We are having the first premonition of port. The sailors are employed
washing the white paint with potash in the way of spring cleaning.
Every rope in the standing rigging is to be tarred and the ship is to
be painted inside and outside, so that when she enters port she will
look as new as when she left home. You may wonder how a vessel can be
painted outside at sea. Here in the Pacific there are days when the
weather and the swell of the sea allow staging to be lashed to the
side, stern, and bows, and men move safely from point to point with
brushes.