GETTING READY FOR SEA
By: Captain D. Moreland
A pretty deep, snowy and proper winter here in Lunenburg these days. The PICTON CASTLE is snugly moored to her wharf; 1,500 pound anchor and 300 feet of big anchor chain out in the harbour holding her against SE gales and storms to which this harbour is exposed, many big lines on to the dock. She has not budged an inch nor parted a hawser in even the strongest gales. And we had a whopper of a hurricane force storm recently. We had a long, long summery autumn and then it seemed like it skipped autumn altogether and went straight to full tilt winter. Well, we are halfway between the equator and the north pole here in Nova Scotia…no palm trees ringing the bay here.
Lunenburg is certainly a year-round port and we are getting ready to head off to sea soon. A few days south from here a ship will have crossed the Gulf Stream and the crew will find themselves peeling off the sweaters and quilted gear and pulling on shorts and t-shirts. It is a pretty astonishing transformation. Of course, a mariner has to be pretty mindful of getting a decent weather window to sail from here safely but that is true any time of year. Our plan is to sail from Lunenburg here in February and make our way to St Georges Bermuda and get our anchor down there. This time of year, Bermuda is quite a bit better place to get some painting done on the ship and any number of other things to make her look nice over a couple week period. The gang is keen on this too.
Now we are getting the PICTON CASTLE ready for sea again. Of course, when she sailed in to Lunenburg last fall she was ready for sea, wasn’t she? Logic dictates as much. So, what would we be doing? We are attending to a range of items on our list to both care for the ship and get ready for sea. Right now we have the faithful 24’ monomoy long boat hauled up at the Dory Shop for an overhaul. This venerable and able craft is getting well scraped, sanded, primed and painted as well as some minor carpentry here and there, a new rub-rail and stern sheets (a seat in the stern). This work is difficult to do aboard when sailing as we use the boat so much. But now is a good chance what with the good wood stove going and plenty hands hard at it.
What else? Down in the nice warm engine room we are looking after a few things. Floor plates are getting re-bolted down, water maker gauges being replaced, starting air bottles getting fine tuned, engine mounts for our single cylinder SABB getting replaced, a nice cleaning job done in the engine-room as well as adjacent ER supply room getting nicely stowed and cleaned up. Galley supply inventories as well as medical kit inventories are getting done. We have welders coming in to look after a few small projects on deck. Lots of buying is in order: paint, rope, food, lumber, canvas, all sorts of stuff for both the next few months as well as an entire world voyage ahead to consider. Now, we can get much that we need along the way – we are sailing AROUND the world, not away from the world – but some things are pretty hard to find and we need to have with us when we sail. And we need to make sure all our navigation gear, communications gear, safety gear is all in good order. We need to revue all charts and publications. All auxiliary equipment like welders, emergency pumps, emergency satellite comms, damage control supplies need to be aboard and in good order.
So, while it is cold outside and plenty snow, things are heating up on the good ol’ Barque PICTON CASTLE.
