Wednesday 3 November 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Wednesday 3 November 2010 בס"ד

Today I turned 24.5, not that that matters much. Actually if I'm being technical I'd have to consider the time and date difference and figure out when 1806 EST is, but whatever. I stood second helm steering WxN. After helm, as the sun came up, our watch wrote a note for Chris regarding Swedish supermodels that pretty much told him we had to fire up the engine. We took in all sail and started steaming. I led the hose during deckwash, and then soogied. Towards the end of watch, I laid in helping the sailmakers get their sails up on the quarterdeck. We hooked up with a huge marlin during our muster, but lost it, much to everybody's dismay. After watch, I laid in with Bosunry projects. Sophie and I moved the focslehead water barrels and I put wood underneath them to prevent them from scuffing up the foredeck. Then Bracken stole me and we began to make actual barrel cradles out of 2x4s so they can sit sideways. Doing this, I learned how to scribe wood. I made two cradles, but one of them I really botched quite badly and this wasn't evident until it was completely assembled. Bracken just put it on the blue shelf and we made a new one, more carefully this time. During the construction process, I ended up getting a very thin, curvy piece of wood after using the jigsaw, that I gave to Sophie for use as a paint stirrer which also doubled as a marriage proposal, apparently. Had lunch, and scribed for Dan and Liam as they shot noon. The sun's declination was supposed to coincide with our latitude today, and we got our best reading as 89°55´ at 1219:45. I took a quick rinse off to get the sawdust and grime off me, then went below to read more Gulliver's Travels, then passed out. I woke up for watch, and helped rig up the power shower in the starboard main shrouds. At 1600 we had a power shower, and then I helped clean up the deck. I then had a fifteen minute conversation with the Captain about books. At 1630, we had a buoy and ATON workshop which lasted about an hour. At 1730, we braced square and set all squaresls. Had 1800 dinner, then took the helm steering NW xW 1/2W. A breeze picked up, and hands braced on a starboard tack and set all sail. I then was steering NW and then NW 1/2W. I was relieved at 1915 after all was said and done. We set the spanker and gaff topsl next. Then Bracken asked me to repair the charthouse lamp with electrical tape. Slacked out lifts and other lines until the end of watch. Once below, did the well deck workout, and was chatting with Sophie about things when she said she wanted to learn Portuguese someday. I let her know that not only did I speak Portuguese, but I always want to teach people and I'd be happy to, so we set up in the salon and I began to teach her the most basic of basics about the language. Then I read, and went to bed.