Last night Rebecca steered and Greg conned the Picton Castle into the bay at Port Mouton to anchor for the night. Soon we were surrounded by cool still waters and rocky pine-covered islands with a big orange sun setting gently in the west. It was a perfect crystal sky evening. Joe got out a fine dinner of barbeque pork while all hands stowed sail. After supper we had a quiet last “marlinspike.” As it is considered bad luck to take a whole group photograph of a crew (with exceptions) before a voyage is done, we took pictures of the crew in two groups. Brent took a picture of all the lads. This we did up on the foc’s’le head. Then all the women of the ship had a group portrait, but up on the quarterdeck. Probably some symbolism there on who and which gender runs this ship. We have a stomach bug running around the ship that we picked up in Bermuda, so Laura missed the group picture. Instead of Polynesian drum songs and Bob Marley Reggae music, we listened to Stan Rogers and Great Big Sea and other music from Newfoundland. Of course, we had popcorn and some Stella Artois beer contributed by my brother Jon at Bermuda.
This morning all hands were roused at 0600 to heave up the anchor and make our way down the coast towards Cross Island and Lunenburg Harbour. Another brilliant morning. We got the Picton Castle under way in a perfect calm, and it was very beautiful passing the small islands and a pretty lighthouse. Before breakfast all hands scrubbed the deck down and loosed all sail, soon to set and sail for the last 40 miles of this voyage around the world in the Barque Picton Castle.
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