Still hardly any wind and bright sunshine, but it’s cooler today and less sticky than yesterday. We saw a school of tuna underneath the jibboom today, and a couple of sea birds circling the ship, much to the interest of the cats. SHIPS WORK: Rigged and set the lower, topmast and t’gallant studdingsails on the …
Doldrum-like conditions, though we’re still too far south to be in the doldrums proper. It’s hot and humid, and what wind there is is light and variable. Plenty of squalls all day have been bringing rain and wind shifts, or killing the wind altogether. Saw whales blow and breach off the starboard beam this morning, …
The wind is getting lighter as we get closer to the equator, but we’re still moving, if slowly. Going to need the studdingsails soon. There has been the occasional rain squall, but none with much bite and the short, sudden downpours are handy to catch buckets of free fresh water for rinsing laundry. Our Sunday …
We passed by tiny Ascension Island last night, leaving it fifteen miles to port at midnight. It was quite a rare sight to see lights on the horizon – there’s been hardly any shipping since we left St Helena a week ago and we’re not used to neighbours. It was helpful for the celestial navigators …
Part three of the rigging workshop this afternoon and celestial navigation classes and practice continue. The weather is consistently hot now – it’s getting to the point of needing shoes to take noon sights or dancing about to stop your feet burning on the hot decks. SHIPS WORK: Work continues on the new royal yard: …
Part two of the rigging workshop this afternoon with advanced serving techniques. Celestial navigation continues – Emil, Nikolaj,and Alex joined Bruce, Sam and Bob shooting local apparent noon today, and some of us are taking sun lines and sights from stars and planets too. The sun is almost directly overhead now as we run down …
Rigging workshop this afternoon on worming, parcelling and serving over an eye splice to protect wire or rope underneath from chafe, weather and sea water. Celestial navigation continues. SHIPS WORK: Fresh stone paint on the forepeak scuttle today makes the workshop up forward look much tidier. Sailmaking continues in between pesky rain showers, which send …
Sailing along in fine tradewinds. Blue seas following us along. Had some odd clouds lately. Getting into the swing of a long sea passage. Celestial navigation classes coming along. SHIPS WORK: A sailmaking bonanza today – six people working on five different sails at the same time this afternoon! Tarring aloft in the rig, and …
Happy St. Valentine’s Day! We’re expecting to make St Helena tomorrow morning, so we had an impromptu Valentine’s marlinspike party this evening since we’ll be in port tomorrow night. We retarded the clocks last night to Greenwich Mean Time. A clear night and almost no swell made for a great evening for star sights tonight …
At 12:43 and latitude 18°47’S Picton Castle crossed the Prime Meridian and passed into the Western Hemisphere. It’s been over a year since we last recorded our longitude in degrees West of Greenwich, then we were in the South Seas, somewhere to the east of Fiji. SHIPS WORK: Sailmaking, carpentry and holystoning continue. Work on …
