Tuesday 4 January 2011 [REUNION]

Picton Castle alongside at Le Port (ouest), Île de La Réunion, France, Tuesday 4 January 2011 בס"ד

Woke up at 0625, had some coffee on the aloha deck, and could see the buildings off of the north coast of Île de La Réunion as we head for Le Port on the northwest “corner” of the island.” Wrote my log, had breakfast, and got ready for work. Obviously, no shipswork, so paint locker was closed. I got hawsers on deck from the chain locker and just was on standby for a bit, running small errands here and there. We took in all squaresls but the lowers as we braced the fore sharp to starboard and the main sharp to port so we could heave to and await the pilot. Went up and stowed the fore tgallant, and I was a bit rusty with the finer points, but got it done. Pilot came, we braced, took in sail, and motored into port. It was a very, very, very narrow coming in, but of course the Captain is awesome and pulled off taking the ship in, doing a “3-point turn,” and parallel parking her in a super tight spot. I was on the well deck hawser team, and I heard the Mate say “martingale 15 ft from dock... 10ft... 5ft...” and all the onlookers looked as though they expected a big crunch from our dolphin striker hitting the concrete, but the Cpatain is good, that's all I can say. Once alongside, waited for customs to clear us in, had lunch, and stowed all sail, I on the main tgallant staysl with Dave. Then I helped trim the yards, and we sent down the fore upper topsl and foresl, and the main tgallant from the yards to deck, and I helped stow them into the sole, a job which requires much contortion and force. Helped Shawn and Liam get a nice restow of the outer jib. Then, soon after, while having done other minor jobs, we were stood down, 12-4 had the deck (I'm 8-12 here), and so I went for a walk with Mitch and Niko towards town. I gave up after half a klick because I was hungry and had no goals for today, so I returned to the dock, where 200ft from the ship is a bar/restaurant with free wifi. Had some beers, a chicken meal, and went online, and was writing emails and stuff when the power went out, so no more internet. Typed logs, then returned to the ship at 1900 to hang out with Dave, Davey, and Dapper in the forepeak along with Pania and Taia. I tried studying for an hour, but they soon put a stop to it. Went to my rack, studied a bit more from Bracken's book, then sleep.