Oiling and Sewing

I oiled the chest of drawers that lives in the heads. Unscrewed it from the wall, sanded and oiled with a Sveta mixture, oil, linseed oil and pine tar. I did some whippings on the end of lines and finished sewing the chafe gear on a line.

Brooke was in bosuns servicing blocks and later sewing the sail; Kat was cleaning the galley and then sewing. Katie was tarring boots in the head rig and making a new one on the port cathead. Grant was all over the place again, patch serv, tarring, bosuns and Sveta was working on the eye bolt again. We also started to change the stopper knots on the lines, from figure eights to double overhands.

We also got a new volunteer, Ethan, another Canadian.

Figure eight vs. double overhand.

Brooke.

Kat and Brooke changing stopper knots.

Deck Fixing

Brooke and I were put on deck fixing, the goal was to fix the ones that had popped out or knocked down badly. The bungs from the other day were still up and weren’t ready to be knocked down by the time tours started so we had to make areas for them to walk around. After lunch we worked on sail mending and exercised the helm a bit because we wanted to and were excited to do it, starting to move a little more easily.

Sveta went back to trying to get that eye bolt out. Chris and Kat sanded the spanker boom and later Katie came and oiled it. Grant did more patch serving and tarring.

Fancy Yachts

This morning Kat and I did more deck fixing, after lunch and after we watched Lynx sail in I was put on the whale board with Katie. We finished painting the whole whale board! Sveta worked on getting another eye bolt out, but it really has become one with the boat, Grant did a variety of things, patch serve and tarring. Josh and Brooke went provisioning and Chris took the day off. Tonight we went over to the really fancy docking for yachts, Geronimo invited us over for a crew party they have there on Friday nights.

Brooke watching Grant sewing.

Grant mending his shorts.

Girls of the Bounty, Brooke, Caz (me), Katie and Sveta. (Kat not photoed)

Late night shopping

In the morning Kat put another layer of oil on the mizzen fife rail, Brooke and Grant patch served and then tarred the fore royal footropes. Katie started servicing blocks while I oiled a few of them down in bosuns. Katie was stuck in bosuns for most of the day. I painted the port side whale board, all of it is done. Kat and I painted ourselves in but we managed to climb back up to the boat with no yellow footprints following behind us. Chris put another coat of black something in the engine room, the tiller and the bell. In the afternoon Chris and Brooke were on the starboard whale board. Grant added another layer of oil to the fore fife rail and Sveta took apart some dead bolt over the side of the quarterdeck.

After work Brooke, Katie, Grant and I went out, more shopping, good will and ross for clothes.

Tarred royal foot ropes and lifts.

Wet taRRRRR.

Freshly pained whale board.

Oiled mizzen fife rail.

Freshly painted rudder.

Lynx and Bounty.

2 Months

I’ve been here two months now and everything runs smoothly and we all have a rhythm to work to. Kat was up in the rigging all day taking down more gear related to the royal and the topgallant. I took off the lifts and footropes from the fore royal and then added another layer of oil to the mizzen fife rail. Chris, Grant, Brooke and Katie were all doing things related to the whale board; Grant was being more of a deck monkey.

Right before lunch Katie and Brooke left so that Brooke could play the piano at some store for her birthday.

After lunch I pained the whale board while Chris caulked, Kat up in the rig again and Sveta and Grant were working on the tiller.

How To Simulate The Life Of A Sailor

How To Simulate The Life Of A Sailor

~ Buy a steel dumpster, paint it gray inside and out, and live in it for six months.

~ Run all the pipes and wires in your house exposed on the walls.

~ Repaint your entire house every month.

~ Renovate your bathroom. Build a wall across the middle of the bathtub and move the showerhead to chest level. When you take showers, make sure you turn off the water while you soap down.

~ Raise the thresholds and lower the headers of your front and back doors so that you either trip or bang your head every time you pass through them.

~ Disassemble and inspect your lawnmower every week.

~ On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, turn your water heater temperature up to 200 degrees. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, turn the water heater off. On Saturdays and Sundays tell your family they use too much water during the week, so no bathing will be allowed.

~ Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling, so you can’t turn over without getting out and then getting back in.

~ Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Have your spouse whip open the curtain about 3 hours after you go to sleep, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and say "Sorry, wrong rack."

~ Make your family qualify to operate each appliance in your house - dishwasher operator, blender technician, etc.

~ Have your neighbor come over each day at 5 am, blow a whistle loudly, and shout "Reveille, reveille, all hands heave out and trice up."

~ Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in your back yard at 6 am while she reads it to you.

~ Submit a request chit to your father-in-law requesting permission to leave your house before 3 pm.

~ Empty all the garbage bins in your house and sweep the driveway three times a day, whether it needs it or not.

~ Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, read your magazines, and randomly lose every 5th item before delivering it to you.

~ Watch no TV except for movies played in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch, then show a different one.

~ Make your family menu a week ahead of time without consulting the pantry or refrigerator.

~ Post a menu on the kitchen door informing your family that they are having steak for dinner. Then make them wait in line for an hour. When they finally get to the kitchen, tell them you are out of steak, but they can have dried ham or hot dogs. Repeat daily until they ignore the menu and just ask for hot dogs.

~ Bake a cake. Prop up one side of the pan so the cake bakes unevenly. Spread icing real thick to level it off.

~ Get up every night around midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread. (midrats)


~ Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. At the alarm, jump up and dress as fast as you can, making sure to button your top shirt button and tuck your pants into your socks. Run out into the backyard and uncoil the garden hose.

~ Every week or so, throw your dog in the pool and shout, "Man overboard port side!" Rate your family members on how fast they respond.

~ Put the headphones from your stereo on your head, but don't plug them in. Hang a paper cup around your neck on a string. Stand in front of the stove, and speak into the paper cup "Stove manned and ready." After an hour or so, speak into the cup again "Stove secured." Roll up the headphones and paper cup and stow them in a shoebox.

~ Place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have your family stand watches at the podium, rotating at 4 hour intervals. This is best done when the weather is worst. January is a good time.

~ When there is a thunderstorm in your area, get a wobbly rocking chair, sit in it and rock as hard as you can until you become nauseous. Make sure to have a supply of stale crackers in your shirt pocket.

~ Make coffee using eighteen scoops of budget priced coffee grounds per pot, and allow the pot to simmer for 5 hours before drinking.

~ Have someone under the age of ten give you a haircut with sheep shears.

~ Sew the back pockets of your jeans on the front.

~ Lock yourself and your family in the house for six weeks. Tell them that at the end of the 6th week you are going to take them to Disney World for "liberty." At the end of the 6th week, inform them the trip to Disney World has been canceled because they need to get ready for an inspection, and it will be another week before they can leave the house.

I got this off a friend of a friend.

Down rigging fore royal

It was a really long day, yet everything when by pretty quickly. I put a coat of black on the bell, Chris and Peter sanded more of the whale board, Brooke, Grant and Katie sanded the mizzen fife rail to get the scratches out and put a coat of oil on. Another layer of oil was added to the capstan. Kat went aloft with Sveta to start down rigging the fore royal, the yard came down today. Brooke went up later to help out while Kat was dealing with taking down blocks.

After lunch I went up with Sveta to have a turn and help her out. I actually hadn’t been up to the fore royal so I’m glad I got the chance to before it was down rigged. Mark came up, he was bored and wanted to help, but maybe in a way it made it more complicated because he and Sveta had a conversation about how she was down rigging and how he thought it should be done.

Kat, Brooke, Chris, Sveta and Mark stayed up in the rigging while they were still fiddling with last minute things to get the yard down. Eventually it was just Sveta and Mark up there and the rest of us on deck to ease the gantline and haul on the tag line. At one point it got stuck on some chafe gear on a backstay so we had to haul it back up so Sveta could take it off and then we lowered it to the deck.

We are eventually going to be down rigging the whole foretopmast so that we can put in a Dutchman on top of the lower mast.

Mark looking silly.

Carrying the fore royal.

Fore royal down!

Kat showing off her tools.

Bosun party, Katie, Sveta and Mark.

Finished painting the bell.

Grant removing a shackle from a block.

Day off

It was a colder day so we stayed inside and it rained. We watched movies and I made pecan pie.

Paint Fumes

We didn’t do a deck wash today because Sveta said that the whale board would get wet and then wouldn’t be able to do any work outside. I was put back on rust busting the ship’s bell and painting it with metal primer, that stuff really smells. Brooke did the last touches on the deck box, helped set some staging and then mended the sail. Chris was doing battery and engine room things. The whale board was sanded and things were cleaned up in bosuns. Grant and Katie were stuck in bosuns for two hours, there were a lot of fumes making woozy.

Lynx is our neighbor

Lynx is finally docked next to us, it’s really nice to have neighbors.

Today’s jobs, Chris and I panted the rest of the hull, had some difficulties with the staging and actually getting down there, so he was down there the most while I played deck monkey. Ran around getting things for people who were over the side. Kat finished caulking the seam above the whale board, Grant and Brooke finished the deck box and later started to sand the whale board. Katie sanded the whale board on the port side and later I started to do some rust busting on the ship’s bell. Sveta played around with the forward port pin rail station post, pried off the copper cover to get to the bolt so she could tighten it and hopefully stop the waterfall of water that kept coming into the galley when we did a deck wash.

Chris sanding the hull.

Kat caulking the whale board.

Lynx in her new home.

Copper ripped off the station to revile bolt.

Grant and Brooke moving staging while Katie talks to Sveta.

Grant and Brooke prepping the whale board.

More work

Katie and Kat caulked a seam; Grant and Brooke finished up the deck box lid and painted it. Chris and I were put together again and we painted more of the hull, he was on duty today so I was stuck down there most of the time by myself. He went off with Peter for awhile so I painted the whole thing by myself. Did some mousing on the mizzen in the morning as well.

Lynx is suppose to be docking next to us tomorrow, after having been here a week already.

Odd day

Today was a bit annoying; things just went a little wrong. After duty things I joined Grant on the fore mast to do some quick mousing. Katie tarred and later was in the engine room, Sveta and Grant worked on the deck box, Brooke and Kat painted the hull, Chris and I did more deck fixing.

The annoying things that happened, Brooke got shocked by a sander plug, Josh got shocked by the fan and Sveta by some other plug. Chris and I broke two drill bits and the starboard engine randomly shut off.

Josh did manage to get three coconuts, chilled the water and drank it when Dennis and Mark came over. Mark came to hang out with Sveta and spend the night. Dennis came over to do some laundry, while we waited Grant showed us some capuaria, we have the space for it so everyone was do cartwheel type things and stretching around.

Day off on the Lynx

You know you’ve gone a little crazy when you spend your day off working on another boat. Grant, Brooke, Kat and Josh went ashore, Sveta, Chris, and I went to the Lynx.

The Lynx crew, Alex, Dennis, Duffy, Karen, Hannah, Ashley, Jimmy, Mark and Jake, only the first three are staying all winter. The rest are leaving at the end of the month and new crew should be arriving soon.

I ended up scrapping off oil from the main fife rail with Ashley for awhile, Dennis joined in when Ashley went to the museum to do inventory and after lunch Alex joined in as well. Sveta helped Mark with hoops for the mast and Chris helped Duffy with some cannon gear.

We got to eat lunch there and we all had to squeeze in around their table, and extra three people really made a difference. Grant, Katie and Brooke showed up, they just stopped by on their way back from shore and Katie decided to stay and help us with work party.

It was a really great day and it was nice to get to know everyone in the work environment. After spending all day on the Lynx it really made me appreciate how much space we have on the Bounty, but the Lynx is really badass.

Dennis preparing to dive for a mug that went overboard.

Alex, Duffy and Chris cleaning up cannon tools.

Ashely taking pictures in the water of the barracuda.

Lynx's main fife rail, scrapped.

Bounty from the Lynx at the sailfish marina.

Lazy day and Party

For some reason it was decided that we turn to was at 9 today, no complaining. We spent the better part of the morning getting the boat in a better position to the dock, doubling dock lines, adding chafe gear and setting up the brow.

For the rest of the day Kat and I worked on sanding the capstan all over again, there were still little marks from the electric sanders. It’s a presentation piece, has to be as perfect as we can get it.

Katie and Grant were painting the hull; Brooke had taken people for a food run and to pick up Caleb. He came down to pick up his truck and I guess do some other things, don’t know how long he’s staying. Some people from the Lynx also went in to get things because we are had a dinner tonight.

When the Lynx came back from their day sail they didn’t dock because the dock is not set up well for them. They went to dock at sailfish again, but later still came over. It was a crazy night with lots of food.

We also got a new volunteer, Chris Frank.

Yacht Club Shindig

Turn to was at 6 this morning, took off the anchor lines, moved the brow, took off dock lines, it’s an easier processes now that we all know what we are doing. Headed over for sailfish marina as the Lynx was moving, we were trading spaces. We also got clean crew shirts this morning, they don’t have any printing, but at least they are solid green and clean.

Docked at sailfish and had capstan meeting. Robin had a few things to comment on, one that Claudia was not disgusted by the heads and could actually use them, and apparently in the past they were really bad. Helps to have a crew of mostly girls these days that know how to clean and keep it that way. He was also proud in general about how the boat looked and told us that he noticed out respect for her.

From there we were stood down until our assigned tour giving time. There were people from the museum giving tours as well, but we expect a lot more because about 300 people from the yacht club rsvp-ed. We also got to eat lunch there, there were far to many options and us always being hungry and always eating everything, ate a lot. Grant even had two plates of food, nuts.

Going back to peanut island on the other hand was a bit more annoying. Trident marine had come to straighten the dolphin we had crashed into, but were not done yet by the time we got over. Robin just had us go around in a few circles and back and forth while we waited.

By the time we were done docking it was dark out.

Sewing and Prep to leave

It started to rain right as we all came up for capstan so we just went straight to doing more fixing on the sail. Some parts of the bolt rope are tricky to reattach because there is too much rope or too much sail so you have to do some squishing and easing.

In the afternoon we prepped to leave, heading over to sailfish marina tomorrow for a shindig. We moved the cannons, knocked down some bungs, moved all the boxes and steps back aboard and put the helm back together. The helm drum now has 11 turns around it that could be tightened some more, but at least has a proper whipping at midships.

I’m really tired because last night I got hardly any sleep with the dolphin rubbing against the whale board all night.

Mini Projects and the Lynx

Long and very eventful day. Besides having the do I was in the engine room a lot today, not what I expect, but really glad that I’m not stuck in there all the time now. In the engine room I painted a red wire black, cleaned up some tools, changed out the oil sucker upper pads and cleaned some buckets.

The things that got done to day, knocked down some bungs, moved the cannons all to starboard side, made some charges and had a cannon loading lesson. The deck box started to get fixed, more bungs were put in, things were tarred and painted. Another coat of oil went on the helm and sails were busted up to look neater.

We knew the Lynx was getting in around three so we were all prepared for that. I was down in bosuns when I heard Brooke over the intercom “all hands to the guns.” Grabbed my camera and ran up on deck. We were all running around looking at Lynx as she came in and then got a little more crazy when we started to prep the cannons. Worm, wash, load, home, prick, prime, ready to fire. It was a lot of fun firing at them and them returning fire as well.

After our little action we ran over to their dock to catch their dock lines, but the Lynx couldn’t dock because the wind was pushing them off the dock and there was just no way they could dock. It was decided that they were just going to anchor out and eventually ended up docking at the sailfish marina, right where we need to be tomorrow.

We finished up for the day, cleaned up and placed the last bungs. At the museum they were having a little party for the Lynx yet none of them were there because they were still trying to dock, so we all got food and had dinner there instead. I was on duty so went back to the boat for awhile to do duty things, eventually Katie came and got me and told me I had to be social. It was nice to meet the crew of the Lynx and talk to them for awhile.

Lynx coming in.

Lynx's topsail set.

Brooke prepping the cannon.

Katie and Kat prepping their cannon.

Brooke and Grant priming.

Josh lighting the cannon.

Kat and Grant priming the cannon.

Grant loading a charge.

Sveta and Brooke watching Lynx.

They Lynx preparing to dock.

Mark checking the depth and the type of bottom.

Mark and Peter in their small boats.