Travels With Barbara

Next Mail Port

The following info is an excerpt from the ship's website...the dates may be off by a few days because we left Lunenburg later than originally scheduled. I do enjoy receiving mail!

Rarotonga is the next port where mail for the ship will be received and held by the ship's agent. The ship is expected to be in port from August 30 to September 8, 2005. To send mail to the ship, please address it as follows:

POSTED MAIL

[Enter addressee]
S/V PICTON CASTLE
c/o Trader Jack's
P.O. Box 626
Rarotonga
Cook Islands
South Pacific

COURIERED MAIL (FedEx or UPS)

[Enter addressee]
S/V PICTON CASTLE
c/o Trader Jack's
Avarua Harbour
Rarotonga
Cook Islands
South Pacific

Senders should color the border of the letter or parcel with permanent green waterproof marker, and write clearly on the front:

"Hold for arrival of S/V PICTON CASTLE on or about August 30, 2005"

Please send mail so as to arrive about one week before the ship. Allow about three weeks for mail to reach Rarotonga.

Massage Therapy on Pitcairn

Before arriving at Pitcairn, I had told the Captain and the ship's Purser, Kimberly, who was in communication with people on the island, that I would be available to do massage therapy for the island's residents if anyone was interested. They promised to pass the word along to Pitcairn. By Sunday night I had not heard from anyone about doing massage and I was scheduled to go back to the ship on Monday afternoon. So, after the talent show Sunday evening I spoke to Kimberly about it.

Kimberly introduced me to Meralda who works at the island's Health Clinic. When I told Meralda that I was willing to do massage therapy she was very interested and promised to speak with the doctor in the morning. (The doctor is in residence while the construction crew is here to build the road.) At 8:30 the next morning I heard the doctor making a public announcement over the VHF radio that massage therapy for musculo-skeletal issues would be available at the clinic...so then I knew that he had given approval!

Monday morning I saw three people at the clinic for half hour appointments each. Other people expressed interest, but could not come in that morning. So, on my way home I stopped in at Big Fence where the Captain and several other shipmates were staying to ask his permission to stay ashore longer to do more massage therapy. He said, "Yes, you can stay ashore. But you have to do a lot of massage. You can't just say you're going to do it and then not have anyone show up."

So, I scrambled to talk to everyone I knew on the island to find out who wanted a massage. I quickly got names of people that others thought needed a massage. By this morning I had scheduled two appointments and had at least half a dozen others promising to call in for an appointment. I started at 9am, doing half hour appointments and worked straight through until 12:30, then again from 3:00 pm until 6:00pm...thirteen people by the end of the day. Adding the three people I massaged yesterday, I've worked on one-third of the 47 island residents. And there might be more tomorrow morning. I would say that I satisfied the Captain's criteria for allowing me to stay ashore.

Nor did I miss out on much outdoor fun today since it was another very, very rainy day. Perhaps I would have gone mud sliding with the younger crowd...it does look like fun. There's a steep slope where the rain run-off makes great long slides. Everyone dons coveralls and they come back covered with mud from head to toe. It washes off.

Tomorrow we all go back to the ship and set sail for Mangareva. I will certainly miss all my new friends on Pitcairn. I'm very glad to have the extra two days with my Pitcairn family and friends.

Talent Show

Pitcairn Islanders are very generous taking us into their homes and showing us all around the island. In return, they ask that we perform a talent show for them. The Port watch had done theirs on their first visit ashore, but Starboard watch had not yet done a performance. Sunday night everyone gathered in the Community Hall and the show got underway about 8pm. We had several people sing songs, an audience participation game, and a couple of skits which were hilarious. I laughed so hard that my face hurt and my sides felt ready to split.

After the Picton Castle crew finished performing, the Pitcairners sang a couple of songs for us. Actually it was a full multi-media performance with a computer run slide show with photos of Pitcairn scenes overlaid with the words of the songs. Very nicely done. When Cookie Mike got up to say closing words and invited Capt. Moreland to join him up front, one of the crew who has been to Pitcairn on previous voyages called out a request for the islanders to sing "In the Sweet Bye and Bye". At first the Captain said "we've heard that everytime we are here and we've heard that enough so we don't need to hear it again." But that was all in jest and after thanking the Pitcairners for their generous hospitality, he requested that they sing "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" for us since we will not be ashore when the islanders give the ship a final send off.

Traditionally Pitcairn Islanders sing "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" whenever a ship is leaving the island. This goes back for generations and all the times that "Yankee" visited Pitcairn that song was sung. In fact, at Exy Johnson's memorial service in Hadley, MA. this past December one of the "Yankee" crew introduced the very same hymn by telling the connection of "Yankee's" visits to Pitcairn and the song. So, when I heard the islanders voices reverberating through the Hall singing this song, it brought tears to my eyes and a whole new feeling for the song. That is something I will always remember.

Second visit ashore in Pitcairn

Friday afternoon, when the Pitcairn longboat delivered diesel fuel, Captain Moreland came out  to the ship and announced that we will be staying another four days at Pitcairn. So each watch gets another two days ashore. Needless to say, we were all delighted at the prospect of another two days with our new friends and more opportunities to explore this delightful island. Since our first two days had been so wet and sunny, we were hoping that the sunshine would stay around.

Saturday - our day to go ashore - dawned bright. Brent, Morgan and I finished up our galley duties with preparing and serving breakfast Saturday morning; Maggie, Erin and Catharine took over with the breakfast clean up. Somewhat ambitiously I stirred together a double batch of  pineapple-pecan coffee cake while Brent put together a fruit salad and Morgan made the coffee. Unfortunately, I did not realize that the oven was not turned all the way up and the coffee cake baked rather slowly. In fact, although the crust was nicely golden brown when I took the first pan out of the oven, the inside was rather doughy. Rather than let me put it back into the oven to finish baking, everyone ate it half baked and claimed it was delicious. The second pan stayed in the oven much longer and was served for dessert at lunch.

Since the road construction crew on Pitcairn was pouring cement, we had to wait for them to finish work before the longboat could come out to the ship for the shore crew to change over. Finally, we got word that they would come at 4:00 pm. Just an hour before they were due to arrive the radar screen showed a large rain storm coming from the other side of the island. And by the time the boat arrived, so had the rain!  Fortunately it did not last long. My watch is getting a complex about rainy days ashore.

Sunday morning the sun peeked in and out of the clouds. Catharine and I decided to take the chance on going out for a walk and took our cameras with us. We lucked out...no rain! And the roads were much easier to walk on after drying out for a couple of days.  I went barefoot which was fine until we got to the gravel pit. We went to the town square expecting to get there while the Post Office, Library and Museum were still open, but they only stay open one hour and had closed already when we got there at 9:30am. We walked by the Health Clinic, then over to Big Fence where a number of our crew are staying. (Big Fence is the name of a large house.)

Jeff joined us for a walk up to see John Adams' grave. John Adams was the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers and is a pivotal character in the history of Pitcairn. We stopped briefly at Len Brown's house where a canon from the Bounty sits in the front yard. Captain Moreland who is a long time friend of Len was visiting with him. He took our photos standing by the canon. We hiked on past some enormously tall Banyan trees...too tall to fit in one frame of the camera (I was sorry not to have brought my wide angle lens on this hike). After a few more photo stops, and a chance meeting with Joe, the ship's cook, we finally made it to John Adams' grave.

Unsure exactly how to get back to Brenda and Mike Christian's house (where Catharine and I were staying), we decided to stop in at Royal's house...she is the caretaker for John Adams' gravesite, so we knew that she lived nearby and her purple house is easy to find. Royal is in her 70's and remembers my mother, Mary Booth, visiting Pitcairn in '48 when she sailed on the "Yankee." Catharine bought a couple of handwoven baskets from Royal (I had bought several on my previous visit). Then she gave us directions to get home: walk up to the gravel pit, turn left; go to the Banyan tree, turn right and keep going up hill.

After a snack and changing into our bathing suits, Mike drove us out to St. Paul's on the ATV. We climbed down to the swimming hole...a spectacularly beautiful place that is beyond description: volcanic rock, crystal clear blue and green water and waves crashing over rocks about 100 feet high. Some of the big waves sent spray up to 250 feet high or more. Most of the Starboard watch on shore leave came out to St. Paul's to swim, surf in the crashing waves and celebrate Sam's birthday (Sam is our Chief Mate and watch officer, a delightful shipmate)...a bottle of wine and a fresh pineapple completed the celebration. It is the most phenomenally awesome place to swim. A great place to spend our only rain-free afternoon on Pitcairn!

Hove To Off Pitcairn

While in port we are divided into two watches (instead of three watches that we use at sea), and I am on the Starboard watch. Since we came ashore for the first two days while the Port watch stayed aboard the ship, then we had to return to the ship for two days while they came ashore. If you read my earlier postings you already know that we had a lot of rain when we were ashore. Well, it cleared up and the sun came out just in time for us to go back to the ship.

The water was much calmer for our return trip to the ship than it was the day we came ashore. And it was not so difficult to get from the longboat back onto the ship as I had thought it might be. Again, the secret is to watch carefully as the two vessels bob up and down in the water and wait until they are nearly level with one another. Then you can just step across, quickly.

Since there is no good anchorage by Pitcairn, we were hove to. Someone is assigned to do helm and lookout...one job, rather than two, since the helm is hard over to the right and there is no steering to do. Mostly we just sit by the helm and keep an eye out for wind shifts, squalls or anything unusual. Someone else is on radio watch at all times, standing by in the chart house to receive any radio calls. The rest of us are doing whatever ship's work needs to be done. In this case, since we had off-loaded several tons of cement, an ATV, a bandsaw (weighing 450 pounds), many cases of canned fruit, peanut butter, beer, wine and rum, and who knows what else, we had to shift a lot of materials that had been stowed in the chain locker and the sole of the Salon to the cargo hold in order to trim the ship better. And the second day we were on the ship we took on 28 barrels of diesel fuel, all of which had to be pumped into the two diesel tanks.

I was assigned to galley duty along with Brent and Morgan. Since the cook was ahore, that means that we had to cook meals as well as do all the dishes and clean up. I took charge of the meal planning and preparation: fruit salad, egg salad (everyone's favorite!), bisquick scones, and chickpea salad for lunch. After lunch I baked cornbread and brownies, made chili for dinner. Just as things were nearly ready for dinner, at 4:15pm, while the fuel barrels were coming aboard, a couple of our shipmates who were on shore leave pulled up in a small boat with one of the islanders and delivered three fresh yellow fin tuna!! They had been out fishing and caught 11 tuna. Jeff and Papa Jack took charge of cutting up the fish. I requested plenty of raw tuna for sushi and sashimi as well as tuna steaks to grill. I mixed up a dish of wasabi, put some rice on to boil and pulled out the nori to make nori maki rolls. We had a feast for dinner!! It's so much easier to cook for 23 people than for 51!

The weather stayed sunny from the time we went back to the ship on Thursday afternoon until Saturday when we found out what time we would be coming back ashore...then the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. Rain or shine we'll have fun ashore.

Rain and Mud on Pitcairn

We arrived just ahead of a gale. Not long after we came ashore and settled into our host family's home, the rain arrived.  We had very strong rain and wind yesterday and when we went for a tour of part of the island on an ATV we came home thoroughly soaking wet.

I had hoped today would be dry enough for me to take my camera out and go back to some of the places we had seen in the rain to get photos.  However, it rained most of the morning and was likely to rain more (which it did), so I decided to leave the cameras home. And it's a good thing I did. Not only did it rain quite heavily while we were out walking, but we were sliding in mud as much as walking.

We knew it would be messy and slippery before we left the house, so we did not even bother to wear sandals or shoes...it's easier to wash mud off bare feet. Once you take the first step into the mud just outside the house, there's no going back! You are muddy at least up to the knees because it splashes up. We quickly learned the art of walking downhill...stay to the side of the road where there's some grass and/or roots of plants to get traction. The road is packed so hard from the ATVs that the rain just makes a very slick coating on top, which is great if you want to ski or slide downhill on your backside. Catharine gave us a demo of that technique, quite by accident.

Pania and several other young crew members went to a place on the island where they like to go mud sliding...much like those of us who live in snow country go sledding in the winter, except they just put on some coveralls and slide down a steep slope. Judging by the amount of mud covering them from head to toe, I would say they had fun!

When Catharine and I were walking home, it was actually easier to go uphill as long as we could stay off the road and walk on grass. But when there was a steep bank next to the road it was nearly impossible. Fortunately, as we were getting to the most difficult part of the uphill climb, just a short way before the house, Brenda's son, Andrew, drove by on the ATV taking several of our muddy shipmates to their house and he came back to give us a lift up to the house. Riding on the ATV is messy business since the wheels kick up big clumps of mud. Needless to say we had to take off our muddy clothes before coming in the house and wash off our legs and feet. Most homes here have an outdoor hose or tub for just that purpose.

Despite, or because of, the rain and mud we had a lot of fun and many laughs!

Arriving at Pitcairn

During the 8 am to noon watch on Monday, Aug. 1st we sailed past Henderson Island, one of four islands in the Pitcairn group, about 100 miles from our destination. I was called up to take the helm from 10 to 11 am, so I had a great view from the quarter deck as we sailed West, going by the north side of the island which has a long, beautiful white beach. The weather was squally although the squalls all dissipated before reaching the ship (nice for me since I did not have my foul weather gear on). For about 5 or 10 minutes there was a rainbow, outlining the lower edge of a large gray cloud and arcing over Henderson Island from one end to the other. The colors were muted by the gray cloud yet it was truly beautiful. As we reached the west end of the island, we changed course from West to Southwest.

Tuesday morning, Aug. 2nd, when I came up on deck around 7 am, Pitcairn Island was clearly visible just off the port bow. The weather was quite windy and the water choppy since we were arriving just ahead of a gale. We sailed past Bounty Bay where the islanders keep their longboats, however the wind was not favorable for us to stop there so we had to sail around to the other side of the island, known as Tedside, where we could anchor in the lee of the island. During our approach we had all hands on deck busily taking in sails, bracing yards and finally, going aloft to stow the sails.

Once we were anchored, we called ashore by radio and the islanders came out in one of their longboats. One of our shipmates, Pania Warren, is from Pitcairn Island and has not been home for about 10 months, so she was overjoyed to see her Dad and brother as well as other relatives and friends from the island when they came aboard.

The sea was quite rough as the islanders were boarding the Picton Castle, with the longboat and the ship bouncing around a lot...one moment they were side by side and the next moment there could be a ten foot or more drop from the rail of the ship to the deck of the longboat.  As one of the islanders was in transit from the longboat to the ship, the ship went up on a wave as the longboat dropped down and in an instant he was in the water between the ship and the longboat. Quick action by the people handling the longboat...someonone pulled out a knife and cut the stern line free, allowing the longboat to swing away from the ship... as well as crew on the ship who helped pull the man from the water, averted a serious accident. 

We loaded a tremendous amount of supplies as well as gifts and personal gear into the longboat. When it was full and covered with plywood and a tarp, about 28 of us from the Picton Castle crew and the islanders all got into the boat to head ashore. It was a wild and wet ride through rough surf with waves breaking over the sides and bow of the boat getting us all thoroughly wet...far better than any amusement park ride could ever be! The rock and lava cliffs we passed as we came around the island to Ship's Landing at Bounty Bay were most impressive.  To approach the landing we had to wait at the edge of the breakers for a couple of minutes for just the right wave to ride in...kind of like surfing, but this was a 60 foot "surfboard" with about 40 people aboard. Timing it just right, the helmsman revved the engine and ran the boat in around the end of the jetty to the landing. Words can hardly describe the experience.

At the landing, after we unloaded all the cargo and personal gear from the longboat, and found our own belongings we were introdced to islanders who had offered to host us in their homes for the time that we are ashore. Catharine and I are staying with Brenda Christian, a native Pitcairner, and her husband Mike and Brenda's son, Andrew. We loaded all the gear onto ATVs, some with trailers, and the front end of a large bulldozer to drive it up the long, steep hill from the landing. This road is under construction at the moment and will be paved within the next few weeks.

Our hosts are wonderful people and we've met several other residents, both native and "visitors" (people who may be here for 3 to 6 months). Mike gave Catharine and me a tour of part of the island on his ATV yesterday afternoon. We set out when there was a break in the weather, however the rain started up again shortly after we left. Nonetheless, we carried on. We went to a high point above Ship's Landing, then to see St. Paul's Rock, the top of Down Rope and several other places. The views are spectacular. We drove under huge Banyan trees, known as "walking trees" because they put down roots and move from one place to another, mostly downhill, over the course of many years.

Time to go out and see more of the island!

Ditty Bag and Sailmaking

The Captain gave several classes on sailmaking skills by way of teaching us to make a ditty bag. Although I've done a lot of sewing, I've never worked with canvas and rope...it's a bit more difficult.

First of all, learning to use a sailmaker's palm felt awkward and uncomfortable to me. After working with it over the course of a few days, I finally got the hang of it and I can now stitch along fairly well. With a little more practice my stitches are becoming more even and uniform.

Once we had the seam stitched along the side of the bag and the tabling stitched around the top edge, we moved on to making grommets. We made two small grommets using marlin which we inserted on opposite sides of the bag to attach a handle, known as a becket on a ditty bag. The first grommet I made came out quite nicely, then it took me several attempts to make another one that was suitable.

The next lesson involved disassembling a length of rope to get one strand which we used to make a larger grommet that is sewn around the top edge of the ditty bag. This was quite a bit trickier. Not only is it important to make the grommet the right size to fit the bag...and that's a bit of a guessing game...but also you need to untwist the rope enough so that when it is wrapped together into a grommet it does not have a twist in it. On my first attempt, the line I used was about six inches too short. I cut a longer piece of rope and started over. I thought it looked fine until I found out that having a twist in the grommet (it looked like a figure eight) would make the bag twist. So I took that one apart to re-make it without a twist. That is easier said than done. After four or five attempts, including one that looked fine but was two inches too big, I finally got it right.

Once the grommet was sewed onto the top of the bag, the next step was to splice on a becket (rope handle) for the bag and wrap a seizing around the splice on each side. And the final step was making and inserting the bottom. I chose to use wood for the bottom of my ditty bag; some people used canvas or leather. As soon as it was all finished I put all my sailmaking tools (palm, needles, awl, pliers, threads and wax) into it. And there's plenty of room for more items I intend to acquire, such as fids from Pitcairn and Bali.

I enjoyed the stitching and ropework, especially once I became accustomed to working with the sewing palm. I've already done a little bit of sailmaking during the past week or so. We have had to take down two sails that ripped during the passage from Galapagos to Pitcairn. While they've been replaced with old, patched sails, we are in the process of seaming new sails to replace them.

Galapagos to Pitcairn

We set sail from Galapagos on the afternoon of Monday, July 11th. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I would have liked to spend more time exploring Galapagos in the sunshine...we had a lot of cool, overcast days with some rain there.

Our first day out at sea the wind was light so we motored south. By the afternoon of our second day out we were able to set sails and shut off the engine. It's so peaceful without the engine running, and I love to see all the sails set. We had great wind...steady from easterly directions for a week or two. We sailed along at 6 to 8 knots, going as much as 150 or more miles per day. We did have to motor occassionally towards the end of our passage when the wind died out, but mostly we sailed and made very good time, arriving just 22 days after leaving Galapagos.

Oddly for me, the days in July have been getting shorter as we sail farther south into the Southern hemisphere. In fact, the Captain told the cook to serve dinner at 5:30 pm instead of 6pm, so that there is enough daylight left while we eat to see our food! Of course, this is "winter" for the Southern hemisphere and the sun is north of the equator at this time of year, so it stands to reason that our days are shorter.

For the first two weeks of this passage I was on the 4 to 8 watch. And this time we did get to see a number of nice sunrises and sunsets. Also a truly spectacular moonrise on the night of the full moon...a huge bright orange orb coming up out of the sea just as we were finishing our watch. We had some clear nights for stargazing. And a couple of nights when I was able to steer the ship by keepin the Southern Cross in view at a particular angle to the ship, rather than keepin my eyes glued to the compass. We were steering SouthWest by South, so the Southern Cross was visible alongside the port shrouds of the mainmast.

About a week ago we rotated the watches by splitting the 4 pm to 8 pm watch in half. Those of us who had been on the 4 to 8 worked from 4 to 6 pm, those who had been on the 12 to 4 watch worked from 6 to 8 pm, and the former 4 to 8 watch came back on at 8 pm to stand their new watch from 8 to midnight. If that sounds a bit confusing, it was. However, since there's always someone on watch who does "wakeups" for the next watch, you don't really have to keep track of it...just come up on deck when you're told that it's time for your next watch.

The first few days of the passage were difficult mostly because a stomach bug was passing through the crew and every day several more people were feeling sick. Fortunately it went quickly for most of us and we recovered within 24 hours. I was lucky to only have a fever and aches, no vomitting or diarrhea. I missed only one watch when I felt too weak to stay on deck. After we recovered from that and we had readjusted to being at sea, walking on a tilting and rolling deck, we settled into a comfortable routine and the days just flew by.