After yesterday’s fantastic Sunday at sea, the crew is feeling refreshed from our middle-of-the-Pacific-Ocean 12,000 feet deep swim call! With nothing but blue blue blue ocean beneath us, the crew braced the main yards aback, causing Picton Castle to float still (ed. note – she was pretty still anyway), bobbing up and down with the long drawn out sea swells. Allowing the crew to float close by along starboard side, looking on as shipmates jumped from the headrig into the refreshing waters. We have a system for swim calls – only on sunny dead calm days, lookouts aloft and at foc’sle and bridge deck. No swimming around the ship or under the ship or behind the ship. A swing rope off the foreyard is fun but no jumping from aloft in the rigging. We want to make sure we all land on water…
Monday morning, all departments are back up and running, with fresh faces eager to learn or improve on their seamanship skills. Steph of British Columbia, Canada has joined the keen carpenter team, tinkering with the gearbox and applying the last bit of roofing cement to new aloha deck boards.
Suzanne of New York City and Anne-Laure of France are working with Vaiufia of Tonga in the rigging department this week. Today the three women swapped the fore topmast staysail, which is the most aft sail in the head rig, given its name as its stay runs from the head rig up to the topmast on the fore.
Tyler and Kimba, both of Ontario, Canada, are working with sailmaker John of Massachusetts, USA under the bright glare of the sun as they apply window patches to inner jib A (all our suit of sails are lettered or numbered so we can tell them apart). This sail was originally made during World Voyage 3, it’s a light weather sail that will soon be bent on. Rune of Norway is giving the Monomoy a much-needed scraping of her deck boards. This past year’s Bosun School students overhauled the interior of the boat, and the deck boards being the last items on the list.
Many crew members out with sextants in their hands today, the sky is crystal clear, allowing for an easy horizon to take a sight. Overcast or cloudy days are not ideal for getting a good sighting in. The engineering team continued with their welding work on the stack house door this morning. This afternoon they’ve retreated to the engine room to do some maintenance on the port generator. All is well, the crew are looking forward to a good week with promising weather in the future.
From: Galapagos
Towards: Pitcairn
Date: July 9 208
Noon Position: 18°09.4′ S x 116°57.8′ W
Course + Speed: SW 1/2 W + 1.1′
Wind direction + Force: SE’ly + 1
Swell Height + Direction: 3m + SSW
Weather: Bright, Sunny
Day’s Run: 26.4nm
Passage Log: 1877nm
Distance to Port: 840.5nm
Voyage: 5362.2nm
