We are having lovely days here at Cape Town in the Picton Castle. Usually sunny (rained this morning – need to dry sails), sometimes with a howling SE breeze blasting over the Cape Flats and Table Mountain, pushing the “tablecloth” off Table Mountain. Never too hot. Gulls soar overhead. These nice blue wooden fishing boats come and go. From time to time the lift bridges lift and let boats in and out. Folks walk along the quay outside a fence, sometimes looking up at the rig of this square-rigger alongside their waterfront. At a wharf once host to many big steel square-rigged cargo ships a century ago and more.
The ships’ berth at the V&A (the Victoria & Alfred Basin, not Albert – Alfred was Victoria’s son I am told) deep in the inner reaches of Cape Town’s harbour, in from sea and Table Bay, past three breakwaters, is as secure a berth as a ship’s captain could ever hope for. And as this is our big extended stop in Africa and the weather is so benign (once moored here, that is) that we can cut the crew loose a good deal to see some of this amazing land – but also this is a good chance to get some ship jobs taken care of that we either cannot really do as well at sea, or in other ports at anchor when the ship has to remain ready to sail at all times. The crew involved are highly keen and dedicated to these tasks, these are learning opportunities as well.
For starters, we retain a night watchman here so crew do not have to stand anchor watches throughout the night and we can reduce crew numbers. Having a local night watchman presence also has certain other benefits, keeps us out of drama. After a quick look around for a couple days the gang under the direction primarily of Bosun Line, with Dustin and Spring too, we got to work. First, they sent some sails down so we would not need to dry then if it rained. Just reducing a variable. T’gallants and royals and all the headsails came in. They gutted under the main salon sole, cleaned that all up, inventoried and re-stowed. Good to do now and then, no?
Rigging: time to look at the head stays. These are the wire stays from the foremast on out and down through the jibboom that carry all the headsails and hold the topmast and topgallant up forward. Important gear these, and they naturally get a lot of saltwater – more than any other wire standing rigging. We need to make sure that these are strong and in good shape. If not, then we must make new ones. Royal stay, flying jib stay, outer and inner jib stays and fore-topmast stay, all came off to get seizings, serving and parcelling stripped down and looked after as well as wire-brushed and slushed all the way aloft. The gang of Clara, Spring, Ollie, Liam, Line, Toad and others are up to their elbows in tar and new parcelling and serving with tarred marlin – then clapping on the 24 new wire seizings they learned how to make. Good seamanship is this. The upper topsail yard parrells are down on deck for getting thoroughly checked out, loved up with new leather, greased and painted and sent back up. Bobstay getting overhauled as well. Topsail halyard wire pendant got overhauled and reseized. Baggywrinkle replacement is on the list. We will see if we get to this job with all else going on. This job we can do at sea anyway.
There were a couple spots where I want to replace some deck planking, we have some good local shipwrights on this working with Dustin. So, they are at that with a vengeance. The white pine decks are now almost 30 years old and holding up well enough. Thanks to linseed oil, but no thanks to three years of Covid layup.
Our old, very old, dory Sea Never Dry (in its colourful Senegalese livery) leaks like a sieve. We have caulked it and recaulked it. We want this boat ready for active duty to sail in the Caribbean islands as it is so much fun. What to do? Well, we could fiberglass the bottom. That would work, but that would put an end date on the boat’s working life. Ship’s carpentero Dan wants to put on a new wooden bottom and to make the boat good again. This is a good project for him. So that job is underway, the boat hoisted ashore on this ancient quay, a whole new bottom for Sea Never Dry. The bottom is cut off and frames and floors repaired, and a new bottom getting shaped up. The dory Sea Never Dry is named after a play by renowned playwright and former mariner Carlyle Brown – see https://carlylebrownandcompany.org/ – something of an “Old Man and the Sea” sort of story, but different and cool.
Sailmaking: we have a big empty open space just a short walk from the ship where we have set up the machine and benches and tons of sails. Some sails are getting repaired, some new ones getting further along in seaming – and I expect we will lay out a few new sails as well. A course or two and some staysails are on the docket. It is very nice to be able to not pack all up every time at the end of the day. And leave the sail layout chalked on the floor.
Along the shore of Table Bay to the north of Cape Town is a mile of flea-market every weekend (mentioned earlier) – we found some great stuff there at best prices. Dirk, Donald, Tammy and I went there on a windy cold Sunday last. All sorts of stuff we did not get but some we did. A couple new kettles for Donald, a sewing palm, a caulking mallet, clamps, vices, planes, nice life rings, sailmaking stuff, a chest of drawers for a cabin that needed one. And if we had bags of money, we would have gone much crazier. The flea market is on every weekend, so we have another kick at this. Crew are looking forward to next weekend.
The fore-topgallant yard came down for close inspection and some overhaul. More work in this vein as the days roll on here, in the Barque Picton Castle at Cape Town, South Africa.
