The Picton Castle has had a nice long visit in Bali. Plenty good stories to tell. Some crew coming and going. Lots of nasi goreng, mei goreng, no shortage of Bintang and Bali Kopi, even cat-poo-chino. Lots of beautiful carvings, ebony boxes, batik sarongs and more. But now it was time to sail onward to …
Having sailed in to Bali from the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea two weeks ago, the crew of the Picton Castle is getting ready to sail for Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. I am pretty sure everyone loves Bali. We have only ever had one crew member not like Bali some …
Serangan Bay, day three in Bali, Picton Castle halfway around the world. The day here at anchor in Serangan comes in with a tropical rain shower – the monsoon change is upon us – followed by clearing and then a fine view of the Mount Agung volcano well to our north, for a while anyway …
Yesterday the Picton Castle steamed into Serangan just to the north of Benoa, the large commercial port on the southern tip of Bali, Indonesia. We had a very good passage the 3,000 miles from Vanuatu. An excellent sailing passage of 1,500 miles from Santo to Cape York, the northernmost tip of Australia, followed by a …
Sunday in the Coral Sea, November 4, bound for Bali by way of the Torres Straights some 380 miles away. Sunday at sea means a few things in PICTON CASTLE. For one it means putting away the tar-pots and varnish brushes and the gang can do laundry, patch some trousers or even read a book …
The Picton Castle sailed into Luganville, Santo, Vanuatu after a decent six-day passage under sail from Fiji. A beautiful approach between all the islands on a sunny morning as we sailed past “Million Dollar Point” the wreck of the SS Coolidge, the WWII transport ship that hit a mine at the entrance and was rammed …
Both prudent ship management and logical marine regulation call for ships to be drydocked from time to time and have their hulls inspected and looked after. This is only natural as most vessels are in a somewhat corrosive environment of salt water. Freshwater is different and much kinder to steel, not so much to wood, …
The Picton Castle sailed the 270 nautical miles from Rarotonga to Palmerston Atoll, both in the Cook Islands, in record time. A roller coaster passage with some hurting stomachs. But all went calm as we slid into the placid lee of the reefs on the west side of the island and the sun came out …
Barque Picton Castle at Palmerston Atoll 18-03.7S / 163-11.5W – Home Island We had a boisterous but swift passage the 270 miles from Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands northwest to Palmerston Atoll, also in the Cook Islands. Only 43 hours at sea and it could have been shorter but we reduced sail and slowed down to …
Our barque is rolling down the sea-miles in fresh southeast tradewinds deep in the South Pacific. We are bound for Palmerston Atoll in the Cook Islands. The ship is some 150 nautical miles northwest of Rarotonga and about 700 nautical miles a bit south of due west from Tahiti. The Picton Castle is sailing along …
