Another cooler day but warmed up half way through. For work party we prepped for the lock, locked through, docked for customs and continued on. For the second work party I worked on chafe gear with Tenley on the main topsail lifts. An hour into watch we anchored and so for the next hour of anchor watch we played card games. Our two passengers on our watch, Sarah and David are really cool.
The weather has been getting colder after it has been warm for a long time, had to break out my pants again. Watch in the morning seemed to take forever with all the fog; everything was still set and we were going pretty fast. For work party I did more chafe gear on the topsail lifts.
Sailed off the dock by 8 and had 5 passengers with us. We sailed the whole day, it was amazing how heeled over we were, fasts of the day was 9.7 knots. We had everything on the fore and main set, it was amazing the difference the royals made.
For work party I sewed chafe gear onto the topsail lifts, it’s like lacing your shoes just a little uncomfortable. Dan asked if I needed help and I said that someone could do one on the other side, but he said no one else knew how to.
Tours were from 11 to 8 while work party was 8 to 5 in Thunder Bay. I was on work party and in the morning I painted part of the top that Justin had put a duchman in and then prepped for tours. The rest of the day I spent splicing with Tom, Jesse and Katie, I got really frustrated with it because I can never start it, the rest of tucking over under is easy. We got a new crewmember as well, Peter Mogel, I guess we’ll call him by his last name because we already have a Peter.
There were so many people on the boat today, the wait was almost 2 hours in line, I’m glad I didn’t do tours and I’m glad I didn’t have work party on deck otherwise it would take forever to get up and down to bosuns.
I think the boat is trying to kill me, in the last week and a half I’ve injured myself more than usual. I ripped my right toenail tripping over the ‘crew only’ sign at the bottom of the brow, scrapped and bruised left shin from falling in the hawse pipe, bruised right knee hitting it on a step coming out of the engine room, burned my left elbow on the exhaust pipe in the engine room trying to put a bolt in for the engine casing lid and my right shoulder and head hurt from just being alive.
But this morning when we got up it was foggy and wet, cleared up later, got some wind and sun. I also got a new pet for awhile, a huge dragon fly that I named Jerrold, after it’s wings dried it started to flutter around some more and it became annoying so I pushed him off and he flew away.
For work party we ended up setting and then furling, as we were furling we got a giant gust of wind that blew us over on to one heel and then the next. The headsails were flogging so badly that I was afraid they were going to rip. The weather cleared and we came into Thunder Bay, Ontario around 1700.
I was getting ready for bed when Richard told us we could see the northern lights. He said he saw them on his way back to the boat and walked back quickly so he could tell us. They weren’t spectacular, just a green smudge in the sky, but at least I saw them.
C watch got us off the dock at 5 am with the help of their passengers. During watch I ended up refilling a lot of bottles, soap, bleach, things that people seem to never refill. People were a little sloppy on their boat checks as well, the water maker hose was running and on and it wasn’t in the tank for about an hours.
For work party Tenley and Katie tarred backstays and I tended them while I painted the capstan base and oiled the cap rail.
Starboard did tours again and since we were short we grabbed some from port watch, but now Katie is finally officially on starboard. Gathered some more passengers, had a crew party and went to bead, off the dock at 5 am tomorrow, and now Rich is on A watch.
