Thursday 24 June 2010

Picton Castle at sea (South of the Equator); Thursday 24 June 2010 בס"ד

Yesterday morning watch was cold and misty again. I can't remember anything out of the ordinary routine, and I forget if I stood helm or lookout. The reason I can't recal this is simple. At 1400, the ceremonial shellback initiations took place. It was a big deal, and absolutely wild, horrifying, and fun all at once. I paid my dues to King Neptune, and am now part of a long line of hundreds of years of nautical tradition. The Picton Castle is all about traditional seamanship, and this was no exception. After the ceremony, I did a lot of sail-handling, stood a lookout, cleaned the galley, and ground coffee as per usual.

This morning watch was cold but dry. I wore my thermals which I had retired after the crossing of the gulf stream, My only duty was wakeups, which are at 0615 for galley duty people, and 0715 for the oncoming 8-12s and the daymen. We did a major deckwash since it was filthy from yesterday's ceremony, and we heard an immensely loud shrieking coming form behind the starboard veggie locker on the aloha deck, which turned out to be a large seabird that got trapped in there. We freed it and it seemed to be okay and flew away. After deckwash was up and stow as we are just a few hours away from the Galapagos and need to steam there or sail two more days past them and catch the winds to take us back in the right direction. I stowed the main royal, main tgallant, and mainsl, and while on the royal yard, a massive frigatebird at least as large as Bob was flying alongside me and I saw a gigantic sea turtle float just feet away from port side. I just had one too many muffins for breakfast because Liam on galley duty wanted NO LEFTOVERS PERIOD and I'm now very full. Going to get some shuteye before we arrive.