Thursday 21 October 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 21 October 2010 בס"ד

I woke up throughout the night with frequent sharp stomach pains, and so returned to the forepeak to sleep in my bunk. Woke up at 0715 and saw duct tape across the toilet seat of the port forward head. At muster we learned that somebody clogged the head, and left it! Well now, that ain't cool. But I saw the bright side in the situation and asked to be part of the unclogging effort. Bracken taught me how to do it, by disassembling the head piece by piece until the problem is identified. In this case, it was just petrified doodybombs and a build up of rock hard calcium deposit lining the piping that forms from the chemical reaction of salt water and urea. So, got some slotted screwdrivers, and started chipping away the human waste. That took a short while, and then I did a super-thorough bleachdown of the entire head and all buckets and tools utilized. I then laid in with ship's work, and was assigned to TSP all the bitts and then paint them surf grey with Brad. He got port side and I starboard, and it took us until just before lunch to finish the job. Had lunch, took a power nap, and at 1300 I was put on lashing duty with Dapper and we lashed the old skiff atop the strongbacks on the galleyhouse. I then lashed the Pukapuka outrigger and the Rarotonga dugout canoe in the hold with Siri, which required some creative effort. I was sent aloft on the fore to downrig the swingrope after that. Cleaned up the deck, and Rebecca had me grab some beer, t-shirts, and hats from the forward sole that the ship was going to give to the islanders. Then I went to the Monomoy to make fast the bow painter when I learned a valuable lesson. The topsides had been painted white, and as I climbed down I got white paint on my toe. Trying to carefully step on the Monomoy gunwale, I ended up pushing the stern out and the gap between boat and barque rapidly increased while I was stretching out between the two, hands on the tgallant rail of Picton Castle and feet on the gunwale of Monomoy. WT was watching in amusement explaining to me that I'm pretty dumb for getting into this predicament and I was forced to let my feet go and was then clinging to the topsides of the ship by my fingertips. Of course, there was no danger since we were at anchor in calm water, but an obvious lack of common sense on my part that could have great consequences in different conditions. Once I made the bow painter fast, I carefully hopped back aboard, and helped haul up and lash down another outrigger that we just acquired atop the galleyhouse. Soon after, yet another outrigger arrived that I guess the Captain traded for, and the same process repeated. Rigged up the snatch blocks for the port davits' boat falls to hoist the Monomoy. But first the Captain wanted to test the carrying capacity of the boat, and I along with 19 others loaded into the Monomoy and circumnavigated the ship under oars. The idea being that Bligh had a comparable-sized cutter that he and 18 of his men were marooned in after the mutiny on the Bounty. They sailed and rowed about 3000+ nm from near Tofua to Dutch Timor, and only lost one man when they stopped ashore for food. We usually go sailing with no more than a dozen people, and it's not crowded but it's not spacious, and even less so when we have provisions. Anyway, we rowed around the PC and then went aboard to hoist up the boat. I was then sent into the rescue boat with Bracken, Logan, Nadja, Shawn, and DB. Our goal was to attempt to hoist up the kedge anchor ourselves with pure beef power, and we got the emergency hawser coil aboard. We tried to haul it up but it was well dug in and there was no point. Shawn and DB returned to the ship to work at the windlass. We heard Brad leading a windlass shanty as they weighed the port anchor. All of a sudden a good hard breeze started blowing out of nowhere and I looked to Bracken and said, “I wonder who whistled for that?” (It's a nautical superstition that prohibits whistling aboard a ship as it sounds like screaming wind in the rigging, and it is feared that it will conjure up terribly strong winds that are harmful rather than helpful. It should be noted we learned somebody did whistle at the windlass with Brad's shanty and was quickly shut up by the Mate and those present.) So we brought the boat around the bow and passed up the emergency hawser to be put round the capstan and hauled up in that fashion. We took the boat over to the starboard davits, made fast the boat falls, and exited the boat as it was lifted out of the water, running to the quarterdeck to lay in with hoisting. Then I went to the fosclsehead to help tail the emergency hawser past the starboard ladder to be flaked out on the well deck. After that was done and we were underway, up and loosed the fore topsls, and we set headsls, topsls, and courses. We were sailing again, bound for Luganville once more. The Captain called me over to the bridge and told me to assist Dixon as he does some Vanuatu magic. I went below in the salon with Dixon, who took out of a bag a toxic plant and instructed me on how to hold it without having the poisonous leaves touch me (apparently it's like bad poison ivy?). He prepped himself in the head, doing what I don't know. Then we went to the hatch, and as I held the plant up, he positioned himself in a way that the leaves would go into his mouth but not anywhere else and then ate them. It was kind of unusual trick to perform, but he explained to me that it's a right of passage-type thing and he may have had to trade several boars to learn the secret and the art of performing this act. Then, hands to take in the spanker! Dinner, read some Mauritius Command, and I nearly shit my pants in my bunk out of nowhere while reading. DB, Brad, and Davey were present and saw me just shout AHHHH GONNA SHIT MUH PANTS! and grab my ass and run up the ladder in a most random fashion. Luckily I made it in time (sorry to be gross, readers, but this is life on a tall ship, uncensored). Wrote in my log, and borrowed the ASTA book that has all the tall ships in it and planned my future.