On Monday January 26 we sailed from Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde Islands bound for Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. It had been blowing extremely strongly for many days but now it was laying down to under 30 knots. After clearing out with Immigration and the Marine Police the gang loosed sail, braced yards aback and …
The sights, the desert, the big (80’) fishing canoes near to where we land our boat on the beach, the friendly and engaging folks, music, food, you name it, (along with our fascinating visit in Morocco) all leaves us wanting more here in Africa We are discovering something remarkably intriguing about this voyage, although a bit obvious when put into words. Sailing from the former British Atlantic colony of Nova Scotia to Ireland (England’s first colony), to England, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway and down to Spain and Portugal, closer and closer to Africa, then Morocco, North Africa, now Senegal, soon onto Cape Verde and then onto Brazil and the Caribbean islands– in some ways the cultural changes seem sudden and swift from place to place but on the other hand if you step back and squint your eyes just right the cultural shifts are actually quite gradual and sort of seamless in a way and they even inform each other a great deal within proximity – very interesting.
Dakar, Senegal, West Africa is fantastic. What a remarkable, land, country, people and so many cultures all mixed together in one place. We talk about diversity a lot in North America, yet in Africa there seems to be more diversity on one dusty road than we are used to seeing in a month. I am …
Las Palmas Las Palmas is a huge modern port. Of everywhere we have gone in the past few months we have been impressed by the Spanish port infrastructure as being solid and up to date. The Picton Castle put in here to see what the place was like and because there really aren’t many anchorages …
What an amazing place is this Essaouria – encompassed by endless desert. When we got ashore we found ourselves immersed in and surrounded by old Moorish castles with towers and stone-works, crowded wharves, minarets, full on eye-slit only covered ladies (others in tight jeans and sweaters), most men kitted out in camels-wool hooded robes of …
The name Gibraltar comes from Arabic, meaning Fortress of Tarik. Interesting spot, Gibraltar. First of all, sailing in from sea it is quite an astounding sight just in size and shape. It really is a huge rock rising out of the mists and sea with a geology that seems different from the land nearby. Then …
The Picton Castle was at anchor at Gibraltar after an excellent, 450 mile sailing passage from Mallorca. The ship and her crew have sailed over 8,500 miles so far on this voyage. We are surrounded by many large merchant ships anchored next to this famous rock. Dozens of anchored vessels fill this bay stretching off …
As we sailed around the corner of Cabo Raso after a fair passage from Spain, the magnificent German Navy training ship Gorch Foch sailed into view and along with the Picton Castle for few miles. She carried on towards Lisbon while we anchored at Cascais, Portugal. And just in time as the next day a …
As we have done several times on this amazing voyage around Europe, we found ourselves waiting out a gale before getting underway from a port we were visiting. Well, they have pretty protected harbours hereabouts, plenty of them and we had set up the schedule with these delays in mind so no problem. It would …
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 …
