Tuesday 29 June 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno; Tuesday 29 June 2010 בס"ד

Was my watch day today. At 0800 I hoisted the Ecuadorian flag up the foremast, then our first order of business was loosing the royals, tgallants, and headsls. I went up and got the main royal and main tgallant with Liam. After that, a domestics, and then I was assigned to grinder detail on the aftermost quarterdeck waterway. Did that for a while until we received a load of fuel via the skiff in small plastic drums, so no grinding since that makes sparks and sparks make boom. Engineer Chris had to siphon the diesel out and carefully into the tank, but he did it like a pro, which makes sense because he is a pro. After that, back to grinding until lunch. After lunch, the generator was shut down, which is normal, but that meant manual grinding with a rustbusting chisel and a wirebrush for a bit. Luckily, only did that for a half hour or so when Sire and I went with Nadja and Bob in the skiff to get a load of food stores. We went over and collected them and brought them back. Then I furled the fore tgallant, my new enemy from a few days ago since my near-death experience. This time was easy though (Liam just showed me cool photos he took from the main). I was about to head to the main when Paul asked me to give a tour to four young ladies who had swam over to check us out, and so I did. If I remember correctly, they were Lizzy, Kate, Ellen, and Jessie from the USA here with an ecology/Spanish educational program of some type. I even took them to the chain locker, which I think is a world record for most girls in the chain locker at one time with a bro (points for me?). Once the tour finished, a deck wash, a soogie, and then another skiff run for fuel. Load it in, hoist it out, and return empties was how it went, and we did it another time right before dinner. After dinner, cleaned the galley like always and got orders about how to take care of maggots in the slops. I have the 0300 night shift, so now some shuteye.

Belay that. Just typed up this log and as I finished, Nadja asked me to be the bow bunny (boat assistant) on a skiff run. I held the spotlight forward and pointed out hazards to navigation and also handled the bow line and fending. We collected the Captain, Mate Mike, Logan, and Jan, and I ran quickly ashore to dispose of some trash. Now I'm back.