Rigged studding sails on the fore-mast today. Studding sails or st’n’s’ls are extra sails set in light airs to add sail area and thus a little extra speed running down wind. These lovely sails date from clippers ship days and before. The breeze was finally light enough to need them today, so anyone who wanted […]
Today saw the three watches battle for seamanship bragging rights in the long-awaited and much anticipated ‘Quest for the Broken Spoke’. Good job all round, but special mention to the 8-12 for their outstanding Star Wars costumes; 4-8 for entertaining (scaring) the judges with a Tongan Haka; and 12-4, the eventual winners, for demonstrating their
More blue skies and seas. A few light rain squalls. Whales again this morning, closer to the ship and swimming along the port beam. Medium sized and with white markings, more Minke I think. Captain held a fascinating all-hands lecture on Atlantic slavery on the quarterdeck this afternoon. It’s particularly relevant as we sail this
More whales off the ship today, but too far off to identify. Celestial navigation classes have reached a key point – putting all of the threads together to be able to draw a line of position on the chart based on the height of any celestial body at a known time. We’re using the sun
Not much to report, just another fine day of tropical tradewind sailing, blue sky, blue seas and white square sails. The settled weather has been much the same for days now: glorious sunshine in the morning, a little too warm after lunch followed by light rain showers and then a fine afternoon, slightly cooler. Our
What to say? Another perfect trade-wind passage making day bound from Africa for the West Indies. Yards squared, all sail set to the royals. Too fresh for studding sails, flying fish scattering either side of the ship, blue seas with white caps. Changing out sailmaking, rigging, carpentry daymen tomorrow so more folks get a chance.
There was a small pod of Minke whales just a few meters from the quarterdeck on the starboard side today. They stayed with us for much of the morning, sometimes rolling over just under the 6 to ten foot seas to show their white bellies before diving for a while. In the afternoon the captain
Sunday at sea and St Valentine’s Day today. Still sailing along swiftly in quite strong winds. We celebrated with popcorn, hot chocolate and banana bread on the quarterdeck this afternoon and pink iced cookies after lunch (chunky tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches). There were lightening and squalls overnight last night, but the squalls just
Our celestial navigators continue to practice shooting the sun, with a revision workshop to run through the steps to find latitude today. The captain ran an all hands workshop this afternoon on the theory of sailmaking, followed by a practical lesson in making ditty bags with Sailmaker John for anyone who hasn’t made one yet.
Another great day’s run with average speeds continuing around 6 knots. Not bad considering we’re moving 600 tons of ship through the water and all powered just the wind in our sails. We had a power-shower today: the fire hose rigged up in the port fore shrouds accompanied by much squealing and laughter – the
