Saturday 4 December 2010

At anchor, Benoa, Bali, Indonesia; Saturday 4 December 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at the crack of dawn, spent an hour in the head, headache raging. Met up with the others at 0700, and Chris told me he was ill also. We got a ride back to Benoa, and at the Marina I learned many of us have or have had this illness, and that it shouldn't be more than 48 hours long. The first skiff at 0830 was packed to capacity, so I stayed behind with some others to wait for a delivery of meat. It came in 13 styrofoam boxes, so we loaded it up and told them to hang on while we brought it to the ship, unloaded it, and returned the styrofoam. On the skiff ride, Nadja said to me, “Congrats, BOSUN'S MATE!” and I got a shot of happiness into my system that took away all feelings of illness for a short while. Once aboard, it was pretty chaotic on deck. I went on mizzen boom squad, and helped reave the sheets, shackled in the blocks, and top it once we all had moved it from the breezeway to the quarterdeck. Then I packed up my new seachest with things I don't need to see for a while. I was all over the place, doing job to job, from helping cat the port anchor to lashing down deck to putting padding on cargo to overhauling ratchets to lashing stuff in the hold, etc etc. Had lunch, tried resting some since I felt like shit again, and after break we learned that instead of departing at 1400, we'd wait for the morning tide. Also, Made Alon's wife was going to do a Balinese dance routine for us. After lunch, lashed stuff in the hold, then painted the hatch coaming with a coat of stone. Cleaned up brushes (a big part of my new job), and then did a deck sweep. We watch the dance performance on the hatch by Made's wife, then off watches were stood down. The old 4-8 had the watch today, so I was on duty. The off watches went ashore,a nd we just tidied up deck. Early dinner, galley clean, the shower run #2. Back aboard, stowed my bunk, set up my hammock on the focslehead. Passed out for a bit, then stood 2300 anchor watch. Last skiff in with the Mate aboard, otherwise nothing, except I saw three snakes in the water (weird? I thought we were past snakes?) 4^th night of Hanukkah and bed.