After a grand sailaway from Tahiti, north around Moorea, even could see the mountains of Raitea off to starboard the next day many miles away, Picton Castle is under all plain sail sailing westward bound for Tonga. Whew, a long sentence!
No seasickness, kittens getting used to their new world, all hands sailing the ship just fine. Donald Fried Chicken last night. The recent joiners are all steering without help now. The sails that we laid out in Papeete are seeing some needle and thread now, up on the quarterdeck, Rachel grimly determined to make sails. Diane, brush in hand, is oiling the pinrails port and starboard on the main deck. They need to be scraped and varnished, but now they will be protected until the time comes. Such beautiful Fijian rosewood. Nate has taken over looking after and operating the skiff and is getting a new bow-pudding sorted out and a bunch of small things for this mighty craft. Spring is doing the same with the Monomoy. Bosun Line is keeping all sorts of jobs going all over the decks and in the rig. Jeremie re-serving a bit of lower shrouds, good to do. The quarterdeck skylight is getting a full overhaul as are the two veggie lockers port and starboard on the quarterdeck. The port locker was all painted up nice and drying nicely with crew warned not to sit on it until it was hard dry – but you can guess what happened…. So a redo is called for.
Seas are modest, winds are too here almost 200 miles west of Tahiti. This afternoon Dirk is going to give a Part 2 on the discussion of how the Polynesian explorers got around. It is an amazing story that is being pieced together in greater depth all the time these days. But the salient points are these.
1. This was the last great migration of people across the globe.
2. It was the first such migration that was based upon technology and what must be called ‘scientific method’.
3. The ships they developed and sailed were the first ocean going sailing ships of all time, crossing great monstrous swaths of oceans over generations of time.
There are many layers to this story. And separations as well. Exploration and discovery, followed by migration and settling almost every little and big island in the Pacific.
It all boggles the mind.