The crew woke to a somewhat chilly morning as we make our way towards the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is an odd feeling for the 4th of July. We wished our American crew members happy Independence Day from within our sweaters and scarves, but this is typical for North Atlantic waters. Crew spent the […]
By Ship’s Purser Allison With 8 new trainees on board from Summerside the new crew are becoming familiar with the ways of the PICTON CASTLE. It can sometimes be a bit overwhelming when we first head out to sea but the excitement often prevails. There is so much to learn and remember but soon it
By Ship’s Purser: Allison Steele Today we heaved up anchor at 0830 and headed to meet our pilot to take us through the Canso Strait. The Canso Strait is the waterway that divides mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. The Canso Canal was created between 1951 and 1953 and connects Chedabucto Bay on the
By: Purser Allison Sunday Funday! Sunday at sea means a lighter work day for the crew. Although we are still a 24/7 ship and things still need to be cleaned, meals prepared and of course sailing, the crew will often work on their own projects or those of the ship. There was a splicing and
By Purser Allison While anchored at Nahant just outside of Boston, the crew enjoyed a bright sunshiny morning and spiffed up the ship. She is glistening with new paint and varnish and looks beautiful and ready to receive visitors. As the Boston Tall Ship Festival will be a well attended and significant event, the crew
By: Purser Allison A beautiful day turning much warmer in the afternoon, the crew was joined by many curious marine animals. We saw no small amount of sharks, bottlenose dolphins. The crew also had full man overboard drill complete with a launching the rescue boat to retrieve our MOB practice buoy Lenny. Preparing and launching
By Purser Allison We are approaching the Boston Harbour Shipping Lanes and have seen quite a bit of activity not just with vessels but with marine life. We were fortunate to see whales today that were quite curious about our comparatively small ship that they came to visit. Captain Sikkema held workshops on ratline splices,
The City of Hamilton, Capital of Bermuda is nestled into the surrounding harbour, where we, the beautiful black PICTON CASTLE was at anchor. Not like a typical city that comes to mind, our view from the ship consisted of colourful buildings, none taller than three or four stories high, two clock towers and maybe a
By Purser Allison Sunday Funday but the ship’s work is never done. Today we had two workshops; the first of which was bending on headsails after which crew used their new skills to bend on the flying jib. Captain Sikkema also conducted a workshop on splicing and whipping. Each crew member learned how to make an eye splice
By Purser Allison With beautiful clear weather, the crew returned to regular ship’s work. There was a workshop on bending on sail and most of the crew participated in sending up and bending on the Main Course. Other crew assisted the Sailmaker final steps in creating a new deck awning to be ready for Boston.
