Ralph, one of the crew, has showed me how to make chafing gear from rope. It is used to keep the sails from slapping and wearing out against the steel cables. And Jim has taught me the names of the sails and is starting on the ropes.
The last two days of the trip to Sydney were not so good, with a lot of fog and some rain. Now and then we heard fog signals on the shore of Nova Scotia, and when the fog lifted saw the shore and lighthouses. It is great fun to go up in the crow’s nest.
[[16]]
CHAPTER II
THROUGH THE STRAITS OF BELLE ISLE
We arrived in Sydney on Thursday morning, a few minutes before two o’clock, and I stayed up to see what happened. By good luck there was no fog, which made things easier.
The first thing in the morning we cleaned up our cabin, and afterward we all went ashore, to a little hotel where we had baths. Bathing on the Morrissey is a very rare thing, although probably later on we will use the big round washtub which was meant for clothes but which I suppose can take us too. When Dad refitted the vessel, at the shipyard down at Staten Island, they put on the deck a big steel water tank which holds about 750 [[17]]gallons. Then there are the water barrels too so that we really are pretty well fixed.