6/11/2010

0400

Tonight was a long, cold night. I am somewhat frustrated with my difficulty on the helm. I think I prefer a tiller to a wheel; direct relations. It was a generally uneventful watch, outside of tacking once. We kept our generally easterly course with winds out of the SE. For the first time in a day or so we did see some other boats and even some signs of land. The biolumanecense on the deck was, admittedly more interesting to me than either of those.

1600.

The majority of this afternoon's watch was calm. We were motoring NE directly into the wind for the first few hours, but as the winds shifted we put up the three lowers (the main already being up for stabilities sake.) and the JT, FT and MGT. Bosun has explained to me that every time the MGT is set on our watch, he is going to send me aloft to do it until I learn exactly how it's done. I may grumble, but this is what I need. Also, I've lost my cell phone, which is problematic.

6/10/2010

Quiet night holding the same starbord tack as we set earlier in the day. At some point the Main Gaff Tops'l was struck, but other than that the conditions haven't changed overly. The guest crew doesn't seem to entirely understand the expectations, but then, they're paying to be here so I suppose it's their call. The winds have been playing between ENe and SE so we've been hovering around East trying to keep it on the quarter with some effort.

1600.

We were finally forced to tack in order to keep the wind useful to us. Overcast skies all around and a few sea birds to keep us company. I was sent aloft to loose the MGT which was new for me. I did not make a great showing of myself, but I will not make the same mistakes again. Some rain was crossing out bow as we were preparing to stand down. We had it for about half an hour, hopefully it wont bee to hard on A watch.

6/9/2010

1000

Siling out from Boston under calm conditions. The wind started to freshen out of the East, but we still had to set everything but the t'galland and stuns'l to keep ahead of the squall off our stern. The plan was to go to Halifax, but that plan changed to Lunenburg due to logal Politics and a mandatory Pilotage issue that was not made clear previously.

6/5/2010-6/6/2010

I admit I was remiss in my logging of this voyage... It was long and hard with very little rest for anyone, C watch in particular. The winds were clocking around like mad as weather circled around us and we were constantly setting and striking and setting again. the closest thing to respite was when we dropped anchor in some little harbor, but even that was tainted with the knowledge that we'd have to raise the two shots (shot being 90 ft) of chain in about six hours time.

But we did make it to boston, which proved to be fun. We were tired and sore, but Eric was right.

6/3/2010

1000

We've arrived in NYC, sails stowed and ready for a brief rest. Last night the wind was blowing hard out of the SW and there was a fog so thick one could barely see the headrig from the helm. It was more than a little unnerving; hearing huge cargo ships blowing their horns and not being able to see a single sign of them. This morning around 0800 however, the city came into view through the mist.

As a side note, one of the guest crew made a statement that I think will be a motto for the C watch this trip.

"Tired ain't dead"-Eric

6/2/2010

Last night's late watch was the definition of uneventful. After the weather and the stowing from earlier, we came to deck surprised to see a perfectly clear sky. The winds were very light out of the NE. There was a bit of traffic, but nothing overly interesting. It was, however, very cold; left over from the front that brought the earlier storm. This just made our bunks that much nicer to get to once stood down.

The afternoon watch had the wind back to the SE b ut so light that it could hardly be counted. Thankfully the swells were also light so we weren't tossed in our inaction. We took advantage of the calm and did some ligtht work on the boat. There is always something to paint or varnish. The winds starting building around 1430 and finally got to be enough to set some extra canvass around 1600; the FT, Jib, and Main.

I suspect our current easterly course is primarily to use up time because if we arrive in NYC early, we'll be forced to anchor. If we can't be productive either way, we might as well make a show of it and keep sailing.

During watch change we found a very large beetle with no earthly way of having gotten there. We have it in a can and are all entertained by it.

6/1/2010

2045

C watch called to deck. The winds have died down and we're wallowing somewhat on a port tack. Ahead of us is lighting, perhaps that anvil from earlier. Stood back down below after about fifteen minutes on deck. A little more rest before on watch.

2200

Called back up. Stowed the Main and the Jib as the winds are picking up again. Went aloft to sea stow the FT again, under a much more exciting sea than in the canal. The watch then helped the Med officer with cleaning duty. We all managed to wrap it up quickly.

6/1/2010

The voyage has begun. We've been out of Baltimore since about 1100 yesterday, and after spending the better part of the afternoon introducing the guest crew to the boat, we started north with the four lowers (Jib, Stays'l, Fores'l and Main) and the Fore Top set on a light breeze out of the south east.

At around 2330 C watch was called to deck to strike and stow sails as we motored into the C & D Canal. While motoring along on glassy water we passed the John Brown coming home from Philadelphia and enjoyed a brief conversation.

As A watch came to deck, we again set the four lowers, well into the Delaware river and were stood down. at 0435. A bit of a cold front moved in, which was a blessing below decks and allowed me to sleep nearly seven hours before waking up of my own accord. I came to deck around 1100just in time to see land rolling away in the swells. We have been headed North East and lost sight of Cape May NJ around 1350. The wind has freshened over the day, giving us plenty of white caps to make the view more interesting.as all we'v e had to look at otherwise was a could building an anvil head to our Northwest and the occasional crab pot. Carpenter dropped a fishing line in tow behind us, but so far, nothing. Some of the guest crew and the cook were overcome with a bit of seasickness and we are beset with flies. It's still a lovely sail. Stood down 1600.

A note and explaination

So I've decided to cut forward a bit here. The daysail schedule was boring for me to write about, which makes me assume it was also dull reading. Thankfully, we're now voyaging, which lends much more interesting events, and so I'll write about those things instead.