Atlantic Passage

Went ashore on the first skiff run this morning and headed out to the Southern end of Gibraltar to Europa point. Along the way I stopped to look at the Victorian 100 ton gun and Rosia Bay where the Victory was docked after Trafalgar.

John and I walked along the shore road to Europa Point and nearly got blown off the rock by the very strong West wind that has been blowing force 5 all morning.

There is a wrecked ship right below the lighthouse that doesn’t look very old. The power of the sea is evident in te ripped plating and smashed hull. The ship split in half!

The weather has changed, it’s now cloudy and the wind has apparently dropped a bit. Have to go buy a belt and some other miscellaneous stuff and then have a bite of supper before heading back to the ship.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be moving the ship to a fuel dock to get our tanks topped up and then we are supposed to sail for Morocco.

Maybe more and some pictures later.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. Pictures are Here!

We  arrived in Gibraltar Friday afternoon about 3:00pm.

I was on lookout when we sailed and motored into the harbour to anchor. That was a bit nerve wracking keeping track of all the ships, bouys, sailboats , tugs ferries etc.

We split into two watches and luckily my watch had Saturday off.
I rode the skiff into Gibraltar, we are anchored over a mile from the quay we are allowed to land at and then John and I headed out to see the sights and do some geo caching.  I had never done that before. Geo caching consits of looking up interesting places that people have recorded the GPS coordinates for and then listing them on the Internet for others to find. At most places there is a little box or bottle with a notebook which the finder signs. Often there are other little objects like coins, little stuffies, cards (we always left a Picton Castle card) fridge magnets etc..
We bagged 5 of the 8 Gibraltar caches! They were in interesting and out of the way places that lead us to WWI and WWII gun emplacements tunnels and natural features. Pretty cool.

Today we were on watch so it was “make and mend” we washed all our sheets and bedding and “soogied” out our bunks with bleach and water to kill off any hitch hikers before we head South.

In the afternoon I helped Ben and Susie work on renewing the footropes on the fore lower and upper topsail yards.  I learned how to do repair serving, winding tarred yarn around the wire to keep water out and got thouroughly tarry and greasy.  The tar we use is pine tar mixed with turpentine or some other solvent and ha a really strong smoky smell.

I’m off tomorrow, Monday, so I think I will wander back ashore and maybe go to the museums and do a little surfing and emailing at a pub somewhere… Not a bad life at Gibraltar so far.

Thanks for reading.
KJ  

Here are some pictures from my wander around Gibraltar

The seas really picked up last night and the ships is rolling quite a bit. We are still headed due west with the wind just starboard of due aft.

I seem to be getting my sea legs I only get queasy while sitting below typing but not standing or lying.

Went aloft on watch lat night to furl and gasket the mainsail and we furled the t’gallants and main t’gallant staysail.
Steering with the wind due aft and a following sea is interesting, the waves lift the stern and shove it one way or the other which has to be taken into account when correcting the course. There is spoke or two of play on the linkage which makes it even more interesting.

We are sailing long at a great pace 6-8 knots, the mate says we hit 8.5 knots last night and probably averaged about 7.

Sleeping when the ship is rolling like this is a compromise between lying comfortably, like I normally do on my side, and trying to avoid rolling around in the bunk. I found that lying flat on my back with one of those blowup neck pillows to keep my head from rolling worked well.

Today is my first stint on galley duty, with Bruce and Corey, so I don’t have to stand regular watch for 24 hours. Carrying food around when the ship is rolling is fun, sort of.

Not having to stand watch means I can watch the sea for a bit.

Waves are interesting, they appear to be solid and independant things but in reality they are transient artifacts of the interaction of the sea with winds and other waves. Like a life which is moved along by the winds of time and influenced by the passage of other people, I hope they are enjoying their time as much as I do.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. Here are some pictures from the passage.

Just got off watch and had a bite of breakfast.

My patch kicked in while I was sleeping and I felt really good when I got up at 3:30am to go on watch.  I have to come up with a routine to speed up that getting up part I was the last member of the watch to get on deck.

Our watch was pretty exciting we had lots of sail handling and a fast moving thunderstorm squall just before the end of the watch that forced us to take in the mainsail and the main t’gallant staysail in the pouring rain. Pretty exciting for  a new sailor like me.

I also stood my first turn as lookout, I can see how that could be really cold, luckily the wind was fairly warm today.

Standing alone for an hour up on the foredeck scanning the horizon for ship’s lights, etc is very conducive to introspection. But do you think I can remember anything to write here? Not a chance

Typing on this little laptop makes me queasy so I think I will end this note here.

Thanks for reading
KJ

P.S.  After 4 hours of sound sleep in my bunk and a bite of lunch I feel much better. We are sailing along at more than 5 knots in a steady force 5 breeze from right aft.  We are sailing under foresail, both topsails and t’gallant on the foremast and  topsails and  t’gallant  on the  mainmast.  We have the  fore topmast staysail and the two jibs flying as well.  It’s glorious!  The sea is a rich deep blue with intensely white horses scattered across it all the way to the horizon.

The mountains of Spain are just visible to the North.

Lovely.

KJ

I had a watch from 1:30 to 2:45 lastnight which was great because it allowed me to sleep for a few hours before getting up.
After breakfast we did sail handling drills and I went aloft to both loose and furl the upper and lower topsails on the foremast.
Then we got ready and steamed out of Mallorca harbour and out to Sea.
After drills for mn overboard, fire and abandon ship the watches stood down and we are chugging steadily Westward.
Hopfully we will get to set sail soon.
 

We did set sail just before I cme on watch at four.
I had an interesting first watch at sea.
Just after we came on watcg a squall came in from the North and we had to brace the yards around to handle the wind shift after the squall line passed I went aloft onto the Fore Yard with Nicky to release the Foresail so it could be set just as it began to rain.
After we set the foresail I began to feel really queasy, ginger, saltns and lots of water kept  things under control but eventually I had to use one of my seasickness patches.
My turn came to be the hemsman at 6:00pm just as it was getting dark.
Steering is an interesting process.  We steer by the compass so the mate gives me the course and I have to keep this little orange line (the lubbers line) aligned with the compass point that represents the course.  The steering is odd to me. The ship responds to the helm fairly slowly so it is easy to over steer.  John recommended I put one full turn of the wheel on at a time and then wait to see how the ship responds, then when she begin to turn take the turn off.  This work really well.

After I finished my hour on the helm I went to do a ship check with Nicky.  This entails going into every compartment and looking for leaks, overflows, fires or anything coming loose.

Once our watch wa relieved “I hit the rack” queasy stomch and all.

KJ

Today we raised the Mizzen Topmast back into place.

As I suspected I ended up working on the capstan on the foredeck.  This was OK because there were lots of pauses in th raising process which gave me a good opportunity to see the whole process. This is a good bit of “sailorizing” that many people even those who sail on a square rigger more regularly will never see.

It also helpd that I had become aquainted with the intricacies of this spar while varnishing about 2/3rds of it’s length the other day.  It looks pretty “shiny” up there in the late afternoon Sun, if I do say so me self.
 
Did a bunch of “slushing” on the shrouds and stays for this part of the mizzen mast.  This is literally taking a handful of grease mixed with tar and liberally spreading it on the wire that makes up the rigging.  I took this opportunity to remove my rings as they might have gone flying on their own once my hands were greasy. I think I will keep them off for the duration.  My luck I will now get a sunburn on the ring bands

The plan is to leave for Gibraltar tomorrow morning some time.  Hopefully we will have wind and be able to sail. For me, even if we have to use our “iron topsail” and chug out of the harbour of Mallorca, it means the real start of my passage on the Picton Castle.  It also means I have no idea when this post will actually make it online

I’m excited to be less than 24 hours from heading out. Excited and a bit anxious, not because I don’t know all my lines (I have most of them figured out now) but simply because I don’t really know what to expect.  I’ll let you all know how I make out once we get ashore again.

Thanks for reading
KJ

Had a great night last night (Thursday) no watch 

When I got up I discovered that we were surrounded by cruise ships!

This huge ship is docked right beside us.  It’ amazing that these things
actually sail.
They have  WiFi on board but you have to  give them a room number and
pin number of some sort… blah

I spent the day varnishing the mizzen topmast, the one they took down on

Tuesday. We also did a bunch of training on lines and procedures.

Late in the day we unloaded a huge pile of fresh food and stored it away in preparation for the trip.

Our watch is off for the next two days (Saturday and Sunday) so
hopefully  I’ll be be able to get a chamce to wander around and see some of the city and get a connection somewhere.

We are officially supposed to sail on the 18th which is Tuesday.  I’m
looking forward to that with a mixture of fear and excitement a you can
imagine.

Just a musing post on this sunny Sunday morning in Mallorca Spain….

I’m sitting in a very nice cafe just outside the Mediaeval Cathedral here in Mallorca having a cappuccino and typing into my laptop.  As the bells ring for Sunday Mass I ponder the odd set of things in my life now… When I’m done here I will wander back across town to get back onboard a sailing ship rigged like one from the 19th century.  I have traveled halfway around the world on transport that would have been amazing only 50 years ago, I’ve chatted in realtime across the planet from outside a building that was built in the middle ages.

There is an odd kind of mental disconnect when I sum all this up.  It’s a kind of temporal confusion.  Odd but exciting at the same time.

The Mate says we will be leaving on Tuesday for Gibraltar.   That will be my first time at sea, the start of this passage at last.

Time to go and look around a bit more before I have to embed myself in the ways of our fine ship once more.
Thanks for reading.

KJ

Here are some pictures from Mallorca!
Mallorca November 2008

And some more from a wander around on Saturday:
A Saturday Ramble in Mallorca>

I was driven to a really nice little cafe on the waterfront (thanks Deb!) with free wifi and great coffee! Also full of Picton Castle crew

I have two full days off now (except for studying lines) and will try to get around and see the sights before we head out on Tuesday.

They will be putting the mizzen topmast back up today or tomorrow which is a real bit of “sailorizing” and will be interesting to be in on so I might hang around ship while they do that. Only risk is getting dragooned into capstan duty

No sea sickness yet even with ship rocking a bit at the dock last night, there was a force 4-5 wind from the NNE that was kicking up a bit on the harbour. So far so good, I wonder what will happen once we are outside…

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Had a great night last night (Thursday) no watch 

When I got up I discovered that we were surrounded by cruise ships!

This huge ship is docked right beside us.  It’ amazing that these things actually sail. They have  WiFi on board but you have to  give them a room number and pin number of some sort… blah

I spent the day varnishing the mizzen topmast, the one they took down on Tuesday. We also did a bunch of training on lines and procedures.

Late in the day we unloaded a huge pile of fresh food and stored it away in preparation for the trip.

Our watch is off for the next two days (Saturday and Sunday) so
hopefully  I’ll be be able to get a chamce to wander around and see some of the city and get a connection somewhere.

We are officially supposed to sail on the 18th which is Tuesday.  I’m
looking forward to that with a mixture of fear and excitement a you can
imagine.