Just a bit to give you some ideas of what I have been doing. Some on the ship learning new things and some discoveries.

Above is the Seafarers Mission where I have finally been able to get some internet.  Problem is that it is not consistent.  So far today is a good day.  Yesterday and day before a lost cause.  Also interesting is the cost around the island.  This is the most reasonable at 5 pounds per hour.  I have seen it 15 pounds per hour, 10 pounds for 30 minutes, etc.  The sad part is that they all work about the same no matter what you pay.

So here we go.  Have you ever heard of Baggy Winkles?  No matter what you are thinking, on board it means taking pieces of old unusable line/rope and placing it between two small bungee cord lines quite long as you will see, not allowing the bungee cord to twist and bringing the line from under to over the sides equally and then back down in front of the rest, pull tight and slide up to rest that have been done.  And why would we do this??  We then will put it on a shroud to keep the sail from becoming chaffed as it rubs against the shroud/stay.

Preparing lines to be used.  First the strands are pulled apart.

Actually wonder if this is what it feels like to make popcorn strings for Christmas tree.

Liz  (in striped polo) is doing it rather quickly one handed as she has suffered a stroke.  Fran is working hard also.  Andy is watching in amazement.

Actually became quite the party.

Our Baggy Winkle workforce  after we finally ran out of line. Jo, first on the right is the one that spent time helping build Tenacious, then Liz our one handed wonder, Allison, Jon, Carter, Kate our wheelchair riding watch leader, Bridget (watch leader), Lucy and Andy.  We do appear to be celebrating or at a party!

? The Three Stooges or the Three Baggy Wrinkle Ladies?

The Baggy Wrinkles at work up above.  Imagine the sail coming and rubbing against the forestay (it is one of the cables that is holding up the mast).

Above you can see where the immersion suits are stored until needed.  Then they are brought down rather quickly to a pile below where we would hurriedly put them on preferable prior to going into cold water!  The cable on the right is actually lowered during an evacuation and then anyone in a wheelchair would be brought up with that as elevators are not utilized during emergency.  I use it to go quickly down the stairs on way to meals!

Trying on our immersion suits.  This was interesting and I hope that I never get to wear one for real as that means we are in the water hoping for a rescue.

Stylish aren’t I?  Tope right is 3 of my watch.  Michael, Fran (who has done around 30+ years sailing on tall ships) and Charlotte (who is on the Cambridge sailing team and taking a year gap).

Speaking of our watch, above is left to right, Michael, Charolette, Jennifer, Skip (our guide for South Georgia), Jon, Chris our leader (you’ve already seen him) and Fran.  The card on top is not a Bingo card, but our watch card.  Our different watches are the blacked out spots.  The lower card is my info and that I have messman on the 1, 8 days as it revolves around the card.

Above is everyone getting lifejackets on during an evacuation drill.  Incidentally we have been the fastest 2 out of 2 drills!! Yea Starboard Aft watch!

This are our climbing harnesses.  We each have one assigned to us and then we set them up to fit us so we can get them on and off quickly.

Under the watchful eyes of Michael (the navigator) we got to climb up to the first platform on the main mast yesterday.  Almost like climbing a ladder but you can’t use the wooden slats that are parallel to the boat.  One must hold on the the steel cables when climbing.  The orange line that you see is the line that we are attached to.

If you look at the bottom of the white bar (yard it is called) that crosses the mast, you will see a black line going across.  That is what we will be going out and standing on when we release the ties around the sail that is within the aluminum yard.  There is a steel cable for us to attach to while out doing that.  Can’t wait!!!  Ran out of time yesterday to try it.

Today we learned about how the helm works and what we needed to do as lookouts.  Very interesting and there is a device on the compasses outside of Helm area that we use to provide location of where we have seen ships, debris, whales, etc. when notifying the Skipper.

Above is Stu who showed us how all the lines (ropes) work.  How to safely work with them so as not to lose a  thumb or worse.

Here he is instructing us on how to line up to pull ropes together: ” 2, 6 Heave” (pull the line altogether), “Ease To” whatever we need to ease to, “Well” (stop) and “Come up” (drop the rope).

Michael demonstrating how to bring in rope neatly so it will uncoil without any problem and then how to properly attach it with a twist.

Then Stu showed us the thought process on moving the sails when on the yards.  Then we got to practice.  One watch eases from the side they would be on and the other watch pulls the yards around to position.  Trick is to keep all the yards moving together.  Notice there are 5 yards in the picture.  It will be quite a feat to do this with sails attached and a bit of wind blowing into them.

Remember the big fat mooring line that I pointed out needed to be fixed in an earlier blog?  Well, here is the new mooring line!  Much prettier in black and white!

Food………oh my.  Roast dinner with bread pudding and you can see how the tables are set.  This is one of two.

Permanent crew working on Mainmast Staysail.  Two permanent crew up on platform, two on deck working to get slider working and one on the top of sail trying to pull it up.

Very calm wind.  Interesting that one can see a hint of a rainbow to left of far left mast and some of the mast reflection in the water.  You have to look closely for both.

This is an actual picture of the reflection of clouds in the water.  Really calm day!!!

All for now!  Have a great day!