The Barque Picton Castle is back in Lunenburg, phew……
It was a long haul sailing 30,000 plus miles over the last year and half (more or less). Tough enough getting going again after COVID too. Tough getting stuck on a drydock for 6 months postponing setting off. Stuck on the hard was hard, not knowing when we might sail as it got repaired. Tough not being able to make proper plans – and tough not being able to tell our folks about the plans we were making. But once we finally got to sea, under sail, in our wonderful ship, things got into their proper tropical tradewind routine as they usually do once you get away from land and the way of a ship takes over.
About a thousand miles after we sailed SW from the Galapagos bound for Pitcairn Island the South Pacific became rough – and stayed rough most of the way to Tonga. This is apparently due to the phenomenon known as El-Nino – but now that ocean it looks great again. All these things and more made for exceptional challenges but ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ as the phrase will have it. And we had a monumental, amazing voyage that cannot be described in a few short words. Maybe look at previous posts in this here “Capts Log”. We can all try to tell stories about sailing around the world, but we can never truly get it all across – you had to be there. How do you explain this voyaging business to those who have not been to sea under sail and under the Southern Cross? We try as best we can and fail. Astronauts who have been to the moon suffer this same dilemma.
Moored to a fine old wooden wharf
The Picton Castle is tied up at wharf on Lunenburg’s working waterfront again. Yards squared, sails and gear sent down. Topsides bright and white. This world voyage crew who sailed all those many miles, crossed all these oceans and seas in the tradewinds and small gales, stood watches day and night, at sea and in port, steered every mile at the big teak wheel, washed a million dishes, hove back the heavy anchors by hand at the windlass so many times, furled royals and topgallants in squalls and in calms, hauled on braces forever, explored all this islands and ports, have scattered to the winds – as true seafarers naturally do after a such a long voyage. Chef Donald has headed home to Grenada for Carnival. We are moored at Adams & Knickle, the venerable and last big fishing outfit still sailing out of Lunenburg. Our own wharf at the end of town was condemned years ago, we knew we would not be coming back to it. Now that pier awaits funding to rebuild it. In the meantime, we are the happy guests of A&K. Our wharf was once the dock from which the original fishing/racing schooner Bluenose sailed, a long time ago. We are told she fished from our wharf for many years. Old engravings and photographs indicate that this wharf was established in the 1890’s.
Picton Castle at A&K
It is a delight to be home for many of us. Nice to no longer concern ourselves too much with who is on watch, or will the anchor drag? Or are all hands getting equal time shore? Is the rig getting looked after, as it should? Did we get those new sails finished that we had going? (No). Is there enough food? Toilet paper? Coffee? Rope? We have lots of rope. No, the ship is moored to a fine proper wharf in downtown Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. And now that we are ashore, we can dive into the wonders of this exotic land of Nova Scotia, just as we might do while at Tahiti, Bali or Capetown, South Africa. Soak up the local culture. What’s going on here in LooneyBerg?
Lunenburg; Seaport, and portal to the world….
For starters, you have the charming town of Lunenburg itself. Settled by “foreign protestants” in 1753 on top of the Acadian village of Merlegashe, is all just too pretty for words, but the word got out and now it is a popular travelers destination rivaling Block Island, Mackinaw and the like. Once, not so long ago Lunenburg was a rough and tumble fishing town with gentile inclinations. After the schooners many dozens of draggers and their crews sailed from this waterfront, a couple fisherman’s bars (The Dolphin come to mind), with the front water street still a dirt road and yet unnamed not many decades ago. Now paved since 1986, and named, of course, Bluenose Drive, with horse and buggy rides, an excellent maritime museum, and many eateries to satisfy every taste, and beautiful old houses everywhere you look (all dragged up from the sea in schooner days). Melissa’s ice cream shop, Sweet Treasures, does a good business in the season. B&B’s abound and it seems everyone has an Airbnb these days, and busy to boot. A lovely old Danish ketch, the Eastern Star makes frequent sails out into the bay from her berth with 20 aboard. The Eastern Points will get out in the ocean for you to see whales, seals and puffins, and fog too if you are lucky! The Islander VIII makes deep-sea fishing charters.There is even a sweet little harbour tour boat to get you around the inner harbour for a look-see. Often the magnificent Schooner Bluenose II is in port giving deck tours and making day sails sharing her indomitable legacy with generation after generation of Canadians and visitors. An amazing vessel and one so professionally operated she defies comparison. I often wonder if we here in Lunenburg really appreciate her and her able Captain and crew enough. You will not be able to say you cannot get a great meal here in “Da Burg”. And no harm in waiting for your table as you gaze over the harbour on a sparkling summers day. Scouts from Hollywood poking around for locations for their next film, not at all uncommon.
The Expo
A couple weeks ago the annual “South Shore Exhibition” had its days of country fun over in nearby Bridgewater. We attend when we can – it is a wonderful affair. Something of a ‘county fair’ with wild rides and games and oxen, big sheds full of goats, sheep, rabbit, cows and horses 4-H kids have raised, plenty atrocious things to eat and all sorts of competitions with oxen-pulls and the like. Does not smell of the sea here but has its own odoriferous charm just the same. Horses, hog, heifers, cotton candy, hot dogs, other delicacies and delights, and a heavily guarded beer shed. Country music prevails with some of the many talented local artists on stage.
Folk Harbour Festival
This past weekend Lunenburg was host to the renowned Folk Harbour Festival. Decades of a track record and wonderful artists from all over make this town their concert hall, or halls, as they play all over town and on the wharves for a few days. Not exactly Woodstock but maybe a wee bit of Woodstock DNA in the mix somehow. Lenny Gallant, that outstanding troubadour and Jimmy Buffet collaborator. and schooner sailor from Prince Edward Island often makes the fest. John Sebastion would like this scene. I should give him a call, no? Music, night and day, all over the natural amphitheater that is Lunenburg and its harbour. Our own Maggie Ostler has had a great deal to do with its charm and success in recent years.
Bosun School
Bosun School is in full swing with a small band of young seafarers from different countries who came to Lunenburg to learn and practice some of the skills that will do them in good stead as the seafarers they seek to be. Ropework, ship cleaning and organizing, coatings, chafe gear, small boat handling, LOTS of small boat handling. You cannot really call yourself a proper mariner if you are not quite adept at small boats. To this end, we have dories, skiffs, canoes, dinghies, dugouts, boats under sail, oars and power over at the Dory Shop to use. Trips on local working craft too, visits to the Fisheries Museum, and to working shipyards and sail lofts are all in the cards.
These days we can take our Bequia Island dog, Nutmeg, for a walk (a Caribbean “Pot-Hound”, not kidding) – The two cats (Riki and Tea, from Rikitea, Mangareva – French Polynesia) think A&K’s dock with its friendly night watchmen is just fine. The beautiful schooner Lion’s Whelp just sailed in from Maine. Headed towards Cap Breton she is.
Its summertime and the living is easy. Sea gulls fly overhead, wheeling against the warm sky.
But still, we must keep an eye out for wandering errant hurricanes – tis the season…