As the night wore off the wind began to build in the morning.
The ship is still sailing to the West with the wind mostly behind us and this allowed us to carry all sail and take best advantage of the wind strength. There is nothing quite like a square rigger with a fresh quartering breeze and all sail set. Overnight we had left the Fore Topmast and T’gallant Studding Sails set for the watches to drill with handling on their own at night, and in the morning we set the remaining ones to get the ship moving. It wasn’t just as easy as setting more sail though: around midday a few squalls started to appear behind the ship and so began the mad scramble to get sail in in time. Good work was done by the crew and we squared away with all plain sail when the squalls hit.
And when the squalls are over it’s time to make sail again, and fast.
With many hands on deck the Studding Sails went flying up into the rig again and the other kites were hauled up as well to keep us speeding along on our way. Our Studdingsail clubs (the short spar that the sail is bent to, and is hoisted up into the rig with the sail) are made of bamboo from some of the various islands we have visited over the years. Bamboo has the opposite problem wood does with age: as it gets older and dries out it gets weaker, this happened to be the case with the Main T’gallant Studding Sail club and it went in half just before the noon watch change. Good practices though for the crew and it was brought back down in a hurry with no damage to the sail. The afternoon saw a couple hands making reinforcements to the club so it could see use another day.
SHIP’S WORK: End for end port Main Brace; lay up Outer Jib sheet fairleads; Paint Galley house trim; make up curtain for STBD scuttle; oil blocks on the Mizzen mast; continue with dutchman on the quarter deck; reinforce Main T’gallant Studding Sail club; Sailmakers work on Flying Jib rope cover.
FROM: La Rochelle, France
TOWARDS: Quebec, Canada
TIME ZONE: GMT
NOON POSITION: 28°48’N / 029°23’W
DAYS RUN: 142nm
PASSAGE LOG: 1995nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 2730nm
COURSE AND SPEED: W x S, 6kts
WIND: N x E, Force 5
WEATHER: Sunny, air temp: 23°C, water temp: 24°C
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: N’rly, 4 – 6ft
SAILS SET: All Sail, except Main T’gallant Studding Sail