Tuesday 22 June 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Tuesday 22 June 2010 בס"ד

The dark half of morning watch was uneventful... just slacking lines from the misty drizzle in the cold. At sun up we stowed the royals and tgallants, and I had fourth lookout. By then the weather had gotten a bit nicer.

In my free time I read more Alan Villers' “The Set of the Sails,” finished all the whippings I had remaining on my splicing rope, worked out, played chess, and took a shower and an hour nap.

Afternoon watch started with deck sweep and paint locker cleanup, then a 1630 splicing workshop on the sailmakers' eye splice, which is the same as an eye splice except tucked with the lay instead of against it. At 1700 I took the helm steering due South (we were steaming), and at 1730ish Paul had me swing to due West. I was then relieved and we had all-hands bracing as we tacked around. There was a lot of rapid calls and orders as we did it, and the 4-8s were upon the quarterdeck. I tended the spanker sheets, topsl braces, and spanker clew inhaul and outhaul both at one point or another as we jumped from one to the other. At 1800, we had dinner and I ate fast to relieve Roselyne from lookout. I reported a large weather system spanning from dead ahead to broad on starboard bow. I was soon relieved because we were going to tack more, and to the quarterdeck I went. Once all the tacking was complete, it was back to the usual business. I cleaned the food buckets in the galley, scrubbed down bulkheads, and showed Robert how to do the coffee grinding. When we were relieved, we were informed that we're 7nm from the equator, and everybody is excited and nervous as the veteran shellbacks prepare our punishment.

Shawn just came down to the forepeak and reported that a fore tgallant sheet parted, and so I'll go check out if I can help.