After only 12 hours motoring out of Galapagos the Picton Castle picked up fresh trade-winds. The usual destination for westward bound vessels from Galapagos is the Marquesas, just south of due west but not for us. We are steering SW for Pitcairn Island over 2,700 miles away deep in the South Pacific Ocean. Having these …
Our multi-national (9 nations represented aboard) crew takes shipmately fun in celebrating everyone’s national day. The theme for this American Independence Day, just called the 4th of July, was a “Backyard BBQ”, with the main hatch being the “backyard”. Threads to the theme were “do your own thing” and “chillin like a villain” with an …
July 1, Canada Day started by sailing off the hook from the harbour at Wreck Bay as we departed the Galapagos Islands, bound for Pitcairn Island, about 2800nm away. Shortly after Picton Castle got out to sea, the Canadians on board met to plan and organize an event to celebrate our national day. The crew …
From Panama the Picton Castle had mostly headwinds and we thus motored plenty more than we would have liked – must have been due to all the pollywogs aboard, now thankfully all gone – we did manage to sail across the Equator under full sail anyway. Being in the Galapagos is a multileveled treat. First, …
Picton Castle sailed across the Equator on Wednesday, entering the southern hemisphere in the Pacific Ocean. As expected, King Neptune and his royal court boarded the ship to address the pollywog issue. With kind serene senisitivities and all-knowing wisdom all pollywogs were solomly raised from their base state to a higher plane. Picton Castle is …
Picton Castle sailed from Panama almost a week ago. Bound for Galapagos we are. In many ways, this is a regular passage for us with the routine of watchstanding, workshops, meals and day-to-day life aboard. We changed the watches on leaving Panama, mixing the groups up so that everyone has a chance to be on …
Chief Engineer Christian has become the Picton Castle turtle wrangler. On the list of requests from Pitcairn Island, one of the things that was asked for was pet turtles, the little kind you have in aquariums. Just had to have pet turtles. In order to have a reasonable number of turtles make it to Pitcairn …
In Panama we said goodbye to two crew members, Nicksa and Dr. Krista. Nicksa, a young South African, has been with Picton Castle since December 2008 and is leaving us for the amazing chance to become a cadet in the Full Rigged Ship Danmark for the summer. We’re all very excited for this incredible opportunity …
Picton Castle’s stay in Panama was an absolute whirlwind. You’ll have to forgive the lack of Captain’s Logs for the duration of our visit, we’ve been so busy with sourcing, shopping, buying, delivering, organizing, stowing and sailmaking that there has been little time left for writing about it all. On Wednesday afternoon we finally sailed …
