Wednesday, August 29th, 2018 – South Pacific Ocean At 1000 we are at 19-36 South and 161-19 West. Making 7-8 knots under t’gallants in force 6 southeast tradewinds and lumpy ten-foot seas covered with whitecaps. We are about 140 miles from Rarotonga and about halfway to Palmerston Atoll, both in the Cook Islands. Picton Castle …
August 10, 2018 – Westward Bound 2 Just after dawn, Picton Castle 22-10S / 143-05W. Yards braced up, royals in and stowed, making good speed. Winds northerly at 18 knots, seas not so big at 6-8 feet, sky partly cloudy, low scudding clouds… Bright seas and skies. Some spray coming over the weather rail amidships …
Westward Bound in the Barque Picton Castle 22-20S / 139-16W midday August 8, 2018 Sailing along here just south of an atoll called Fangataufa in the Tuamotus. Yards close to square, with a big fan in them, sky strikingly blue, swells about 12 foot, also as blue as can be. Rolling along sailing ever westward …
Captain’s Log – Westward Bound in the Barque Picton Castle Read More »
August 9, 2018 Picton Castle is at 21-54 S and 141-40 where at 0930 on this strong Tradewind morning of August 9, 2018. Winds piped up pretty much on schedule and have been backing slowly.Windd and seas have been making up and we were making almost 9 knots before we took in t’gallants to get …
July 19, 2018 At 0520 Took in sail this past evening to slow the ship. We do not want to make Bounty Bay before dawn, now two hours away. Winds have backed and faired more into the east and have laid down from 25 to 20 knots. Seas are down too. Still pretty lumpy but …
At 24-34S / 128-17W – east by north of Pitcairn Island 100 miles away – dead ahead – mid-day in the Picton Castle. Blowing hard from the SE – Force 6-7, seas large, 20-25 feet – plenty breaking white caps. Some sun and a little blue sky breaking through the low flying scudding clouds tearing …
Sailed into a calm we did. And the Picton Castle went from 7 knots, 6 knots down to 3 knots – after awhile half a knot. Slowly as the breezes petered out to no winds at all. Can’t say a glassy calm because we had and still have this typical large Southern Ocean swell of 12 …
The Picton Castle sailed past the halfway mark between Galapagos and Pitcairn a couple nights ago. Southeast winds on the beam for many days and blowing pretty fresh at Force 5, gusting 6, have now faired and come in over the quarter and laid down at Force 3-4. Dense overcast at dawn, the ceiling kept …
Picton Castle: AM position – Latitude 10 degrees – 03 minutes South, Longitude 104 degrees – 23 minutes West The islands of the Galapagos lay 1,000 miles astern, Pitcairn Island is ahead 1,700 miles. Between is nothing but the winds, sky and blue ocean of the South Pacific. The large seas and swell have laid …
Pitcairn Island is a pretty small spot on a very big ocean. First discovered by Europeans in 1767 and named for the midshipman who sighted it. They came close, looked about, recorded its location inaccurately due to not having sorted longitude quite yet. By the time Bounty sailed this had been solved. The island had …
