The green waters surrounding the ship for the last day or two from the Amazon freshwater is back to blue. We had a ‘funky reggae party’ late afternoon on the main hatch to get everyone in the Caribbean mood. Popcorn, juice, colourful outfits and groovy musics, though a mid-party squall sent everyone running to take …
Now we’re so close to port it almost seems a shame for this passage to be drawing to a close. Another lovely day of fresh breezes and sunshine and a simply gorgeous night of starry, trade wind sailing. This is what all those Cape Horn sailors must have been dreaming about: a sweet barque sailing …
The Captain gave a talk on the Caribbean in the workshop slot this afternoon. Drawing whiteboard maps of the whole West Indies and then various islands for orientation, he spoke about the history of the West Indies and the pervasive and ongoing influence of the cane industry, and its profound effect on Europe and America …
Just another trade-wind Tuesday. The current has come fair here, a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Brazil, adding nearly two knots to our speed over ground. Smoking along now, should be there in no time – Monday or maybe even sooner. Final splicing workshop this afternoon, the end of topic test: everyone …
By Kate “Bob” Addison While watches are kept night and day while we’re at sea, on a long passage like this one, we also engage in a time honoured deep-water sailing ship tradition of turning some of the crew to on deck as daymen. In fine weather on long passages, large sailing ships would take …
We just passed the mouth of the Amazon and Para Rivers, which pump huge quantities of fresh water into the Atlantic here. A strong adverse current is slowing us down at the moment but in just a few miles it should come fair and give us a boost of nearly two knots most of the …
Sunday at sea and thoughts are turning to the Caribbean in our near future – maybe in just a week! The Captain gave us an introductory West Indies talk this afternoon to whet our appetites for small boat sailing and wonderful islands, with more in-depth orientation to follow over the next few days. SHIPS WORK: …
Steamed overnight from 1600 to 0800 as winds were light and variable and we want to push on to Grenada. If we’re taking in or setting all sail we tend to do it at the change of the watch so we’ve got twice as many bodies to help without having to call all hands. With …
An exciting day today! Firstly the new topmast studdingsail was finished so we bent it and set it for the first time – it looks great, especially for a sail completely made underway, from design and first layout all the way to hand finish work. Sadly the wind was gusting too strong to hold it, …
Squally squally equatorial afternoon March 13, 2015 The Picton Castle is about 200 miles off the NE corner of Brazil just about on the equator. All square sail is set barring the fore royal which is waiting for the just now finished shiny new royal yard to be sent up and crossed. The yards are …
