I really didn’t want to get up for watch this morning because I didn’t get sleep much last night. After having furled I had too much energy to just fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I took forward look out first and there were lots of lights everywhere, lots of red and green from buoys, it was like Christmas.
When the sun started to rise we picked up some speed and headed for the canal. The canal was beautiful, makes me want to move to Massachusetts if it weren’t on the east coast.
Everything was already set by the time I woke up. We had a MOB drill that went very well and then Laura and I laid into signal flags, we didn’t get many done because there were other exciting things going on. Whales were spotted and we removed the capstan.
For the past few days people have been working on getting the bolts out, the last one had to be cut off with a grinding wheel. Jesse cut it and there were sparks flying everywhere, smoke alarms going off and I thought he’d catch his hair on fire. It was decided that the best way to lift it out was to put in capstan bars and lift the whole thing straight out. It was immediately assumed that I wouldn’t take part and that I would take pictures, and that’s exactly what I did.
On the first try half the capstan came up, leaving the base in the deck, everyone was really surprised. We pulled it up and out, turned it over and placed it on a rug to prevent scratching the top. We tried pulling the base up, but that didn’t work, a lip needs to be cut off down below.
Watch was pretty uneventful and I’m thankful for that because of yesterday’s furling marathon. Grant and I did furl the main royal at sunset and B watch helped with the mizzen topsail before they got on watch.
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