May 17, 208
16-31N / 080-11W
The day comes in mostly cloudy, warm and humid. Winds pretty steady Force 5 at ESE. Sea moderate to 6 or 7 feet. The Picton Castle is 400 miles due north of Panama sailing close hauled by-the-wind, yards hard on the backstays and skirting Rosalind Banks to our West. The new gang getting the hang of things, like when to sleep, when to wash clothes, went to avoid the weather rail, even when to use the heads. As we are overhauling each head in turn to make them nicer we are down to two heads just now.
Our esteemed bosun has been perhaps a wee bit ambitious in his work plans. He seemed to be thinking that we wanted to make the ship shiny and perfect before Panama. There is plenty of time, and, yes, she calls for some shining up, but there is time enough and we want to spread all that fun out, no?
The new hands are learning how to steer quite well, as steering by the wind is trickier than wandering downwind. And getting better at bracing, setting and taking sails in and getting generally handier on deck. Just learning to walk around a heeling and rolling deck requires a reassessment of many land bound assumptions. Yet, we are warm and making good time right on course. Dawson is pretty happy playing in these warm Caribbean waters in a small plastic pool in the lee scuppers.
