By Kate “Bob” Addison
November 17, 2012
It’s proper tropical weather at sea now, blue skies and blue seas as far as we can see, the roll is gentle and we’ve settled into our usual shipboard routines on the Picton Castle. Each hour of the watch sees a different person at the helm, and standing lookout up forward, so when there’s no sail handling to be done there’s time for the rest of the watch get on with projects. There’s a lot to do so it’s good to be able to get going.
Today the rails on the quarterdeck have been getting some attention: a coat of varnish on the teak taff rail, fresh grey paint on the supporting stanchions and rails, and ensign red on the waterways underneath. We’ve moved the fruit lockers into the centre of the deck, out of the way of the painting, and with their dory buff tops alongside the buff hatches it looks like a little sandy island in the middle of the quarterdeck – just needs a palm tree or two.
The Captain started teaching a series of seamanship workshops this week. Most afternoons at 1600 the crew congregate on the hatch, and this week the subject has been rope work – learning different splices and whippings: long splice, short splice, eye splice, chain splice, grommets, quick whipping, sewn whippings. Each person has their own length of rope to practice on, and they are coming along pretty well.
Yesterday was Tonya’s birthday, so Signe and Drea made her an extremely chocolatey and gooey cake. Yum!
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