By 2nd Mate Paul Bracken The ship and her crew are homeward bound. We are just two days out from Bermuda, logging six and a half knots under full square sail as we plough our way north. For now the wind is a fresh westerly that was kicked up from a nearby low and my […]
By Ollie Campbell Editor’s note: The following is by one of our crew who goes by the name Ollie. He claims to be an actor known as Billy Campbell. Maybe this is true, we try not to get too involved with our crew’s personal fantasy life but he does look a lot like that guy…
By Katelinn Shaw I didn’t notice it was open. From the beach side, Wendell’s Place doesn’t catch your eye. There’s a covered outdoor seating area, what looks like an old shop and a crude wooden table in the sand. Most of it was once painted blue. A few men sit in the shade around one
Light winds carried the Picton Castle NW from stunning lush Dominica on smooth blue seas the almost 300 miles towards the British Virgin Islands. This would be our last Caribbean island before setting off north bound for Bermuda and Nova Scotia. The watch did what we do on watches; steered, kept a good lookout, painted,
Picton Castle is about 360 miles north of Bermuda and about 350 miles south of Lunenburg. We have been sailing along pretty well. We had a head current yesterday from an eddy off the Gulf Stream but we have found a strong fair current it looks like we can ride for a couple hundred miles.
At dawn this day comes in overcast spitting light rain in a fresh southerly breeze hauling the Picton Castle and her crew north. Yards are squared and all sail is set and drawing to the royals. The Chief Cook asks for the main topmast staysail to come in as sometimes wind spilling off it spoils
By Ollie Campbell Note by the Executive Editorial Committee: The below account by veteran Picton Castle crew member Billy ‘Ollie’ Campbell and the facts asserted therein have not all been verified by independent alternative sources, but we have found no one willing to go on record to call him a liar so we let the
By Tammy Sharp Editor’s Note: In Antigua we met many skippers of these wonderful wooden sloops built in Carriacou, an island just north of and part of the country of Grenada. They needed crew to help get these sloops to St Barts for the West Indies Regatta. Our crew were ready for the task and
Tales of Carriacou Slooping in the Leeward Isles Read More »
By Wendy Heisler So there we are: a rogue crew of 7, bobbing in a lazy circle not far from Antigua. Just us and an engine-less wooden Carriacou Sloop called Good Expectation, which we had previously believed was called Great Expectations. We had been floating in approximately the same position for 24 hours. The wind?
A Good Expectation: Antigua to St. Bart’s In An Old Smuggling Sloop Read More »
By Paula Washington Looking to my left all that can be seen is broad blue ocean, the occasional flying fish breaks the surface as it glides with wing-like fins away from predators lurking below the waves. Out to my right cumulus clouds are beginning to form into a heavy line obscuring the horizon. Looking aft
