By Chelsea McBroom February 5th, 2014 The Picton Castle crew’s hour of fishing aboard the Pitcairn longboat was successful. Steve was kind enough to pick me up from the Landing after we had brought in the boat to hose it down and watch the locals filet the fish. We went and picked up Emily (aka …
By Chelsea McBroom February 5th, 2014 The crowd at the fitness test / obstacle course at the top of the island finished off the watermelon and left soon after to avoid the light rain. Steve whisked me away on the ATV and we rode down the steep hills back to the house to get ready …
By Chelsea McBroom February 3rd, 2014 The Picton Castle approached Pitcairn Island early yesterday and anchored in Bounty Bay just a short distance from shore. Pania steered the ship in to the anchorage. We anchored under sail power alone. This little island loomed tall over our ship, what a gorgeous sight. Brilliant blue waters and …
By trainee Nolan Walker February 3rd, 2014 My watch (4-8) is awakened at 3:30 this morning with declarations of scattered rainfall and warm weather, a welcome change from the seemingly inevitable wake-up, “It’s cold, windy, and you probably will want your foul weather gear.” The sudden change in the weather can only signal that we …
January 31st, 2014 The Picton Castle is anchor in Bounty Bay, Pitcairn Island. We sailed in and dropped the starboard anchor under sail a couple days ago. Don’t worry, the anchor had the chain on it. Pania, Lead Seaman and 8th generation descendant of the mutineers and their island wives steered us in. The ship …
By Chelsea McBroom January 27th, 2014 “Essentially someone gave another turn or twist to a knot and then gave it a new name,” says the Mate, Dirk, as we all sat googly-eyed, staring at the long list of knots we should know before us. We were having a workshop on Advanced Knots on the quarterdeck …
Greetings all from the charthouse of the Picton Castle. The Barque is motor sailing towards the North in light breezes and we are hoping to get into the Easterly trade winds later in the day. We are bound for Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. I relieved Dan Moreland as Captain of the Picton Castle on …
By apprentice Maria Andersen from Denmark The sun has already started to rise in the horizon, it is four o’clock in the morning and our watch has started. In the beginning I was really tired at this point, but now that I am getting used to sleeping in my bunk (that is, by the way, …
By apprentice Denise Knudsen So it became the 19th of January, my 20th birthday. It started with my night watch 10 minutes before midnight (I’m on the 12-4). It was a typically windy and cold night. We (the watch) took over the deck and at midnight sharp, two of my shipmates Beamy and Mark started …
By Chelsea McBroom 4:30pm, or 1630 as we say aboard the Picton Castle, and the crew was doing a seamanship workshop, this time it was all about the bosun’s chair and how to go aloft in it. The Captain explained that the bosun chair, which is essentially strong heavy rope looped through a large flat …
