To all Picton Castle crew,
Like everyone else keen on our upcoming Voyage to the South Pacific in the PICTON CASTLE, we’ve been watching the news here as this coronavirus predictably expands. We have also been gathering information from other ships and our agents and contacts in the countries we intend to visit. We knew a week ago that this situation was very fluid and that things would be evolving quickly, which indeed they are. Last week we had no reason to change the departure dates of our planned voyage to the South Pacific. Now we do.
Only one week later, we are convinced that the situation has changed and that it will be prudent to delay the departure from Lunenburg and thus delay the arrival of all our crew to Lunenburg as well. We are looking at delaying the start of the voyage by one month for now. We’re also looking at a couple of itinerary/route changes to re-jig the joining and leaving of ports, making comings and goings easier. We expect to be able provide you with details about how we plan to proceed with this voyage by the end of this week. There are quite a few pieces to this puzzle and we need to integrate them all into our planning. But we do not expect that this will change the core of the voyage, might even fine tune it for the better. By delaying a month from the planned sailing date we are, among other things, giving this situation some time to settle down. This is all to the good.
We expect to keep the route very much the same, visiting the same iconic islands and ports we’ve advertised. However, it is reasonable to expect some changes. The South Pacific islands and ports on the way are beautiful, welcoming places and we can’t wait to get there (but wait we will). The trade-winds and deep-sea passages will not be changing at all.
We have a great team working on this, which includes current and former medical officers, our medical consulting service and our shore staff, and we’re consulting widely with industry colleagues as well as concerned agencies both marine and governmental.
In the meantime, please take care of yourselves and keep yourselves healthy so you’re able to join us when the time comes in the not too far distant future. Do all the right things as we are being advised; wash your hands, practice social distancing, we will too, and pay attention to advice from trusted sources.
Sincerely,
Daniel D. Moreland, Master, Barque PICTON CASTLE – March 16, 2020