The wind continues to slowly build and we are now consistently making between 5 and 6 kts on a beam reach or ‘half wind’.
In the forenoon watch all hands were called to participate in a fire drill, getting all the fire extinguishers, hoses, axes and turn gear out for an exercise.
Today we also continued to shift sail, this afternoon with the Foresail. The courses being the lowest of the square sails are sent down to deck on their gear, clewlines and buntlines. Once down, the gear is bent onto the new sail and with hands on the clews and bunts to hoist away the new sail is sent up. After all is made fast, the watch swarms up into the rigging to stretch the head out tight to the ends of the yard arms and the sail is made fast to the jackstays of the yard. The whole process takes between an hour and a half and two hours.
We concluded the day with the Sailmaker giving the last of the ditty bag work shops, teaching roping, sewing a rope grommet onto the upper edge of the bag for reinforcement. This is the same technique use to reinforce the edge of most of our sails.
SHIP’S WORK: Shift Foresail ‘E’ for ‘C’; Replace ratlines in the starboard main lower shrouds; set up weather main T’gallant shrouds; continue replacing fore and aft gripes on the boats; rig up Main Topmast Staysail halyard whip; herring bone stitch tear in Fore Royal aloft; shift buntline blocks on the Fore Upper Topsail; make up shroud fairleads for Mizzen Topmast Staysail sheets; coatings on new Main T’gallant Studdingsail boom; sailmakers continue grommets on the Flying jib and begin repairs to course ‘C’.
FROM: La Rochelle, France
TOWARDS: Quebec, Canada
TIME ZONE: GMT
NOON POSITION: 37°10.8’N / 013°23.4’W
DAYS RUN: 117nm
PASSAGE LOG: 887nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 3745nm
COURSE AND SPEED: SW x S 1/2S, 6kts
WIND: W x N, Force 4 – 5
WEATHER: Overcast, air temp: 20°C, water temp: 19°C
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: N’rly, 3 -5ft
SAILS SET: All Sail