Wednesday 10 November 2010 [TORRES STRAITS]

Picton Castle at anchor, Twins Island, Torres Straits, Australia; Wednesday 10 November 2010 בס"ד

Woke up for morning watch, and it was pouring down rain. It was 0359, and we still were standing around in muster waiting for Nadja to give us our rotations, but she never arrived. Finally Bracken yelled down to us SOMEBODY RELIEVE THE HELM! So I ran up to the quarterdeck and took the helm. Nadja had not gotten a wakeup, it turns out, but instead of being idiots we should just do stuff instead of standing around. I was steering NW xW 1/4W exact. There were several ships and a flashing bouy in sight. After helm, slacked out the rigging, trimmed yards, and bailed the skiff. When we did deckwash, I was the hoseman. Right after deckwash, we caught two large king mackerels, one which I bludgeoned with our Fijian warclub. We soon afterwards caught a large barracuda, and then again two king mackerels which were smaller, and we threw back one. I helped clean up the fish blood with the hose. Then Bracken told me there was a problem in the chain locker, and so I took UK Rob below and we checked it out. It was a problem alright, as the starboard anchor cable pile had capsized. Whoever had flaked it out last time had flaked it out too steeply in a pyramid form, thus when the seas were lumpy and the ship was rolling heavily, the top of the pile capsized down, causing bights of cable that would definitely not pay out. Rob and I began the physically demanding task of unflaking over two shots of cable over to the port side. He swapped out once we had done that, and Dapper, Mitch, and I reflaked the chain properly on starboard. Once done, we returned to deck filthy, and then set the inner jib. I then ran aloft to overhaul some slack into the mainsl bunts. Watch below, and we had breakfast pancakes and pears (I love pears)! I then wrote this log up to now at breakfast, and Robert H observed that I was writing everything down that happened, so he said I am a motherfucker to see if I'd write it, which I obviously just did. Went below and finished England Made Me, then I began to read “The Lion at Sea” by John Harris writing as Max Hennessy. At 1600 back to watch, where I got to do some ship's work and removed old paint and primer coatings with my spike from the wire seizings on the port fore topmst backstay. At 1700 did second helm SW xW 1/4W, then SW 1/2W, then SW. I was relieved early so I could stow courses. 1800 dinnertime, and it was Siri's birthday! Cleaned the galley and we had an all hands muster about our approach to the Torres Straits. The current was not enough for us to beat the tide, so we were going to anchor in the lee of Twins Island at about 2000. The Captain and Mate had been hoping to time the approach at maximum advantage, since the Coral Sea and the Arafura Sea have two completely independent tidal systems, one diurnal and one semidiurnal, which created crazy currents that could either be very advantageous or disadvantageous pulling and pushing through the straits. After the muster, I ground coffee quickly and had UK Rob take a video of me explaining our current situation. I finished coffee grinding just in time, as it was UP AND STOW ALL SAIL, and I stowed the main tgallantmst staysl with Vicky. We waited a bit as the ship bore down on her anchorage, and then we dropped the hook, and my watch was stood down. An anchor watch was posted, and I was slated for 0400, and all-hands wakeup at 0430, so I really got the whole night except half an hour. Read, then went to bed.