Wednesday 29 December 2010

Picton Castle at sea; Wednesday 29 December 2010 בס"ד

Woke up tired and stiff at 0715. Breakfast, then work. Jobs today included:

- continuing to scrape the jibbom parrils

- putting pink primer on the head rig seizings

- another coat of black on the oxyfuel tank

- two coats of primer on town pump steel parts

- unlashing townpump, sanding under the lashing, greasing, and relashing

- overhauling the Captain's folding chairs by sanding, corrosealing, and priming the metal

- scuffing and varnishing the flyrail spindles A and B and the charthouse door

- painting the port forward davit buff to the bitt-cleat

- scuffing port aft davit to the bitt-cleat, spot scraping, corroseal, primer

- final coats of tropical blue on propane tanks started

- buff on fore lower topsl sheet cleats

- scrape and corroseal propane tank E

Today was a bit hectic for me. It started with a mistint green fiasco. I went to find mistint greens in the hold so I could make more seafoam green. The first can I opened actually foamed and overflowed like a shaken soda can, and so once I contained the mess I figured out it was 1/8 foam and 7/8 skin goop shit. The second can I brought out was actually rusted through the bottom, with only dried paint holding the broken fragments of can together. By the time I had this sorted out, people were swarming me for jobs, and I didnt' know what the new jobs for today were yet. Also, the carpenters spent the whole day power planing boards of espave wood, and so the paint locker was kept closed for the most part so the piles of wood shavings and sawdust stayed out. The highlight of the workday was when the Captain came by and told me to stop at the office. I thought I was in trouble for being a lousy and stressed out BM, but instead he gave me a book called “The Merchant Sailing Ship” and told me that it would be good for me to read. I saw Pania reading it before, calling it her “homework” from the Captain, and I know that she's trying to advance her maritime career, so I felt pretty good that the Captain loaned me his book. Finished cleaning up at 1614, then a 1615 workshop on seizings part III, where I did my nice round seizing and learned the cross turn seizing, which seizes two things together perpendicularly. Dinner, and then read the Captain's book for a while. Stole photos from Yo and Taia, then went to my bunk and read Garp a bit before bed. NOTE: I heard our ETA to Reunion is Sunday.