Gorgeous day! It’s warm but not too hot with a steady force 5 breeze just abaft the starboard beam and we’re flying along. Switched out the fore t’gallant sail for a newer one today: getting a suit of strong sails on her ready to head north. We’re at the same latitude as the mainland USA […]
The wind has eased off and faired a little so the Captain ordered more sail set: we rigged the studdingsail gear and set the topmast studdingsail, and then the sailmakers finished stitching making the new gaff topsail so we bent and set that too. It’s satisfying watching the genesis of a new sail from rolls
Still sailing north in almost perfect weather – Donald says he brought the nice weather with him from the Caribbean and it’s going to stay with us the whole way, we hope so! SHIP’S WORK: Replace starboard main t’gallant brace and starboard gaff vang, scrape t’gallant st’ns’l boom ready for varnish. Sailmaking: roping new gaff topsail, seaming
PICTON CASTLE sailed off the dock at St. Martin this morning. We hove-to just long enough to get the anchor on the rail and the skiff hoisted, and then set our course north towards Bermuda, sailing close to the easterly trade winds under bright blue skies. We’re homeward bound now, just one more island call
Saw whales blow off the starboard bows this afternoon – we didn’t get close enough to identify them, but it seemed like there were more than one. We sailed between the islands of St Kitts and St Eustatius mid-afternoon, they looked very pretty all green in the sunshine. Donald is happy we’re close enough to
The wind has been variable as we make our way between the islands, so there’s been heaps of sail handling, taking in and setting royals and upper staysail, even t’gallants and the mainsail at times as the wind built to a force 6. It was an excellent evening for taking star sight tonight: clear horizon
The rebuild of KARL, our wooden project boat from Palmerston Island in the Cook Islands, South Pacific, had twin objectives: to get the gang involved with some of the skills of traditional wooden boat building and repair – including making and using our own steam box – and also to give us another boat to
North bound in the Caribbean Sea, all sails set and the sun is shining. Bound from Grenada for Anguilla, we’re sailing inside the curve of the Windward and then the Leeward Islands; keeping far enough offshore to avoid the wind shadows of the high islands, but close enough in to pick up the fair current
Sailing MONOMOY yesterday from Union Island over to Petite Martinique in company with PICTON CASTLE – we even had time for a swim at the most perfect little island on the way…
Bequia is pretty much classic Caribbean…with its funky painted houses down to fine white sand beaches and crystal clear water, which pretty much begs you to jump in. There’s reggae music, fried chicken, fresh coconuts to drink and heaps of sailing: from little kids learning to sail in optimist dinghys to FRIENDSHIP ROSE, the most
