In this afternoon’s workshop we made a start on making ditty bags – practicing all the main skills of the Sailmaker, and making yourself a handy bag to keep your tools together in the process. Today the Captain started us off by explaining how to make a flat seam to join the edges of the canvas together into a tube – the same seam that’s used to join the cloths of a sail together. After practicing a seam on a scrap of old sail, everyone got started on seaming up their bag.
SHIP’S WORK: Sent down fore t’gallant sail and bent on replacement, patch service Flemish horses, pitched fore t’gallant stay, ratlines on fore and main, fore upper topsail bunt blocks re-stropped, port t’gallant rail cut in with red, primer on jibboom cheek block strops, white on new propane tanks, spot paint in skiff, Dutchman in quarterdeck, continue finish work on the new gaff topsail.
TOWARDS: Essaouira, Morocco
TIME ZONE: GMT
NOON POSITION: 32°54.7’N /015°08.6’W
DAYS RUN: 90nm
PASSAGE LOG: 96nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 286nm
COURSE AND SPEED: E 1/2S (080°T)
WIND: SE, Force 3
WEATHER: 6/8 cloud cover (stratocumulus, altocumulous), air temp 68F (20°C), sea surface temp 69F (21°C) barometer reading 1021 millibars, visibility good
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: 1-3 feet, SE
SAILS SET: inner jib, main topmast staysail, foretopmast staysail, spanker.