Coming Togethers

4/27
Finn’s Prom = Huge success. He knew we were throwing him a party in honor of getting his GED, but he had no idea of the scale. He thought it was just going to be a few people getting rowdy at someone’s house. He was wrong. Amanda and Maggie spent the better part of two days fixing up the Lunenburg fire hall, which we had rented for the night.

At 7:30 on the dot, the boys, decked out in thrift-store formals, grabbed Finn and threw him into the back of First Mate Mike’s truck. The inside had been overhauled with blankets, votives, Christmas lights, champagne on ice, and the one and only Katie Baker, Finn’s Picton Castle soul mate flown in for the night. He didn’t have a clue. He told me later he cried a little, but Katie didn’t notice. They sat in the truck and caught up while Kolin chaufferred, taking a round-a-bout way to the fire hall. The windows were blacked out, and Kolin drove for half an hour, so by the time they arrived at the hall Finn had no idea where they were. He and Katie made their grand entrance, the crowd of nearly 100 people cheered, and a few more old shipmates popped out of a giant gift box. Full sound system, computerized concert lighting, fog machine, dancing till 2.
It was perfect. A top-notch celebration of a top-notch friend working to continue his education and push on in his career as a mariner.


Katie and Finn, the grand entrance, cheering friends. Finn and the CaptainEric and me playing DJ and taking a breatherStart wearing purple wearing purple...
So when this Gogol Bordello song comes on (which it does at every party) Finn and I go nuts and dance around like Fiddler on the Roof + Alice Cooper. Some people freak out, most embrace it and join in.
And as for sailing work, we’re flying. Eric, my good friend and shipmate from Gamage this summer, has been here for up-rig, and has been a huge help. Last week we completed some key rigging tasks, sending up the royal yards and the fore t’gallant, and all the braces and halyards. The main t’gallant is under construction.

5/2
Dave Westergard, master boatbuilder, has finished the main t’gallant yard, and today we sent it up. It was the first rigging work I’ve done in three days. That may not sound like a long time, but I’ve been down in the engine room with Finn and Nobby drilling and tapping holes in the steel bulkhead for hanging new wire and fuel lines. It’s important work to do, and I’ve learned a lot, but I was suffering from acute aloft withdrawal.

All four deckhands were aloft for the procedure, and it went like clockwork. We worked together well. We all knew what to do, and we crossed the yard smoothly and safely. Job well done. And for all the sailor talk that was going on, much of it was in the language of inside jokes between friends, which we all are. It was only a short while aloft, but carried the promised of a tight team and a year of strong seamanship. We all feel it, and it’s why we have so much fun.
Kolin and Eric lash up the new main t'gallant yardMike cross checks everything"On the capstain, heave around!" (that's Shawn there)The yard comes up. Me, Nadja, Kolin aloft to guide it Bosun Kolin, the first one ever to lay out on our brand new yard, finished up the foot rope stirrup lashing.

5/3
Today, after unloading the cargo hold and organizing the contents on the dock, we broke for lunch. I went up and lay myself down on the fo’c’sle head deck, warm from the high-sunny day. The noon sun reflected off the harbor water, scattering wavelets of light on the yards. The whole rig glowed like it was alive, a weird, warm, electric energy. It seems like most days lately feel like this. The trainees are gathering. We have almost a full ship’s compliment now. Lots of new faces buzzing in the main salon.

Tonight we have a dockside barbecue with the Bluenose II crew, and the captain will be presenting them with them with fids adorned with Balinese carvings. It’s important for us to bond and share together. Both ships do very different things, but in our own unique ways we each bring great value and service to the tall ship community, and its place in the relevancy of the public consciousness – something that is in great flux today in the time of more modern commercial seafaring.

5/14
This might have been one of the most significant days in my time with the Picton Castle. In the wake of the tragedy in December, 2006 when one of Picton Castle’s crew was lost in a storm, the ship has been under extraordinary scrutiny, and making extensive improvements, all appropriate to any vessel in which a fatality is suffered, to ensure that the vessel is as safe as possible.

Today, in the climax of our efforts, we underwent three simultaneous and comprehensive safety inspections: one by the Canadian government, one by our flagship government, the Cook Islands and New Zealand, and one by a privately contracted safety inspector. At the end of the day, the representative of Transport Canada, a captain himself, said that, pending the successful execution of one more drill, he was very impressed by what he saw. It was obvious to him that the ship was in loving, skilled hands, and that he would be happy to report that he found zero deficiencies and wishes he could sail off as part of the ship’s company.

We are all proud of our ship, her Master, and proud members of her crew, and this is a very moving validation of all the hard work that’s been done, and the dedication of the Picton Castle family. It doesn’t fix what’s happened, but it affirms our constant work to improve, and the ship’s reputation as one the finest sailing vessels on the planet.

And that was just BEFORE lunch.

After lunch we continued on in form, bending on six of the thirteen sails we will be carrying for the crossing. The rig is nearly complete, and all the work we’ve been doing this winter is coming together. To be here, and be helping lead trainees in jobs like bending sail and sending up running rigging, and to be getting the jobs done is supremely rewarding. It is beyond exciting to see it all happen. I go to bed tonight a bit overwhelmed.

5/16
Finished. The rig is finished and ready. All sails bent on. New spanker boom and gaff on. And then?

Then the magic words from the Mate: “UP AND LOOSE!”

I shot up the main, Nadja up the fore, to the t’gallants, gaskets cast off, sails hanging, and down the mast loosing each sail, then to deck, hands to gear, sheet home, haul the halyards, ease the braces, the sails are set! All of them!

Mike, the 1st Mate, walked all the trainees out to the end of the dock to admire what they had just done. It felt just like Irving Johnson said in his famous film, Around Cape Horn. We got sails! All that canvas sewn together by our hands, and we put it up there with our own hands, and we set it all with our own hands! There’s not much else more satisfying as far as I’m concerned. It was cloud nine the whole time. It’s been a long, good winter, and this a fantastic layer of icing.