October is usually beautiful in Nova Scotia, with all the leaves changing colours. This year, October has also been warm, sunny and wonderful for being outdoors. Bosun School is taking advantage of the weather to spend some time aloft on Picton Castle. Students learned yesterday how to lead “up and overs”, the process of taking …
Picton Castle’s World Voyage itinerary is full of exotic place names, including some you may never have heard of before. We specialize in visiting exotic tropical ports, taking our ship and crew to some unique, remote places. But that doesn’t mean it’s difficult to make travel arrangements to join the ship for a leg of …
On Monday, the Bosun School students went to the Lunenburg Community Centre to use the gym floor to lay out a sail. Actually, this is the second layout for this sail – it had its first layout back in 2015 when Picton Castle was in Cape Town, South Africa. As Picton Castle sails to various …
For the past week or so, Bosun School students have been focused on learning sail making. Picton Castle is fairly unique in that we make all of our own sails on board the ship, so depending on which vessels our Bosun School students work aboard in the future, they may or may not have the …
One of the best things about sailing with an international crew, and having an international group of students at the Bosun School, is celebrating different national holidays. This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada and the Bosun School students marked the occasion with a sit-down turkey dinner. We have so much to be thankful for …
One of the main things we focus on at Bosun School is small boat handling. Students will practice handling boats of all kinds by rowing them, sailing them and driving them with motors. It’s one of the essential skills of a good mariner, being able to handle small boats. The best way to become proficient …
Picton Castle has spent a lot of time sailing the Caribbean in the past 20 years. We tend to stick to the Windward and Leeward Isles of the Eastern Caribbean and have visited our favourite islands many times. The trade winds are sweet, anchorages are mostly quite good, the islands are beautiful and the people …
How can one person beat seven people in tug of war? By using mechanical advantage! Okay, maybe it’s not truly tug of war, but the Bosun School students staged a powerful experiment this morning to demonstrate how mechanical advantage works. By rigging tackles properly, one person was able to pull seven others across the floor, …
Although elementary and high school students in Lunenburg started school a couple of weeks ago, today is the first day of school for another group of students in Lunenburg. Picton Castle’s Bosun School begins today and we have a group of eager students ready to sharpen both their pencils and their knives. The Bosun School …
Quebec City has rolled out the red carpet, so to speak, for all of the tall ships gathered here now including Picton Castle. This is the largest gathering of tall ships in Canada this year, all here to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation. The last time Quebec City hosted a major tall ships event …
