Why the change from the Atlantic to the South Pacific? Captain Daniel D. Moreland At the Picton Castle office and aboard the ship here in wintery Lunenburg everyone is pretty excited about the change from sailing to Europe to sailing to the South Pacific. Europe would have been great, but it takes more than me …
Picton Castle made great headway last night, averaging 7 knots, staying on a southwest course falling off when the wind picked up. The advantage of being the only vessel for 1000+ miles, we have ample ocean room to play with. This morning the rigging gang headed out into the head rig with tar buckets tied …
An absolutely beautiful South Pacific tradewind day. All sails set, sailing mile after mile, in the groove. Gorgeous blue sky filled with puffy cotton-like clouds surrounding the ship and sea. Sounds of rust busting steel rails on the foc’sle, scraping and sanding Fijian mahogany pinrails on the quarterdeck, brushing on varnish and paint and sawing …
What makes Pitcairn so special to us? Well, for starters, the island itself is strikingly beautiful. Pitcairn is a tall rock rising steeply out of the sea far from anywhere with a rocky and mostly inaccessible coastline, lush green valleys filled with banana trees and pandanaus palms, breathtaking ocean views, sparkling turquoise blue water at …
The Captain says that the only thing harder than getting to Pitcairn Island is leaving. He is absolutely right. Picton Castle sailed away on a beautiful Monday afternoon in fresh easterly breezes after an eight day stay. Each of the two watches was able to spend four days ashore exploring the island and getting to …
Pitcairn Island- The Story of Picton Castle at Pitcairn 2010 begins… Read More »
Picton Castle sailed past Henderson Island, one of the Pitcairn Islands, on Sunday afternoon. There are actually four islands that make up the Pitcairn Islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno. Pitcairn is the only one that is regularly inhabited, although the islanders make occasional expeditions to the other islands. Henderson is a raised atoll, …
“It feels like I belong here, like this is home” one of our gang aboard said the other day. Over the past three months, the crew have come to know the ship and each other well, increasingly becoming more than friends or coworkers as we all depend on each other and on the ship to …
By Captain Daniel Moreland and Maggie Ostler The Picton Castle is only about 9 miles from Pitcairn Island -we can see the moon setting over the west end of Pitcairn, we are still under full sail including studding sails and the sun rising in the east makes the clouds and our sails look like gold. …
With only 375 miles to go for the Picton Castle to reach Pitcairn Island – we are all getting pretty excited!!! In order to look after the ship whether she is anchored or hove-to offshore and also not to put too many of our crew on the island at once (and thus not overwhelming island …
On a long ocean passage in the tradewinds in the Picton Castle, or any other deep sea sailing ship, life falls easily into a gentle routine. It feels like we left Galapagos ages ago, but then I think back to something that happened last week and it seems like yesterday. Being at sea causes a …
