At 12:43 and latitude 18°47’S Picton Castle crossed the Prime Meridian and passed into the Western Hemisphere. It’s been over a year since we last recorded our longitude in degrees West of Greenwich, then we were in the South Seas, somewhere to the east of Fiji. SHIPS WORK: Sailmaking, carpentry and holystoning continue. Work on …
We understand aboard the Picton Castle here in Namibia, southern Africa, that there have been some serious proper winter going on in North America. Seems that there has been a big old winter storm in New England and Ontario that went on to Nova Scotia – even made the news here on the radio in …
Another 24 hours averaging over 6 knots and we’re making good time, running down the miles to St Helena. SHIPS WORK: Holystoning the quarterdeck continues, as does sailmaking down on the cargo hatch and work on the new cap stay. Carpenter Joe is working on dutchmen on the quaterdeck by the chart house. Chief Engineer …
A bit more ocean swell today, so your abs get a workout just sitting down or walking about the ship. The morning came in cloudy, but cleared by noon into yet another gorgeous bluewater day. We’re more than half way to St Helena now, and only a couple of days away from the Greenwich meridian …
Another beautiful day in the South Atlantic. The trade winds are back to their usual reliably good form, the sun is shining and the ocean is sparkling bright blue. SHIPS WORK: It’s too breezy to send sails up and down today so we’re working on other things. The main project for the day is overhauling …
The winds have come fair and started filling in again, so we’re back on course for St Helena making five knots in a glorious sailing breeze. We passed back into the Tropic of Capricorn yesterday evening and the air temperature is perfect at 25°C. SHIPS WORK: Sent down the strong fore upper topsail today and …
DATE: Feb 7th, 2015 REMARKS: The water has warmed up 10°C in the last 24 hours – meaning we are finally out of the cold current sweeping up the coast of Africa from the Antarctic. We celebrated the new warmth with a saltwater power-shower on the main deck – good to exercise the fire pumps …
REMARKS: We retarded ship’s clocks last night so now we’re in the same time zone as Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid and Paris. Chief Mate Sam held a workshop on splicing this afternoon for our newer crew and anyone who wanted a refresher. After, the Captain updated us all on the passage to St Helena and the …
DATE: Feb 5th, 2015 REMARKS: We set sail from Luderitz, Namibia yesterday lunch time, after a very pleasant and relaxed port visit where we visited abandoned diamond mines wandered around the pretty little town and drove out to see wild horses, oryx and ostrich in the desert. It’s a beautiful sunny day today, not too …
REMARKS: The wind picked up to a force 6 overnight, and the day came in brisk and grey. At that speed we would have made landfall in Luderitz at night, so we took in sail to tap the brakes and avoid an arrival in darkness. By lunch time today the sun has come out, wind …
