Sunday 1 August 2010

Picton Castle at anchor off Tedside, Pitcairn Island; Sunday 1 August 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0445 to visit Jimmy and stand watch with Shawn, Michelle, and Bob. He was in and out, but besides the pain, seems to be doing okay. After watch, went back to bed at Big Fence and slept til 1000. Upon waking up it seemed that the plans now were to go take Jimmy ourselves since the French ship hadn't yet replied to our Medevac request. Went with Steve, Olive, Randy, David B., and Bob to pick vegetables out of Olive's gardens for a while. Came back to Big Fence, wrote out my postcards, and we heard our departure was delayed until 1600 pending response from the French navy. I bought a fid made by Randy, then Brad came by and told me that my shirt that I had taken off at the accident scene to wrap Jimmy in was at Wayne and Charlene's, so I went up there and picked it up. On the way back down, I stopped at Bill's Ground to say hi to the Daves and Lea and Ariel. Jo was with them baking tasty treats, and she bought me a fid from Dave, which was very nice of her. Then Ariel took us for a ride up to Garrett's Ridge, and we could see the ship from atop Tedside. On the return trip, we heard on the VHF that there would be a turnaround of watches, meaning that the French navy would be taking Jimmy after all. Came back down to Big Fence, got my stuff ready, said my goodbyes to Steve and Olive and Grandma and Len Brown, and headed down Landing with Shawn and Michelle. We pushed off and the weather started getting cold and misty, so I felt bad for the starboard watch, who seemed to be getting the short end of the stick, but at least they get to go back at all now I suppose. Got aboard, and the ship was rolling like a mother, but the anchorage was still holding well enough, so we cleaned up deck, had dinner, and started two-hour watches with a few people each instead of the usual one person one hour deal. I was slated for 0500-0700, so I went to bed after I put away all my stuff.