Thursday 4 November 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 4 November 2010 בס"ד

In the first hour of watch, a squall came and we had about 15 minutes of 6+kt sailing. Then back to light airs again. We braced up a point, and I lit the galley stove with difficulty. Once the sun was up, went to scraping the foclsehead from 0600 to 0645. Stood fourth helm steering WxN. After watch, I laid in with Bracken for work. First we placed the barrels in the cradles and made sure they were seated properly, then lashed in place. Then I was put on chiseling down the focslehead deck bungs that were popping out. I did that until it was done, then went below and read. Had lunch, read more, passed out DTW. 1530 wakeup and I swept up the focslehead. I then helped the sailmakers return their sails from the quarterdeck to the sole. We had a 1630 workshop on tides and currents. At 1730, we took in all sail, and I stowed the gaff topsl. We then reset the inner jib and foretopmst staysl. Had dinner, and went to third lookout, during which I reported a squall two points off the port bow. Later, Bracken called to me from the well deck saying he needed some “left forearm” for bunting up the foresl nice and tight, so I helped him do that. Ship check, made coffee, watch below. I then had a Professor Fred's language workshop, this time in Hebrew 101: The Alef-Bet. Only Megan attended, but I didn't care and taught her alef through yod. Then I finished part III of Gulliver's Travels and went to bed.