Sailin’ in a tick dungeon o’fog…cut it with a knife you could…Just now the Barque Picton Castle is off Brazil Rocks near the southern tip of Nova Scotia steering to pass just north of Georges Banks. Back in the day of fishing schooners and fog much of the navigation was enriched guess work. That so …
A new Picton Castle voyage is about to begin. New trainees arrived in Lunenburg over the last few days to throw their bags over the rail and join us on this summer seafaring adventure. Immediately they began their orientations to the ship, her routines, rigging and safety orientations and drills, lots to learn. As I …
The Picton Castle family has just received the loveliest memento of our visit to Ipswich, United Kingdom, last September. This was another of our homecoming visits; the ship having wintered in Ipswich in 1993-94 en route to North America and her eventual conversion to a Class A tall ship. Ipswich resident Des Pawson, one of …
The Barque Picton Castle is happily anchor at “The Saints,” a lovely small group of islands just south of the big French island of Guadeloupe. There had been some civil unrest in Martinique and Guadeloupe recently but things are back a very pleasant normal now. We had cancelled an earlier stop at Martinique some weeks …
32-25N / 064-36 – Dropped the Bermuda Pilot just outside St. George’s Town Cut at #1 and 2 buoys at about 1100. Seas a creamy turquoise green along the reef – skies bright and blue, a bit more northerly wind than we had expected when inside, blowing about 20, but it didn’t look like it …
Picton Castle Passage – Bermuda towards Nova Scotia Read More »
Finding Bermuda Bermuda – this small island, or more correctly, archipelago, 13 miles long, almost equidistant between the Caribbean, Florida, Virginia, Newport Rhode Island and Lunenburg Nova Scotia was clearly dragged up from the sea floor right here in this very spot by Providence with north bound passage making sailing vessels in mind. Bermuda is …
From Les Isles des Saintes we had a fine sail to the British Virgin Islands in sweet balmy trade-winds. I suppose that we enjoyed this small passage in particular as we all knew that trade wind sailing would be drawing to a close soon enough. Never mind, enjoy it while we can. We carried on …
We sailed from St Pierre, Martinique on a bright morning and made our way north and to windward of the next island, Dominica, as to go to leeward would mean pretty much losing the wind and the ability to sail. Over night we had plenty of squalls, some even pulling the wind into a westerly …
The Picton Castle gang up on the focsle head hove up the anchor at St Pierre and we rounded the northern tip of lava and ash (and jungle) covered Martinique, bound towards Antigua in lovely warm easterly trade winds. Our plan is to sail north along the windward sides of Dominica and Guadeloupe. To attempt …
Dominica, where to begin? We had a decent sail down from Anguilla – we sailed off the hook in Road Bay, rounded the west end of Anguilla, sailed past St Martin with beautiful sunny skies. Past Saba, slipped under Statia, sailed in the lee of St Kitts and Nevis. We got buzzed by a multinational …
