Thursday 1 July 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 1 July 2010 בס"ד

Yesterday morning at 0300 I stood my shift. I filled the galley diesel, but otherwise uneventful. Took a water taxi into town at 0900 and had some coffee with people while I posted my logs online before heading to La Lobería with Jo, Bob, Julie, and Nadia. Chilled there for a few hours and relaxed (I wanted to go biking but part of the sickness I'm recovering from is super stiff legs, so that was a no go). Then had a late lunch with the tastiest juice drink ever. Then some friends and I pitched in for a room before heading out to a super touristy (but nice) restaurant with about twenty of us. After dinner we went to a bar called Iguana Rock where they played reggaeton and I tore it up on the dance floor doing the Mike Weiss dance. Also at the bar were the four girls I gave a tour to and their ecology friends. I met one guy from McMinnville, Oregon. Had a good time there before calling it a night.

This morning caught the 0730 skiff run back, and at 0800 we had an all-hands muster to discuss things. In no particular order, we learned we're 2756nm to Pitcairn, we're going to sail off the hook out of harbor, we bent on three new kites (the flying jib, main tgallant staysl, and mizzen topmst staysl), the story of the Niña, a schooner anchored near us that was built in 1928 like the PC and how her captain wants to build a new Joseph Conrad ship. It's also Canada Day, so the Canadians are in red and white and gave me a pin and a sticker. We also found out that during this passage we'll begin celestial navigation workshops, and some people may become daymen. We did a lot of bracing after the up and loose. I loosed the main upper and lower. After we were out of harbor and underway braced on a port tack, we learned about how to take in and set our new kites and the urgent response required when the call to take them in is given. Just BAM cast off the halyard, haul the downhaul, tend the sheet if able, but it's gotta be super fast or else bad things will happen like blowing out the sail or even dismasting our wooden spars. After the lesson, went and took a nap until my watch began. I stood first lookout, but only for a half hour since at 1630 a Canada day festival took place. Complete with a mini Tim Hornton's, Canada Bingo, a deck brush hockey game (in which I scored a sick penalty shot goal), peanut butter curling, and a Canadian dance party. I was impressed with how little notice was given and how good the events were. That went on til dinner, then our usual galley cleaning. Now off to bed.