Thursday 28 October 2010 [CORAL SEA]

Picton Castle at sea in the Coral Sea; Thursday 28 October 2010 בס"ד

All hands reported to the ship by 0800, and we were put into new sea watches. I now would be on the 4-8 watch again. Did domestics, and lashed and stowed the ship for sea. I was atop the galley house getting things in order and lashing them. Then I went into the hold to get the dolly so we could remove the old paint/chemical slops barrel, but by the time I got out it had been manually moved ashore, and so then I went back and relashed the dolly. Then I downrigged the awning. The ship was ready for sea, but official business was still going on, so all hands were on standby just waiting around. After a while, we re-rigged the awning because it was so hot. Also went around filling sea buckets and slooshing the decks with water because they were just too hot to walk on. Finally, we were ready to get underway at 1500. I was on the forward hawser bow line. We motored off the wharf, because of the current and tide, but we braced and then loosed all sail. Once clear of the wharf, we sailed away, bound for Bali, Indonesia. I was put on lookout at 1600 and reported several small watercraft and a group of exposed rocks. After lookout, we flaked out the hawsers atop the galley house to dry. Had a quick dinner, then went to helm at 1800 steering SW then SW xS, then SSW as we navigated away from land. During the final hour, not much was doing, and so I and other people who were on the 12-4 workout squad who were now on 4-8 began our workout routine on the quarterdeck. The Captain came out though, and told us not to work out on the quarterdeck because it was dark and he was going to trip over us. So quarterdeck workouts were hereby relocated to the well deck. I suppose it's different when we're doing it at 0200 and it's unlikely the Captain will come out and check the status of things unless things are hectic in which case we wouldn't be doing workouts. After watch, took a shower, then DTW.