treats they made as a food bribe for tomorrow. The even is scheduled for 1700.

I woke up before lunch and began my preparations for the Norway event. I made sharpie tattoos of the Norwegian flag for myself and a few others. For the day watch, I started with Meredith covering some backstay turnbuckles. By the time we got set up, however, I had to relieve the lookout. Nothing of note was seen; just a drifting buket. I returned to work with Meredith after my lookout, but was told I had to get a type of rod (whose name now escapes me), but after a half hour of searching in the sole with no result, I was put back to the backstay turnbuckles. Doing this I learned how to sew a baseball stitch. After watch, everybody was busy getting ready for the event at 1700. I was dressed as a viking and wore a red hat with attached horns made form socks, aluminum foil, and hockey tape. My name was Fred the Fjord, and at 1700 all the watches mustered for a deck parade. We then had a Norwegian trivia competition/potato spoon relay. The batcave and focsle won that and went on to do a tug of war, which the focsle won. In all, it took about a half hour, but was good fun. An actual bat was found on the aloha deck, but it was very injured and I heard it was put down, though I don't know for sure. I observed two butterflies fluttering around which confuses me since we're in the middle of the ocean, but perhaps they were stowaway chrysallises. We had all canvas spread throughout the day, but after dinner a large storm system could be seen astern, so the call went to take in sail and up and stow. I read some Master & Commander, and took some video of a large pod of dolphins off starboard. Now off to bed.