Passage to Grenada Feb 11,09

 Wed Feb 11,09 Day 4

Had a very active and wet night watch this morning. We came on deck to dark clouds pouring rain and
flickering lightning. Just as we were coming up the command to take in the Royals was made so the first
few minutes were hectic. Then after we got that item of business done we were ordered to put on our full
fowlies including boots in case of lightning strikes on the rig.

During the next two hours the rain slacked off and the wind settled down and we reset the royals. I went
out to the very end of the jib boom to loose the flying jib. This means to unwind the long line, called a
gasket, which secures the sail when it’s furled. That is the furthest outboard I’ve been right at the end of
the jib boom. nailed to the end of the spar is the fins of a fish caught just before we crossed the Equator.
We reset the mainsail and I went up on the yard to overhaul the buntlines.

By the time my trick on the helm rolled around the rain had stopped and the wind was back to a steady
NE force 4. She steered beautifully in the watery grey light of dawn. A very active and “salty” watch that.
Spent a fairly relaxed day. The sun came out and I got two good sun sextant shots.

By the time our evening watch was done however another storm front had moved in bringing stronger
winds and very scary looking skies. We took in the royals and the flying jib. By the time we got off watch it was very blustery but no rain yet.

On a side note…

I’ve noticed something interesting and odd looking about how hanging objects swing inside the ship. For
example a jacket hanging on a hook inside the salon, or my flashlight on a hook in my bunk. Unless the length of object is one in which it would swing in sync with the ships motion the object appears to move in
a jerky way. It is like the object was on a stick that is swung by a hand crank instead of swinging smoothly
like a pendulum. It doesn’t look real frankly. It looks like a bad pirate movie set where everything is
dragged by strings one way then the other.

It is this behaviour that made taking clocks to sea for navigation a tough proposition until one could be
developed that corrected for the motion.

The other thing this behaviour mimics is a changing gravitational field. Tossing something into the garbage
can across the salon becomes an exercise in predicting how the ships motion will effect the trajectory.
Generally a pointless exercise, much better to just walk over and place it directly in the bucket :-)

Thanks for reading
KJ