Friday 5 November 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Friday 5 November 2010 בס"ד

In the morning watch, I steered second helm with a course of NW xW 1/2W. Before that, in the first hour, I did precomputations for twilight sights. While I was on helm, several of the others shot a total of 14 sights of 7 stars. Bracken had me adjust course to WNW at two instances, and then return, so that the sextant-users would have a better line of sight without the yards in the way I think. Finished helm, then FISH ON!, and I went to the aloha deck and pulled up a small barracuda, which we threw back to the sea. I filled out the log, then plotted our position and determined our CMGT and Log. A breeze came and we were sent to loose the tgallants and royals (I got the main tgallant). We set all sail and ceased motoring, making a good speed of about 6kts. We then set up to do deckwash, but the there was not enough charge for the hose, so it was canceled. Did a thorough decksweep instead, and then a pinrail soogie. After watch and breakfast, I laid in with Bracken for ship's work. He was searching for his bung cutter 15/16” size, but couldn't locate it, so instead I helped prep the old skiff on the galleyhouse for caulking. Payed in the seams with cotton/oakum, and removed the chainplates and cleaned up under them, then Bracken and Nadja came with the caulking guns and did the job. Went below, read more Gulliver's Travels, had lunch, read again, then took a nap. A 1600 workshop was scheduled on Tacking: Theory & Practice. I was 1^st lookout for 10 minutes or so, but the wind had pretty much died out in the last half hour, and so the “practice” part of the workshop was canceled and we instead got a quick lesson/refresher in tacking procedure. We really don't have to tack much, since as the Captain had pretty much told us after we crossed the line months ago, “We'll be on a port tack for the rest of our lives,” which has held fairly true, mostly changing tacks only when piloting in or out of a harbor. Then, with all hands already present for the workshop, we braced sharp on a port tack and began to motor again, as wind was barely blowing a force 1. Then UP AND STOW ALL SAIL, and since everybody was available, it was a quick, good, and efficient stow, if not crowded aloft. The final piece of stow work was the chummy on the spanker, and so I jumped up on the boom and tried to give it, but something just wasn't right and it came out looking awful. I tried fixing it, but was called down for dinner. Two ships were sighted right after we took in sail, which was a shame because here we were, a fine sailing vessel, under steam, and it probably looks odd if not just wrong. Of course, if we had our sails set, we'd just be bobbing in the sea becalmed, but still. After dinner, a squall was building up ahead, so I changed into my tropical foulies (swim trunks), and began to prep buckets for freshwater collection. We saw the gap closing and closing, until finally it hit, and blew hard and windy for a bit, and then became quite light but continual. For the rest of watch, we slacked rigging, and I did wakeups. Once watch below, I went home to the forepeak and many people were having a party within. Sophie and I met in the salon and I began lesson #2 of Portuguese with her. Once finished, I returned to the forepeak, and it was still a party, but I was exhausted and turned in for sleep. Shabbat Shalom.