Picton Castle rolls on through the swells. Crew members are treading carefully on deck as spray splashes up over the rails and soaks anyone or anything in its path. This morning we were topping out at 8 knots, we’ve eased down to about 6 this lunch hour.
Ship’s work: Carlos and Anders continue their woodwork on the quarterdeck with minor repairs. Vaiufia leads the charge with the rigging team, sending Anne-Laure aloft to renew seizings and guiding Tristan through grommet making. The sailmakers are back at it again, carefully avoiding the sawdust in their midst, spreading out as much canvas as possible on the quarterdeck. Yesterday’s workshop has made everyone keen to learn new seizings when Captain Moreland demonstrated the three most commonly used. Inventory is high on the to-do list today, Corey is conducting his regular safety gear check inspecting and noting all safety gear onboard, while Dustin ensures that our skiff contains all of its safety equipment.
As we sail towards Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands, there’s lots of talk regarding crew members’ to-do lists upon arrival and subsequent few days off. Snorkelling, renting bicycles, hiking, swimming, sun bathing, spa day, and waterfalls are all ideas being bounced around. Sadly some crew members will leave us, continuing on their own journey, however, a few who had originally intended to sign off the ship in Raro have chosen to stay! Excitingly, we will greet new crew members and escort them through this exciting world of tall ship sailing. With Rarotonga being a great port for the ship and individual crew provisioning, a very large grocery shop will take place – have you ever shopped for 50 people for two months? Our cook Donald is an expert and the fastest shopper, it’s a race to keep up with him! And so, with all this in mind, we look forward to meeting our ship’s beautiful South Pacific home.
From: Mangareva
Towards: Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Date: August 9th 2018
Noon Position: 21°56′ S x 141°28.5′ W
Course + Speed: WxS + 6.1 knots
Wind direction + Force: NNE + 6
Swell Height + Direction: 4m + NE
Weather: Sunny, various clouds
Day’s Run: 143nm
Passage Log: 375.2nm
Distance to Port: 1022nm
Voyage: 7029.6nm
Sails Set: Main sail, fore sail, lower tops’ls, upper tops’ls, main t’gallant, main topmast stays’l