The lagoons at the heart-breakingly beautiful French Polynesian island of Mangareva produce the best black pearls in the world, at least according to the pearl farmers who live and work there. The farms don’t look like much – just wooden shacks over the water built on concrete pillars on top of a reef and a …
As we sailed away from the lee of Pitcairn Island, we had one new face aboard – David Brown, a young man who grew up on Pitcairn and is the grandson of Pitcairn legend Len. David will join us for a while to see some of the South Pacific and see what he can learn …
We had two “concert” nights at Pitcairn again at the public square, one with each watch. For weeks before our arrival, crew had been practicing their acts. On both nights, this variety/talent show was opened by the school children singing together. From there, the Picton Castle crew presented their acts. The port watch opened with …
Island Concerts-Island Names -Pitcairn Island Log #7 Read More »
The Captain likes to have a good supply of coconuts on board and Nadja is always involved in food provisioning for the ship, so she asked Dave Brown about collecting coconuts, breadfruit and anything else that the island might be able to spare. After over a month out of Panama fresh provisions are pretty short, …
“Stalking the Wild Breadfruit…”-Pitcairn Island Log #6 Read More »
When Picton Castle arrived at Pitcairn Island, we anchored just off Tedside. On previous visits, the ship has either anchored (the Captain says he is going to write a ‘cruising guide’ to the island having anchored all around it over the years – good holding, no shelter, huge seas) or hove-to offshore, drifting around and …
We had been shopping for specific items to bring to Pitcairn in both Canada and Panama, loading all sorts of assorted goods in the hold for delivery on arrival; lumber, tinned food, petrol, tools and even turtles. In addition to the things specifically ordered, we brought hundreds of pounds of clothes from Frenchy’s, a Nova …
During our stay, a certain young Bradley celebrated his 9th birthday. It’s Pitcairn tradition to have a public dinner for a birthday and with our crew ashore Bradley had a huge public dinner. Bradley made a point of informing the Captain of his birthday, telling him to invite all the crew and to instruct them …
The Captain says that the only thing harder than getting to Pitcairn Island is leaving. He is absolutely right. Picton Castle sailed away on a beautiful Monday afternoon in fresh easterly breezes after an eight day stay. Each of the two watches was able to spend four days ashore exploring the island and getting to …
Pitcairn Island- The Story of Picton Castle at Pitcairn 2010 begins… Read More »
Picton Castle sailed past Henderson Island, one of the Pitcairn Islands, on Sunday afternoon. There are actually four islands that make up the Pitcairn Islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno. Pitcairn is the only one that is regularly inhabited, although the islanders make occasional expeditions to the other islands. Henderson is a raised atoll, …
“It feels like I belong here, like this is home” one of our gang aboard said the other day. Over the past three months, the crew have come to know the ship and each other well, increasingly becoming more than friends or coworkers as we all depend on each other and on the ship to …
