Saturday 11 December 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Saturday 11 December 2010 בס"ד

This morning's work was continuing to lash things down, particularly in the hold. First we emptied Sea Never Dry of everything but oars and trash, and moved it all. I worked with the 8-12s doing this, balancing the task of putting people on jobs, monitoring progress, and knowing who is where, with being in a ball in the hold lashing and relashing things as snugly as possible. By lunch, (which on Saturday I eat at 1200), the ship was secured for heavy weather. Lunch included sashimi from a Mahi that was caught earlier. After, I rearranged my bunk, put up a map, sharpened my machete and knife, then accidentally passed out until 1615, when we had a wakeup for a quarterdeck muster. The Captain gave us an update on the cyclone, saying the forecast now was that it would for at our current position in about three days. We should still be well ahead of it by then, and if it's too close, we'd fall off to the north. After the discussion, we stowed all square sail, I on the foresl (with a dozen others, a ridiculous amount of people on the yard). We'd already been motor-sailing since the morning, now only fore-and-aft set. Caught a 38lb wahoo before dinner. Discussed corn, it's definitions in English, and chametz on the aloha deck. After dinner, watched the three-part-episode of South Park where they are superheroes. Now writing this log. Repaired my rig sheath, which was starting to come apart, by putting reinforcement stitches in three places, and also added a new belt buckle hole so my rig fits better. Stayed up planning ways to repair and improve 801 Olive.