Light winds continued through the night and into today and we continue to steam along. This morning dawned clear and bright, still a welcome relief from the fog. Finally our chance to dry things out a bit, all the sails were loosed and many articles of clothing and towels hung out to shed some moisture in the sun. Today also gave us a chance to get going on some ships work.
We have also been seeing much wildlife in our crossing of the Grand Banks, twice we have seen Humpback and Pilot whales close to the ship as well as White Beaked dolphins.
This has also kept Fiji the cat quite busy as there have been many sea birds in and about the rigging. Fiji spent all day stalking, running and jumping around the ship, we presume, in hopes of catching one. No such luck for her though and cat food it is again for dinner.
As we crossed the shelf off of the Grand Banks in the afternoon back into deep, cold (2°C!) water, all hands were called to participate in a man overboard drill. Before moving into the drill itself all hands were reminded that the best way to deal with a man over board is NOT to have a man over board, as with everything in the ship the best cure is prevention.
The seas being calm this afternoon it was a good time to practise launching the rescue boat, an operation not to be taken lightly at sea, even during a drill. All hands reacted smartly to the situation and the boat was safely launched, gotten away and recovered in a span of about 10 minutes.
SHIP’S WORK: New Ratlines on the fore and main masts, move and seize bunt fairleads on the T’gallants, sew covering boots on the main T’gallant backstays, seaming on the new Main Topmast staysail and roping on the new Main T’gallant staysail
FROM: Lunenburg, NS, Canada
TOWARDS: La Rochelle, France
TIME ZONE: ZD+2
NOON POSITION: 43°34.3’N / 049°58.1’W
DAYS RUN: 125nm
PASSAGE LOG: 660nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 2088nm
COURSE AND SPEED: E, 7kts
WIND: NW, Force 3
WEATHER: Clear, air temp: 5°C, water temp: 4°C
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: 2 to 3 ft, NW
SAILS SET: Inner & Outer Jibs, Fore/ Main & Mizzen Topmast Staysails, Mizzen Staysail and Spanker