Sunday 14 November 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Sunday 14 November 2010 בס"ד

In the morning, stood first lookout, and the sea was as calm as glass. It was impossible to determine the horizon, as the stars reflected almost perfectly down to the edge of the ship, where our bow wake erased them. I reported a red light, but it turned out to be a rising star. I precomputed twilight with Brad, and then was the scribe for the star sights. Got deckwash started, but then took fourth helm steering W3/4N. Skipjacks were spotted fine on the port bow, so Bracken told me to steer straight for them, and BAM, all five lines got hit, and by the time we took off a fish and threw the line back, it got hit again instantly, resulting in six tuna in 30 seconds. Later on, I saw several sea snakes slither by. Watch below, and then passed out until lunch. Then I started preparing for the marlinspike, by taking a scrap piece of plywood, and writing “THE DECK” on one side, and “TAM & FRED'S KISSING BOOTH” on the other side. The theme of the spike would be “Bizarre Bazaar,” and people were creating stands of various eccentricities. For our pre-bazaar skit, the 4-8s would do a hyper-version of our daily routine with music and impersonations. I scraped “THE DECK” with a scraper, and Katelinn played “William Tell Overture” as we ran about the quarterdeck. The highlight in my opinion was was when Lorraine came out dressed as the Captain, and did a spot-on impersonation of him checking stuff out on the quarterdeck and telling his orders to Bracken. Then I got a shave from Shawn, who had his own barbershop for gentlemen. Tammy and I opened our booth on the starboard main deck, and I wore a black tie. We advertised “Kisses: Price Negotiable – Beer Welcome,” although I got my first kiss in exchange for getting dunked at the “Are You Smarter Than A Mate?” dunking booth, where they had staging set up and three buckets overhead, and you were never smarter, so you always got dunked. Back at the kissing booth, I got a surprising number of kissing requests, and a more surprising number of beers! Success! I also helped serve ice cold lemonade. Then, as the bazaar was coming to a close, I helped rig up the power shower before my watch started. I precomputed evening twilight star positions, but I messed up the first time, then I fixed it but I messed up something else, and finally got it right the third try. I was then called down for our official Movember Moustache Competition, which was entertaining. Of course, we had a fish strike right at the begin, and all the moustachios ran to pull it in, but it was gone by the time we all were aft. Back to the competition, after an impressive display, WT was crowned the victor, and rightly so I must say, as his stache was supreme. I did a DR position with Nadja because the charthouse nav equipment was temporarily shut down while an engineering issue was resolved, then did third helm steering W1/2S, during which I saw sea snakes and dolphins. Bracken had me take our position at the end of my helm from a handheld GPS, since we were steering very finely and constantly adjusting our course due to variation so that we had maximum fuel efficiency. Fourth hour, I cleaned the deck, and then scribed while people did evening twilight star sights. It was still stiflingly hot, and so I went to bed on the hatch again.