Friday 10 December 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Friday 10 December 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0715. Instead of painting today, the first order of business was WT and I putting roofing cement under the rubber pads that seat the fantail grating benches, then putting them back in place and fastening them. Of course, roofing cement spooged on our white paint, but we both learned that vegetable oil works better than turpentine at removing it. Cleaned off the wrenches and putty knives the same way. The rest of the day was spent lashing and relashing everything Cape Horn-style, as the rumor was we might catch an Indian Ocean cyclone. We took many spars from atop the galleyhouse, and moved them into the hold, put extra lashings on the boats, veggie lockers, deck boxes, fishing chest, racks, and individually lashed each of the propane tanks, relashed the lumber in the starboard breezeway, and tarred the lashings, and getting paint and penetrol ready for plywood hatch cover reinforcements with our call sign EW5P painted on. Everybody heard different things about the weather. At 1630, after all the day work was done, a quarterdeck talk from the Captain put us in the picture. The Captain explained with his diagram that the current forecast was predicting a cyclone in about five days, and that it should be well astern of us, but things can change as weather isn't very predictable until immediately before it happens. He told us about cyclone characteristics, differences and similarities compared with Atlantic hurricanes, the two semi-circles and maneuvering strategies for ships. He had drawn our course, and at the end when nobody had questions and he was about to put it away, I asked a somewhat rhetorical question, “I notice that the course you drew has us stopping somewhere after Reunion and before Cape Town. Are we stopping somewhere new?” And that Captain replied that he would like to, if there is time and circumstances permit, stop at Maputo, Mozambique. This confirmed scuttlebutt that had been lightly floating around since the beginning of the voyage; that we'd try and stop at Madagascar, Mozambique, or as far north as Zanzibar, Tanzania, though the latter was unlikely because of the proximity of pirates. Everybody was excited, but of course, nothing is ever guaranteed, we're bound towards, not to. After dinner, I worked on my Portuguese lessons (now far more likely to be useful if we stop in Mozambique), and hung out on the focslehead before going to bed. Shabbat Shalom.