Day’s Run – 22 May, 2016

As predicted the wind went light over the course of the night.

At around 6am as the sun came up to reveal a beautiful Sunday for us the breeze went from light to calm. Though we have been making good time there is no cause to sit around and with another low pressure system coming up in the next 24hrs we fired up the big B&W Alpha and again started making tracks toward Cape Finisterre.

The calm only lasted the morning and by the noon watch change we had set Topsails and shut down the main engine. In the early afternoon we loosed and set all sail. This time it really is ALL sail as we now have the Flying Jib bent and the watch on deck drilled in setting and taking in the new sail.

PICTON CASTLE with all sails set
PICTON CASTLE with all sails set

We also switched and dogged the watches this afternoon, this gives the crew the chance to work with different groups and officers, standing watch at a different time of day. Though getting into a routine is a very good standard practice of a long deep sea voyage it is also good to mix things up a bit and have a change of ‘scenery’ as it were.

In the late afternoon as the new watches settled into place we noticed the first signs of the oncoming low pressure system, the sky began to cloud over and the barometer began to fall, as night came on we reduced sail to Topsails and Courses in expectation of strong winds tonight.

SHIP’S WORK: Sunday at Sea, which means no ship’s work! But we did end-for-end the fore lifts as we noticed a chafe point in them.

FROM: Lunenburg, NS, Canada

TOWARDS: La Rochelle, France

TIME ZONE: ZD+1

NOON POSITION: 43°05.0’N / 017°58.6’W

DAYS RUN: 102nm

PASSAGE LOG: 2136nm

DISTANCE REMAINING: 745nm

COURSE AND SPEED: E x S, 6kts

WIND: Calm

WEATHER: Sunny, air temp: 19°C, water temp: 15°C

SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: 2 ft, W’rly

SAILS SET: Fore & Main, Upper & Lower Topsails

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