Back in the summer of 2016, Picton Castle sailed on a transatlantic voyage where we filmed a television series on the way from La Rochelle, France to Quebec City, Canada. The show was called La Grande Traversée and followed the lives of 10 “colonists” who lived life on board as it would have been for …
Picton Castle played the role of L’Esperance last summer as the French-language documentary La Grand Traversée was filmed on board while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We will get to see the first episode when it airs tomorrow night, Tuesday April 11, 2017 on Radio-Canada. La Grand Traversée tells the story of ten “colonists” who made the …
12 September, 2016 Early September in Lunenburg On the morning of the last day of August, Picton Castle sailed quietly in to Lunenburg Harbour. As Captain Sam Sikkema explained in the last Captain’s Log, royal yards, the mainsail, t’gallants and all upper staysails had all been sent down before the ship made her entrance, so …
At 2230 this evening Picton Castle dropped anchor in Rose Bay, in the same spot we lay four months and a little under 10,000 nautical miles ago. Quite a contrast to the blustery cold morning when we set out into the North Atlantic in May, the ship now lays calm and still, the only noise …
Picton Castle set sail from Quebec City on Tuesday August 2nd, bound for Toronto. The ship gained a number of admirers in Quebec City and some were on the wharf to see the ship get underway and wave goodbye. We’ll be back in Quebec City again in 2017 for a big tall ships event called …
Picton Castle made a grand entrance at Quebec City on Thursday July 28th. As you may remember, we have been working on a project that involves a historical re-enactment, and this is the final port for that project. Families of those aboard were standing on the shore at the harbour entrance, watching Picton Castle pass …
And the next low pressure system comes through bringing near gale force winds for the day. PICTON CASTLE is crawling along upwind under short sail trying to make the best of these conditions. Fortunately for us this was only to last the day. In the late afternoon the barometer began rising again and at the …
Another day working through the Atlantic, to the North this time. Breeze filled in westerly in the morning and has been a steady Force 5 for most of the day. All of the safety gear got a quick overhaul: as we know we will need it again, we must keep it in top notch condition. With …
Weather forecasting has been an amazing advancement to safety at sea: to be able to have a heads up to what’s around the corner and being able to plan accordingly. But as complex as weather systems can be, the forecasters and computer models don’t always get it right. While we were expecting the breeze to …
With conditions continuing to be fresh over night we got in T’gallants early in the morning. The day dawned warm and sunny and when the wind moderated enough we set all sail except the Studding Sails and went charging off on a close reach at 6kts. As we know sunny dry days will start becoming …
