During our week-long stay at Antigua the Captain urged us to take advantage of the Caribbean way of life all around us. This included the classic boats we admired and thoroughly enjoyed sailing, but it also included the splendour of the island itself. Antigua smelled of ripe fruit and smoky earthiness. It was sweet and …
The Picton Castle spent an entire week in Antigua and even as we sailed away from this beautiful island the crew was still buzzing with enthusiasm and brimming with tales of victory, or of racing anyway. The Classic Regatta was a complete success, from the point of view of the organizers, the participating Classic boats …
On the morning of April 15th, 2011 Antigua came into view. As it always is after spending a month at sea, it was surreal to see a tropical and mountainous island reaching out of the ocean to touch the clouds. They mountain peaks and idyllic covers seemed to beckon to us – calling us to …
This Sunday was a near perfect day of sailing in this barque of ours. With all sails set, including stuns’ls, we were smoking along at an average of 8 knots, sometimes 9. The current raced beneath our hull and the wind through the rigging sang of promises yet to come and held the sails in …
April 5, 2011 3 15.745′ N 43 20.639′ W The Picton Castle and her crew have been slogging through the doldrums for close to a week now. The doldrums generally spread a few degrees on either side of the equator and can be characterized as an area of low pressure with high humidity, clouds, rain …
By Paula Washington Looking to my left all that can be seen is broad blue ocean, the occasional flying fish breaks the surface as it glides with wing-like fins away from predators lurking below the waves. Out to my right cumulus clouds are beginning to form into a heavy line obscuring the horizon. Looking aft …
The Picton Castle had been motoring for several days through the South Atlantic Ocean- an ocean over which the most deliciously constant trade winds in the world normally blow… An ocean which was calmer than a bathtub unoccupied – a lake frozen by a harsh winter (cepting it’s plenty hot…), a puddle undisturbed by children’s …
As this world voyage in the Picton Castle is almost on the home stretch and our gang both keen and accomplished, we have set up an extra series of workshops for the long tradewind passage from South Africa to the West Indies in order to hone skill sets – many of our crew seek to …
Picton Castle is currently sailing just south of the Equator, soon to pass from the Southern hemisphere to the Northern hemisphere. On this world voyage, the ship first crossed the Line between Panama and Galapagos. Sailing slowly towards zero degrees, then veering away from it as the wind dictates and setting course once again, the …
The break of dawn comes right on time here in the tropical South Atlantic about 800 miles east of the hump of Brazil. We rather expected it would. In these tropics, night to day shifts from deep night to bright shiny morning pretty swiftly, often with a brief brilliant blaze of sunrise. We are steering …
