Friday Feb 6,09
Yesterday we fired up the engines after taking in all sail about 7:00am.
We motored to the South West for most of the day until resetting sail about 5:00pm.
I went aloft to the main topgallant for the first time after we reset the sails. I was told to “overhaul the
bunts”. This means to pull extra line through the blocks so that the buntlines and leechlines (which pull up
the foot and leech of the sail when it is being furled) from going tight under their own weight and
distorting the set of the sails. Easy to say but that meant I had to climb up higher than I have ever been
before!
As one climbs the shrouds get closer together and the ratlines eventually become only about as wide as
my foot! Also as the shrouds get narrower they start to twist when one is climbing. That takes a bit of
getting used to. The ship motion is much greater up there but not as bad as I expected. I don’t think I’d
like to be up there in a gale just yet.
We were braced fairly sharp on the port tack so getting out onto the yard on the port side looked pretty
tricky to me so I went down to deck and told Veronica that I couldn’t do it.
The Captain overheard me and he said “Go up and try it again. If Suzy can do it you can.” Suzy is 5′ nothing! So up I went and sure enough when looked at more calmly there was no problem. Amazing what a change in perspective does.
Night watch this morning was uneventful until about 6:00am when we broke back into the Trade winds
and spent the last two hours setting all sails. We are now sailing SW at about 6 knots and should reach
Fernando de Noronha tomorrow morning.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
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