I’ve managed to upload some pictures from Christmas.
Check them out here.
I’m going to upload some more shortly if this internet connection holds up 
The connection is brutally slow but I got some more uploaded.
New Years Eve
and
My first day in Dakar, Senegal
Enjoy
KJ
I’m ashore at the CVD Yacht club in Dakar Senegal on the West Coast of Africa.
We came ashore on the first skiff run of the day. The plan, such as it is, will be to do internet for a couple of hours then send the laptops back to the ship so we can explore the city unencumbered by backpacks.
The “yacht club” is a nicely setup small compound right on the beach with lots of exotic birds singing and WiFi. which hopefully I can get to work.
The first watch went ashore yesterday after we cleared in. They had some “interesting” things to say about the town. Pickpockets and scam artists being the biggest issues. So we’ll see.
Later…
Just got back from a day in the frenetic metropolis of Dakar.
It is definitely a “much of a muchness” kind of place. The people are friendly but fairly aggressive. The city itself is in a state of permanent disrepair. It is difficult to tell whether any given bit is being destroyed, built or just being allowed to rot and fall down on it’s own. Any place of interest or beauty has high fences and well armed guards. We had aguide and a taxi hired for the day which really helped.
We went to a market and went past a couple of fancy buildings like banks and government buildings. Then our guide took us to a very expensive hotel, the Meridian President, which seemed to be built in honour of the Saudi King. The contrast was actually hard to look at. They wouldn’t allow the rattletrap of a cab we had to even park in their parking lot.
I’m hoping to get some pictures uploaded before we leave here but not sure when that will be. The Internet access at the yacht club was spotty and I was not able to get connected properly on my laptop.
More when I get back online on Tuesday.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Note: This is one long post covering the passage from La Gomera to Dakar Senegal. It is in date order so read down for the latest.
Dec 27,08
The weather hasn’t changed all that much except that the wind died today so we had to motor for most of the day. In the ten hours our engine was on we covered more distance than the preceeding 3 days combined!
Mary Joyce, one of the trainees was putting messages in bottles and throwing them overboard today. Each one has a note with the latitude and longitude of our current position and a description of who we are and where we are heading plus her email and contact info. She also puts one of the ship’s business cards in. She says one of the bottles she put over off the coast of Spain was found and they publiished the note in the local paper. It got a good response with lots of emails when she hit shore.
We are now sailing again with all square sail set so it should be a nice quiet evening.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Monday Dec 29,08
We are sailing due South just West of the border between Western Sahara and Mauritania in Africa.
Yesterday morning I awoke to the sound of our “iron topsail” firing up. The winds had dropped to almost nothing. By the time my watch started at noon however the wind had begun to blow from the NE instead of the NW and the order was given to set all the squrae sails and the engine was shut down shortly thereafter. Corey, who was on helm at the time, says the Captain had come up to the quarterdeck just before, looked up into the sky and said “the start of a real wind”. By the time of my night watch at midnight we were sailing along at 5 knots under a steady force 4 from the NE! Still going this morning.
During my night watch last night it was overcast so the brightest lights were in the sea itself. We sailed through bands of some creature that lit up very brightly as we passed. There must of been millions of them, they were bright enough to cast a faint shadow. They were mosty round so the consensus was that they were jellyfish but some of them were cylindrical so they might have been squid.
Dolphins were cruising around the ship and playing in the bow wave most of the watch. When they carged into a group of these creatures there was a bright flash as maybe 20 or so would fire up at once. It was like green fireworks under the surface of the sea. Beautiful and strange indeed.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Tuesday Dec 30,08
Word from Paul, the 2nd mate, is that we will likely get into Dakar on the 2nd of January. Odd to think that the first decade of the 21st century is nearly over. We still don’t have any flying cars! Blah. I guess the old saying ‘the future isn’t what it used to be” applies.
My little laptop is working really well. It does everything I need it to do onboard and will be doing more as I figure it out. The 3 hour battery life is not conducive to much experimentation but as long as I can keep a good charge I take 20% and play around Thanks again to Mark and his gang at Tremar Computer Solutions!
Yesterday I spent an hour up on the foreyard adding a second siezing to the stirups that support the footropes.
Watch last night was uneventful, the haze that typifies this area blocks all but the highest stars and there was not as much phosphoresence in the sea so there wasn’t much to look at. At least my cold has run it’s course and my back is slowly getting better.
Since our watch will be the ones to ring in the New Year tomorrow night, Paul has devised a plan to create a big ball to drop at the critical time! Construction will begin shortly. I’ll let you know the progress later.
Later…
We got a good start on the ball it is a wire sphere abot 2′ in diameter with two 100 watt light bulbs inside! We will also have a spotlight with 2009 on it to shine on the mainsail at the critical time. Should be an interesting evening tomorrow if we can get it all done.
Afternoon watch was uneventful, spent it working on the port head, which is finally back together and fully operational. It was dismantled in Las Palmas and with only one head available for the salon crew to use for number 2s… well you can imagine how welcome the rebuilt one will be
One more day in 2008 to go.
I hope your New Years plans go well.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Wed Dec 31,08
My night watch last night had some excitement to liven things up. I was on helm and we were sailing on the port tack around 1:30pm with all square sails set, spanker and inner and outer jibs. Then the wind dropped away to almost nothing. In another minute it came back from the opposite tack ,blowing and gusting much stronger than it had been. The rest of the watch took in the spanker and royals while I tried to keep the ship steady. It was tough, it took a lot of turns to get her to respond then when she did she would take off so I had to correct fast. Exciting and frightening at the same time.
After the sails were adjusted and I finally got her back on course I was relieved at helm by Bruce. Adrenaline works wonders for ones reflexes and man did I have lots of that! It was hard keeping track of where the wheel was relative to midships. It takes 8 full turns to go from midships to hard over so one has to always be counting the turns to be able to get her straight once she starts to turn. I’m still learning how to handle this beautiful ship, and it is still scary to have control of all 200 tons of her like that.
The rest of the watch was uneventful, thankfully.
There will be a Marlinspike of sorts tonight to celebrate New Years Eve and hopefully we will have our ball drop ready. It is grey and cloudy at the moment so not sure what it will be like tonight.
More later…
It’s later and I’m getting ready to catch a few hours sleep before the action starts around 10:00pm.
We are definitely in the tropics now, we have steady NE Tradewinds blowing and I saw my first school of flying fish this afternoon while I was aloft on the foremast. Trade Winds, Flying Fish and a landfall in West Africa possibly as early as tomorrow, what a way to start 2009!
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to all.
May 2009 be a good one for you and your loved ones.
Bright Blessings
KJ
P.S. The Ball dropped right on schedule last night!
We ended up with a low windage version because rather than wrap it in tinfoil we used garlands and Christmas lights around it as well. nbsp;Everybody came on deck about 10:30. Munchies and popcorn was set out. I supplied a nut cake I got in Switzerland, thanks to Ursula and Francois.
At 30 seconds to midnight the countdown started and the ball was dropped down to the hatch cover. At the stroke of twelve shouts of Happy New Year rose up and the ships horn blasted out into the tropical night. There followed dancing and revelry until 1:30am when we set the sails and carried on.
Last night was the first nightwatch that I didn’t have to wear a coat until I went on lookout. A sign of things to come I hope.
Happy New Year!
I hope 2009 is a good one.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Thur Jan 1, 09
We arrived in Dakar around 4:00pm this afternoon after an uneventful day sailing down the coast. Heard my first real “Laaaaannndd Hoooo” which wa pretty cool.
Dakar is a big bustling smoggy/hazy city of 2.5 million. We will be here for about 6 days and we are again using the two watch system. I have to work tomorrow but will go ashore on Saturday to scope out the Internet situation
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Been pondering a couple of things lately, usually while on lookout. The sea are pretty empty here off the coast of Africa maybe one ship every other watch. The two things are what project to work on in my off watches and the way “procedure” is detailed on board.
The reason for the concern about project is that nearly everyone is working on something or other. Today was Sunday so there was no shipwork but everyone was sewing, doing ropework or woodwork or practicing their instruments etc. Now to be honest they have all been doing this for 6 months, actually nearly 8, whereas I have been aboard for just under 2 months. So what to work on? The contenders for me is fancy ropework on my telescope, to give it a more nautical flair and also to give it a bit of protection, and some kind of navigation instrument like a chip log or an astrolab or something. The latter seems likely to be a bad idea if only because I would be on my own and it wouldn’t really be “sailors” work.
As for procedures, they are not really written down, the orders are however, nor are they fixed. The procedures for doing the various tasks that keep this amazing machine running are organic. They have grown along with the ship. Their roots are centuries old but then specifics are as linked to this ship as much as my speach pattern and mannerisms are linked to me.
Learning them is more akin to learning to walk than learning math or any other subject for that matter. They are a combination of physical actions coupled with knowledge of what is to be accomplished and the order in which those things need to be accomplished. We don’t have specific duties for sail handling, for example, people just lay out to do what needs to be done when the order is given. For me still unsure of what is happening I end up at the back of the line “tailing on”. When an order comes and I am the first or nearest to the line I should be taking the lead but my uncertainty makes be hesitate and I almost get run over as the more experienced people get on with it. This is in no way a bad thing and know it won’t be long until I can keep up but it is still a bit frightening when lots of things are happening at once.
Frightening and exciting at the same time. This is the way seamen have learned their trade for centuries.
Is it better than modern “school” methods? I don’t know. I do know that the seamen of yesteryear, experts at their trade, knew no other way to learn or teach the way of their ship so it certainly does work.
Time will tell.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
So it’s Boxing Day, a holiday celebrated by about 50% of the people on board apparently. I’m on galley duty which is sweet because I didn’t have to get up for my night watch.
The little Christmas Tree is still on the hatch and the decorations are still sparkling in the light but we are back to normal ship routine today. There is a change in the weather coming. This morning we still had the same light winds and long slow swell from the NW but awe also had high Cirrus clouds, Mare’s Tails alsso coming from that direction. by midafternoon the wind has dropped almost entirely and the sky is covered with a haze that malkes it look quite “brassy” it’s bright but you cannot see the Sun.
Hmmm. Hopefully we will get a fairer wind out of whatever is coming because at this rate it will take 20 days to get to Senegal!
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Merry Christmas! Last night we hung a “clean” sock outside our bunks and in the morning each one had some trinkets in it from a sack into which we each put some little goodies. I got a book “Baumgartner’s Bombay” by Anitabr Desai and a brass keyfob in the shape of a porthole.nbsp; I now have the only bunk in the salon with a porthole
Today was a fabulous sunny day with very light winds.nbsp; We drifted along off the coast of Africa taking our time and enjoying the day.
Around 3:00 this afternoon the Captain ordered the ship hove to and swim call was ordered. The crew took eager advantage and piled into the calm deep blue sea. I was ordered into the maintop as shark watch. This was cool as the water was so clear that from up there it looked like the crew were flying and swooping in the air.
There followed a great present opening that took nearly an hour. I got all kinds ofnbsp; great goodies, chocolates, a nice cuban cigar (thanks Kolin), some licorice ropes and a DVD with all his pics from the first leg of the trip from David and a number of other goodies including a replica “piece of eight” used in the Pirate Master show that was filmed on board the Picton Castle.
For dinner we had roast suckling pig which was barbecued during the day plus a prodigious amount of cookies, cakes and pie. Yummy!
As the sun set a group of people sat on the hatch with guitar, boran, fiddle, penny whistle and several drums acquired in Moroco, playing and improvising complex music. It was awesome!
A long slow smoke of my pipe in the twilight while the music played was a lovely end to a beautiful day.
I hope you all had a great Christmas with your loved ones.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Last night the wind dropped to an almost flat calm. We were ghosting along barely keeping steerage way. The sky was ablaze with stars. It’s odd to see Polaris so low in the sky.
There are starting to be new stars to the South that I have never seen before.
Lookout was really cool. The calm suface of the sea has alot of flashes and sparkles from small sea creatures. Occaisionally there are diffuse bursts of light that are coming from deeper down. There is an almost constant haze that masks the horizon so the sea just seems to turn into starry sky without a break.
Today is Christmas Eve and all morning there has been a beehive of activity with present wrapping and decorating. nbsp;The ship looks quite fancy in her Christmas sparkly bits There is Christmas music playing from someones Ipod on the welldeck and the there is a bright blue cloudless sunny sky above and a calm deep blue sea below!
When I get off watch this afternoon there will be a Fancy Dress Marlinspikenbsp;and tomorrow we have present opening and Christmas dinner.
If the Thanksgiving dinner was any indication it should be great.
More later
It’s later, I just came off the afternoon 12-4 watch. Spent most of it stringing popcorn on thread. We also calculated the speed of the ship by timing the passage of a piece of paper or popcorn a it drited along beside the ship, the formula to calculate the speed in knots is 36/time for the object to drift 60.8 ft.
For the record we were sailing along at 2 knots.
When it was my trick on the helm I was instructed to sail her ‘full and by” rather than a specific compass course. Sailing “full and by” means to sail as close to the wind as we can. The helmsman keeps his eyes on the windward leach of the main royal sail, the highest and smallest square sail. It is braced in a little sharper to the wind so it luffs first allowing the helmsman to correctnbsp;by falling off slightly.
We had a very nice marlinspike with champagne punch and a prodigious amount of cookies baked by the various watches late at night. After dinner which was a simple penne and sauce, we hung around talking till the sun started to set below the horizon. As I watched the sun set Isaw the fabled Green Flash! An awesome way to end the day of Christmas Eve.
Thanks for reading
KJ
Saw dolphins frolicking at the bows last night while I was on lookout.
There was no moon so it was really dark and they appeared as ghostly phosphorescent swoops and curls around the bows. Everywhere the sea breaks it glows in afaint greenish light.
I seem to have caught a cold, blah, plus with my sore back standing is a pain so lookout and helm were not real fun.
My new watch is a good crowd. I learned how to fill in the log while underway lastnight from the 2nd Mate Paul who is our watch officer.
The afternoon watch was really nice and war. The weather was great, steady winds and bright sunshine. There was a small hawk flying around and the debate was whether it was lost or migrating or what. That was the only thing other than us on the sea all day. The sea is a wonderful dark blue.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and Kolin, the Bosun, says there is no shipwork so it should be a good day too
Thanks for reading.
KJ
This morning dawned hazy and calm.
I discovered that I have caught a cold despite all my precautions so now I’m stuck at sea for 10 days with astuffed up head. I also threw my back out working in an odd position on Saaturdy and it hurt a bunch to straighten up this morning. Blah.
We heaved up the port anchor this morning and found it fouled by thestarboard anchor chain. The ship has been swinging as the wind grew light. A bight of chain was drapped over the stock of the anchor and had to be lifted in such a way that it would fall away on its own. Took manning all five capstan bars to get it don but once free we were able to hoist itaboard and get it “catted” ie lashed to the cathead which is a stout bar that sticks diagonally off the focsle deck for that purpose.
Once the crew that had gone ashore this morning returned, with Veronica our new AB and Mate, we hoisted up the starboard anchor and motored away from Gomera. We have started our 10 day sail down the coast of Africa to Senegal.
They have reorganized the wtches, I’m now on the 12-4 watch which means I’ll get to do more ship work during the day, oh goody more sanding and painting. Bruce tells me the biggest problem with 12-4 is that breakfast and lunch break up the off watch making it difficult to get enough sleep. I’ll have to watch that.
Thanks for reading.
KJ