Putting into as many ports as we have in this remarkable voyage, so often going through locks just to get in, has made this crew exceptionally capable in so many acts of seamanship to do with ship-handling under power. A fine passage under sail comes as something of a reward for all the challenges of […]
The humble old trawler/mine sweeper but none the less H.M.S. [or H.M.T.] Picton Castle was apparently one of 17 (or 19) vessels that constituted the first Allied surface raid on mainland Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. We expect that, being a mine sweeper, our ship was sweeping for mines. Possibly she was carrying
From a still anchorage under the high cliffs off nearby Dale, the Picton Castle steamed up the estuary towards her old and original homeport of Milford Haven in Wales. Interesting and anomalous sights framed us on either side of the fjord that Nelson once called one of the best natural harbours anywhere. On one hand
Just now the Picton Castle is sailing about 30 miles off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula at the northern Spain-Portugal border. We are southbound. We have taken the corner at Finisterre out of the Bay of Biscay without any drama, in fact a fair wind filled and backed and followed us around as we
Our barque Picton Castle is sailing along in the famous Bay of Biscay about 180 miles west of the French city of Bordeaux and conditions could not be more stunningly enchanting. We have had our share of fog and gales in this voyage around Europe but now will be increasingly leaving that type weather astern
We have rounded Land’s End and made our way north to Milford Haven, Wales, where this ship began her seafaring life. We are under a big high pressure so there is little wind but the weather is nice. Weather types insist that it will persist but I do not trust that and I am anxious
So there we were, motoring along in the English Channel, using up precious and expensive fuel in calm weather; excellent fair weather apart from the lack of a usable wind, and we found ourselves just south of the Isle of Wight. We had made good progress through the Channel, past Dover and Dungeness and we
When last we met, the Picton Castle was just sailing down the River Orwell from Ipswich, England past the mouth of the Thames and Dover and headed down channel. Weather looks OK for now. Weather hereabouts can be just as bad as all those Hornblower novels, gale after westerly gale this time of year. Mostly
The Picton Castle raced into Harwich/Felixstowe harbour, coming in making ten knots with a following gale and a strong fair tide. This harbour, just to the north of the approaches to the mighty Thames River and complex of waterways, is at the mouth of a couple of rivers that join at this point. The whole
Sorlandet and Christian Radich joined us going down river from Bremerhaven towards the North Sea. At the approaches to the Weser River, after cheers back and forth, they pulled off to starboard, sailing towards the north and home to Norway. In the Picton Castle we would make our way down the coasts of Germany and
