Day 14: First day aloft for realsies!

Plus and minus.  Super plus = got to work aloft today for the first time - on the fore mast at the fighting top so not all the way up but I'm OK with that right now.  My job was to make "mousings" on the shackles.  We use a different technique but you can get the basic idea here...

Once the shackle is securely attached and you don't want it to move the mousing secures the pin so vibration or constant motion won't cause it to come unsecure (if that's a word cause spell check is telling me it isn't)

Minus.  I can now tell you that being 50' feet up several things happen to change your perspective on the weather.  First let me say that today was a nice sunny brisk day at about 35 degrees.  So thing one that happens is temperature drops when you are up there.  Thing two is the wind is ALWAYS blowing.  Not hard really just enough to make the drop in temperature, combined with the breeze, seem like the sun has forsaken the planet.  

I still don't have photos of me aloft - but hold on to that thought hopefully until tomorrow's blog.  I have plan!

As for the word for the day I will show you this photo...

Fid (the brown carrot 2nd from the left) -  Heaving Mallet (the big hammer looking thing in the middle) - Serving Paddle (all the way to the right - smaller cousin upper left (not the copper pipe smarty))

So these are various tools sailors use to make different types of finishes on bigger ropes using smaller line.  Ah, now that I have gotten to this point I am not positive how to proceed...Um...hold on I'll be right back......................................................................

Ok I'm back.  Thanks for waiting.  I went and took this photo out on the ship of a serving and combined it with an old photo of a rose lashing...

To the left is a rose lashing.  In order to get this REALLY tight you use a hauling mallet by wrapping the line around it (it's confusing - I'll show you when I get back).  The fid is the tool you use to help make a hole big enough for the line to go through - as you can see the lines are tight on one another and in order to continue to snake the line through enough times to secure it.  On the right the very straight thing in the middle is a line with a serving running down it - you make that nice an neat and even with the serving paddle (I don't know how to do it yet.  It is apparently pretty advanced).

Wow.  Now that I look it over that was probably too technical.  Sorry 'bout that.  Just sort of going off what I did today.  Let me show you this before I sign off for the day.  I thought I would show you a quick photo of the port aft pin rail...

This is why things get a bit confusing.  See all the pretty ropes?  They all go to different things - in fact the ropes themselves are different: some are dacron, some roblon, some manilla...sheesh.  And there are 5 other places on the ship that look like this plus random cleats with lines on them - and we're not even close to done rigging yet.

Cool dudes. Hope that wasn't too much.  How about "bosun's seat" for tomorrow?  I'll percolate on it a bit.  

Ahoy!