Winter has really taken hold here in Lunenburg. It’s snowing outside my office window, the beginning of what is forecast to be five centimetres tonight. The wind is blowing from the southeast, causing whitecaps in the harbour and I can hardly see the golf course across the water through the snow and fog. Picton Castle is still tied snugly to her wharf, rocking in the waves that are formed when the wind blows up Lunenburg Bay.
Work continues aboard as we prepare for the Voyage of the Atlantic. Finn is making great progress in the engine room, mounting and re-wiring lights, getting parts overhauled and keeping the furnace running when it gets really cold to stop the pipes from freezing. Kjetil, Ben, Ryan and Sarah have made good headway in overhauling all the blocks (over 300 of them!), which were sent down and into the warehouse in the fall. Each block is taken apart, inspected, scraped, cleaned, greased and oiled as necessary. Some take only a few minutes to overhaul, some take much longer. They’re also doing some varnish work, with yards laid across sawhorses in the warehouse for scraping and sanding, then hung from beams in the ceiling to varnish.
The office continues to be busy, with packages arriving almost daily by courier or mail that contain catalogues, publications and samples as we provision the ship for the voyage. We need to make sure there’s enough of everything from crew T-shirts to Chibley’s flea medication. We have heard recently from a number of people in Europe who have connections to Picton Castle, many family members of former crew who worked aboard when she was fishing or carrying cargo. They’re excited to see what the ship is like now, and we’re thrilled to share her with them. There are only a few more months of winter, and a few more months until we sail away on our next exciting adventure.
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