By Cara Lauzon
Wednesday March 7, 2018
With the first sunny day this week there is a frenzy of painting, carpentry, and other work going on aboard Picton Castle here in St. George’s, Bermuda. Its been blowing so hard that the ship had what looked like a spider web of lines holding us to the wharf. The wind has been up to sixty knots for days, but even with the weather everyone has been busy getting the ship fitted out. It has been beautiful at night alongside the wharf hearing the wind howling around us. Even with the relentless wind there has been intermittent Bermuda sunshine. The crew enjoyed one glorious day off, where caves were explored and blue beaches swam in. We are docked at the small town of St George’s, full of colorful old limestone houses, with two-foot thick walls built to withstand just the sort of wind we have been experiencing.
We share Penno’s Wharf with two other tall ships, the Dutch barkentine Thalassa and Thor Heyerdahl, a German school ship full of very musical high school students. We had a boisterous jam in Picton Castle‘s salon last evening where they graced us with their company and the students sang haunting German choral music. We shared a few of our gypsy tunes on the fiddle and accordion, and we wrapped it all up with a few good old sea shanties.
The wind died down this morning and we are enjoying a bright and sunshiny day. Taking advantage of the weather we have managed to paint our topsides, hauling ourselves off the wharf with a kedge anchor. The Picton Castle is enjoying a makeover, sporting a new buff stripe along the rail. Our new carpenter, Kirk, who just joined us here in Bermuda is working on projects on the deck, he is lucky he arrived just in time for this weather!
Painting topsides, including a new buff stripe on the rail!