By James
Sailing for fourteen months on Picton Castle’s seventh circumnavigation not only gave me a unique perspective on life, but made me grow to feel more at home on her rolling decks than I do in the house in which I was raised. However, returning to sail for a passage, albeit a short one, for the first time in two months didn’t exactly feel like a return to home. With an almost entirely different crew, I felt out of place, even estranged. It wasn’t due to any conscious decision on anyone’s part but, as they say, different ships have different longsplices, and a new captain means a new ship.
In this case the atmosphere permeating the ship was unexpectedly at odds with what I was used to. The other interns and I came on board for the passage to Sarnia from Kenosha with each having individual hopes and goals for the crossing. Because of this, and because of our duty to the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Series internship, we were left in a peculiar position in regard to what our role on board would be. Needless to say, it didn’t help my feeling out of place. The crew teased us from time to time, calling us passengers when the mate saw fit to classify us as “daymen” on the watchbill. As much as I would’ve liked to stand watch like I used to, I know it wouldn’t have been the same and I suppose this way I had the freedom to make my own work and shape my experience into what I needed it to be.
I found myself seeking out projects to work on, such as rigging and re-lashing footropes to the foreshrouds, where they bridge the gap between the shrouds and the yard itself. I also engaged in one of my favorite bits of seamanship, the act of serving. Serving is when you wind twine in a tight spiral around a rope or wire cable in an effort to preserve the piece of rigging and protect it from the elements. Susannah was eager to pick up the nuances of this task and I was happy to show her.
We made good time due north-east up Lake Michigan from Kenosha, with great weather… mostly. There were some brief thunderstorms that first night and even after the rain stopped we were surrounded by distant lightning. On the evening of the second day, we dropped anchor at Beaver Island. We stayed there for about 24 hours, taking shifts of a few hours where half the crew would go ashore while the other half would participate in ships work, then switch. We hauled back the anchor around 1600 that afternoon. while most of the crew went to work at the windlass, I went to the chain locker to neatly flake the 230 ft or so of heavy chain that would come to rest down below, once the anchor was at the hawsepipe.
The pause at Beaver Island was a welcome break from the roaring engine, but the morning after we left the island, we set sail and powered down entirely. I couldn’t have hoped for better for the crossing, and it truly reminded me of weeks spent on long passages through the trades, and why I love sailing in the first place. Especially because at better than six and a half knots, we were sailing at a good clip. The fresh breeze slowly died over the course of the day, and we had all sails in again by dinnertime, but I was glad to be on deck to appreciate the experience.
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