Monday 21 June 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Monday 21 June 2010 בס"ד

This morning I did a lot of sail-handling aloft on the mizzen. We first took in the spanker, and then I perched myself upon the boom and Liam and I put the gasket round the bottom. Shortly after we set the spanker again, and I went aloft to free the hanks that get caught on the gaff throat. Then Nadja told me to coil the bottom gasket, which must be done while sitting from a craneline holding on to a jackstay. All that while in the pitch black darkness made for a tough time but after a few minutes I thought I had gotten it. As the sun came up, we took in the spanker again, and when Nadja saw my coil, she told me very directly that, “it was the worst fucking coil [she]'d ever seen.” While I'm sure she's seen her fair share of bad coils, I agreed that it was terrible. I went aloft to free the hanks when we set the spanker once more, and then in the early dawn light redid my terrible coil properly. At 0600, I went to work holystoning, and I stood fourth lookout where I sighted a vessel off starboard beam. After watch I slept until lunch.

After lunch, I played chess on my computer and checked out the videos I had taken. Took the watch at 1600 and cleaned up the paint locker before another 1630 workshop on how to chainsplice. Did that for about thirty minutes, then went to stand second helm, except Paul told me we were going to up and loose all sail (we were steaming through some headwinds up to this point), and that a non-aloft-goer should steer, so I found one and then laid out on the main course and unfurled the mainsl. Then I took the helm and learned how to steer full-and-by, which means keeping the sails full while steering by the wind, or as close to the wind as possible without backing the sails. The tightest I could get her was WSW, but I held it easily enough. Was relieved at 1830 so no official log, but then ate dinner and helped clean the galley and grind the coffee (left handed of course) as per usual. I should note that for most of today it was quite chilly, even though we're at about 1°N and it's the soltice.