Picton Castle at sea; Saturday 11 September 2010 בס"ד
So far, everything's alright. First hour of morning watch, I hung out upon the quarterdeck; second hour was a sail-handling review on the well deck with Nadja. I was on third helm, but didn't start til twenty after because we had a compass and helming review, and discussion about how to steer on Captain's orders (like when we come into a harbor and he calls out, “Half right, ease your swing, hard left, etc”). Took the helm steering NW xN1/2N. Final hour, hung out upon the quarterdeck. We passed the 10000nm mark during watch, and we flew the celebratory flag Megan had made from my old bunk curtain. We should be getting to Nassau at approximately 1000 if we keep up the current speed. Pukapuka tonight or early tomorrow.
Woke up at 1030with Nassau in sight. Right at the turn of the watch, general quarters was called for all hands. We started sail-handling for about half an hour or so as we hove-to off of Nassau. It was a bit sloppy overall, which the Captain addressed later. At 1230, I was unloading cargo from the hold and chaining it to the local boat. At 1310, I was put on helm, doing it by Captain's orders from the bridge like we discussed this morning, and keeping the ship from crashing onto the reef about three or four boat-lengths away. I think I did rather well for my first time “precision helming,” and I was complimented by Sophie on my vocal projection when repeating orders. I steered us away from Nassau heading NW xN1/2N before being relieved at 1430. Watched the Mate wiresplice a cable that we'll use for the Pukapuka mooring, which has no anchorage at all but rather a rock we can attach the cable to in the reef. Last 45 minutes of watch, did sail-handling drills with the royal and flying jib, actually taking in and setting them over and over, which I think we should do more frequently. Rigged up a power shower for the turn of the watch, rinsed off, and at 1630 had a discussion with our Pukapuka VIP (the CI Parliament guy) who told us about the island. Dinner was food given to us by the Nassau people, and after I planned with Dave and Robert for what to cook tomorrow, since we're Sunday galley. Who knows what we'll end up doing because it will end up being port galley. Then played chess with Davey, helped Lauren with her photos, and read more of Don Silk's book (the ship on the cover we saw wrecked at Nassau). All in all, a sufficiently busy 9/11, so I didn't have much time to dwell on this anniversary. I actually felt pretty good, since I'm making a man of my father's son. Who knew nine years later I'd be keeping a cargo sail ship hove to off a dangerous reef in the South Pacific?
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