Thursday 13 January 2011 [AT SEA]

Picton Castle at sea; Thursday 13 January 2011 בס"ד

Woke up at dawn, wrote my logs, breakfast, hoisted the flags, all hands muster at 0800. I'm still the Bosun's Mate, but I laid in with the 8-12s lashing down the hold and deck. I also quickly corrosealed a freeing port near the starboard breezeway. At 0930, Shawn grabbed me and said we and Logan are the dockline handling team, Logan being the coxn. 1000 we started, and one by one we quickly let off the forward leading midships spring, the well deck hawser, the headline, the quarterspring, and then finally the stern spring which sprung the ship off the dock. Then, after the ship had gotten away, the boat picked us up and we raced out to the port bow, where we engaged and pushed once the word was given by the Mate on the focslehead. There were plenty of spectators to see us off all along the harbor. Once we pushed the Picton Castle's bow to starboard, clearing a sharp turn, we raced around to the starboard bow and engaged, but never needed to push again. Then, once the ship was clear of the harbor and at sea, we fell back and Shawn made off the bow falls and sea painter and I the stern falls and we got hoisted up. Hopped out, then ran up on the quarterdeck and laid in with the hoisting team. Then laid in flaking out hawsers on the galleyhouse roof before WT called me down to put primer on the freeing port I had earlier corrosealed. Did that, and went to the paint locker. People were already painting bitts and coming to me for jobs, so I referred them to WT, since I had no list of jobs. I cleaned and reorganized my paint locker, which had become very disorderly while in port because everybody was in it all the time and put things back however they saw fit, which is not how I saw fit. Finished that pretty quickly, then was called to the quarterdeck by the Mate. The ship was having its compass adjusted, and the Mate told me and Brad to watch Nadja steer by orders and terrestrial points as Sophie translated between the charthouse and the binnacle in French and English. Soon, Brad was put on the helm, then we had a “fire in the paint locker” drill, which I did my job of forward extinguishers. Returned to the quarterdeck after putting away the extinguishers and the starboard fire hose. We then had an abandon ship drill, but I remained on the quarterdeck on standby to relieve Brad, which I did soon thereafter. Stood helm for well over an hour, swinging the ship around and steadying her up as we went in a circle having our compass adjusted by the local guy. My voice was starting to give towards the end since almost at least once a minute or so I'd have to shout the reply to the con the order given, for example, Con: Right easy! Me: Right EasAY!, Con: Steady! Me: SteadAY!, Con: Left a little! Me: Left a litTUL! Con: Steady! Me: SteadAY!, each of those being specific commands and not guesswork. No looking at the compass obviously, since the adjuster man was between me and the binnacle playing with the quadrantal spheres. Not that that mattered, because you rarely use the compass for this type of helming anyway, relying on terrestrial features, celestial bodies (the sun), and even clouds to see how you're moving. It was pretty cool to see how we adjust the compass (the last time was in Lunenburg and I was ashore for that), and I felt very privileged to be a part of the operation. Finished at about 1300, had a late lunch, and then we lowered the boat to return to adjuster to shore. Once the boat was away, we had an MOB drill using the ship to recover a coconut instead of the rescue boat. Successful retrieval, then hoisted the boat, and got underway. We had to motor a bit to get out of the lee of the island. Soon, set fore-and-aft sails, when most of it was set I went aloft to loose the main tgallant staysl. When I was just about finished, the call to loose all squaresl came, and I loosed the foresl on starboard side, which was tricky only because we were braced for sailing full-and-by and therefore were braced so sharp on a port tack that the yard was just squeezing the backstays, making for a bit of creative gymnastics and contortioning to achieve my goal. Laid down to deck, set all squaresail, set the spanker, and then cleaned the paint locker quickly. Shortly after, a muster about our passage upon the quarterdeck, and the Captain explained we'd go a few hundred miles south of Madagascar then head towards Durban, RSA, where we'd catch the Agulhas current right along the shore and ride it down the coast. This time of year is about a rougly 50/50 chance of gales down by the Cape of Good Hope. Dinner, then read some War and Peace. Then got distracted in the salon chatting with everybody about couscous, noses, and other topics. Finally, went to go to sleep, but “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” was being watched in the forepeak, so I watched the end of it, then DTW. A good busy day.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Picton Castle alongside at Le Port, Île de La Réunion, France; Wednesday 12 January 2011 בס"ד

Despite having been quite drunk last night, I felt totally fine in the morning. Breakfast, domestics, then for the whole morning we bent on the main tgallant and the foresl, which involved hooking up their gear, getting them up with the gantline, and bending them with robands after stretching the head out with the earrings. Lunch, then the afternoon was spent bending on the main upper topsl and the fore lower topsl. I was in the aloft party for all four of the sails. After, I had Frankie and Odrun scuff and paint the red trim under the Monomoy gunwales, while Mitch and I painted another coat of buff on the davits. Cleaned up, had dinner, cleaned the galley mats, and I filled Sea Never Dry and the old skiff and both barrels with water from the shore hose. I took a quick nap, then had the watch from 2000 to 2100. The Mate gave us permission to use the internet quickly at the bar, so I went over for twenty minutes and just checked my mail. Came back to the ship, set up my hammock on the focslehead, bed.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Picton Castle alongside at Le Port, Île de La Réunion, France; Tuesday 11 January 2011 בס"ד

Woke up at 0715, breakfast, let Davey use my computer quickly. Then Davey, Dave, Susie, Sophie, Pania, and I went to the supermarket, grabbed some snacks, and went to the bus stop. Caught a bus to St. Paul, which connected to another to St. Guille des Baines. Went to St. G, and chilled out at the beach for many hours. Dapper came a bit later. It would seem it was a topless beach, if such things are designated in France, but all the topless people were leather-skinned old ladies. Lots of families and lots of older people, but nobody really our age to hang out with and get some local flavor. I started reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, because Jo is reading it too now and I must win. When it started to rain in the afternoon, went to Davey, Dave, and Dapper's hotel, chilled there for a bit, then it stopped and we bros drank many a beer from a little beachside stand and talked a lot about life while getting drunk. Sophie and Pania had left a little earlier, and Susie was having dinner with Paula, Rebecca, and the Mate down the street. I ended up catching a ride with them back to Le Port. The bar was having karaoke night, and I went and continued having many beers and sang a few songs too, including Girl, You Really Got Me Going, and I Believe I Can Fly. I met a guy from France who had been a street puppeteer on 59^th street at Central Park South many years ago, and we shot the shit, and I heard his story of how the NYPD locked him up for puppets without a permit. I ended up getting quite drunk, something which despite all of my beer drining, I rarely do, and I ended up waking up on rock by the breakwater some time between 0400 and 0500, which I only know because Robert had the watch when I returned to the ship, and then I slept a bit more. Don't judge me.

Monday 10 January 2011

Picton Castle alongside at Le Port, Île de La Réunion, France; Monday 10 January 2011 בס"ד

Woke up at 0600, made breakfast with Brad, handed back the bromobile to the Hertz guy who came by, then once we were stood down, I went across the street to use the bar internet, but it was closed. Came back to the ship, typed up my log, took a nap, then at 1030 when the bar opened, I went there. Used the internet all day, drinking many beers. My plan for the day was to do all the online things I possibly could, because I'm an internet whore I guess. Calculated costs owed me as well. Spoke with Karla and Alissa on Skype in the evening when the time zone difference worked. At midnight, returned to the ship, and bed.

Sunday 9 January 2011

Picton Castle alongside at Le Port, Île de La Réunion, France; Sunday 9 January 2011 בס"ד

Woke up at 0715 and had breakfast. Brad and I were on galley today, so we cleaned up breakfast, and then we were going to go into town to get food (galley crews had gone into town everyday to get baguettes and cheese and other things) but we were told that on Sunday everything is closed. I remembered that there was a gas station by St. Guille that had a mini-market, so we convinced the Mate to let us try there, and got the go. Sure enough, it was open and we got food. Returned, made sandwiches and bruschetta for lunch. After lunch break, we laid in to adjusting the main tgallantmst. I was put on the main tgallantmst stay forward, and others were at the main royal stay and both sets of backstays. The Mate would say, for example, “Take two turns off main tgallanmst stay!,” and I would loosen the bottlescrew with a shearpole two turns. Did that for an hour as we calibrated it, then back to making dinner. For dinner we had buttered spaghett, four frozen pizzas, and a big salad. After clean up, typed logs, then bed.

Saturday 8 January 2011

Picton Castle alongside at Le Port, Île de La Réunion, France; Saturday 8 January 2011 בס"ד

Woke up at 0745, quick breakfast, got ready to go out in the bromobile with Mitch, Davey, Dave, Dapper, and Niko to the volcano. This time we drove to St. Benoît, then caught the N3 on that side as we headed up. We went up and up the mountain, until we found a cool overlook that had a cliff vista. Then we drove more and the landscape changed from green forest to red and charred terrain. We then came to the Plaines des Sables, or plains of sands, and it looked exactly like Mars. We played there for a while (seriously, we were playing), and almost lost Niko in an open field. After at least an hour, we returned to the bromobile and kept going until we found a volcano overlook restaurant. Had some poulet et riz, then we went to the peak. It was very cool as we looked into the crater and we made our way down into it. We ran around in there for hours and most of what we were walking on was dried lava flow. Saw some really cool stuff in there. Finally, at about 1630, we left and headed into St. Pierre. Got some sandwiches and chilled, then Davey, Dave, and Dapper stayed there for their own broventure as Mitch and Niko and I made our way back to the ship at around 2000. Got back almost at 2100, used the internet, bed.