South Pacific south-east tradewinds, as pleasent and fine to sail in as they are, and depend on them we do to get across this ocean, are not quite as reliable as say South Atlantic tradewinds, which never seem to quit. Due to a low between two highs far to our south, yesterday the wind built …
Mid-day, 20-16s/141-46w The Picton Castle is about 400 miles NE of Manga Reva sailing along in strong NNEly winds. Seas are moderate and not too lumpy. The ship is shortened down to upper topsails and still we>are making a comfortable and swift steady 7-8 knots. I suppose that we can expect the breeze to die …
Passage To Rarotonga, Strong Tradewinds still with us #2 Read More »
21-12S / 139-23W The Picton Castle is sailing strong out here in the South Pacific Ocean – as I write we are under all plain sail in force 5 tradewinds blowing in from the NE. With Manga Reva well astern we are steering northwest around the infamous French nuclear test site atoll, Marururoa about 20 …
By Joanna Clark and Mike “Fred” Weiss Picton Castle crew members enjoyed sailing the 22′ dory Sea Never Dry and the 23′ monomoy longboat during the small boat expedition to the island of Akmaru, located about 5nm away from Mangareva. For beginners to small boat sailing, the first few days were an abrupt introduction, as …
The lagoons at the heart-breakingly beautiful French Polynesian island of Mangareva produce the best black pearls in the world, at least according to the pearl farmers who live and work there. The farms don’t look like much – just wooden shacks over the water built on concrete pillars on top of a reef and a …
As we sailed away from the lee of Pitcairn Island, we had one new face aboard – David Brown, a young man who grew up on Pitcairn and is the grandson of Pitcairn legend Len. David will join us for a while to see some of the South Pacific and see what he can learn …
By Billy Campbell The Captain has always said the only thing better than going to Pitcairn once is going again. I wasn’t sure how that could be. Not that I suspected he was lying (Captains are above that sort of thing). It simply seemed impossible that reality should match the memories. It’d been 5 years …
We had two “concert” nights at Pitcairn again at the public square, one with each watch. For weeks before our arrival, crew had been practicing their acts. On both nights, this variety/talent show was opened by the school children singing together. From there, the Picton Castle crew presented their acts. The port watch opened with …
Island Concerts-Island Names -Pitcairn Island Log #7 Read More »
The Captain likes to have a good supply of coconuts on board and Nadja is always involved in food provisioning for the ship, so she asked Dave Brown about collecting coconuts, breadfruit and anything else that the island might be able to spare. After over a month out of Panama fresh provisions are pretty short, …
“Stalking the Wild Breadfruit…”-Pitcairn Island Log #6 Read More »
When Picton Castle arrived at Pitcairn Island, we anchored just off Tedside. On previous visits, the ship has either anchored (the Captain says he is going to write a ‘cruising guide’ to the island having anchored all around it over the years – good holding, no shelter, huge seas) or hove-to offshore, drifting around and …
