Light winds has been the lot of the Barque Picton Castle of late. We have been motoring along here in the Timor Sea off the north side of Australia for seven days now, ever since Cape York, the top corner, hot too, 39c hot, that’s 100F. I cannot believe that we have been motoring almost […]
Last August, while Picton Castle was anchored at Summerside, Prince Edward Island, we were approached by film maker Susan Rodgers who asked if she could make a short film about the ship and about people following their dreams. We quickly agreed. I’ll admit I haven’t thought much about the film again, until I saw the
By Michael “Fred” Weiss We bros of the forepeak on board the Picton Castle, aka “brocave”, have been known to come up with some unique ideas. Actually that’s not true. In reality we’re just a bunch of dirty, stinky, sweaty, hard-working kinda guys trying to keep things simple. Well, we did hang up mini disco
The temperature in the Coral Sea continued to escalate. The sun bit down ferociously and we responded in turn by smothering our skins with sunscreen and wearing progressively bigger straw-brimmed hats. Captain is always telling us to wear shirts. Squalls frequently moved in on the ship with little forewarning – and provided a strange kind
We learn a great many skills on the Picton Castle. Some we expect to learn and others, perhaps not. We learn how to set sail, take in sail, furl sail, unfurl sail, brace the yards, wear ship and tack. We learn how to box the compass, how to be a good helmsmen and how to
We sailed out of Luganville Harbour in Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu on October 28th bound for Bali, Indonesia. Sailing between Cape York, Australia and Papua New Guinea through the Torres Strait it should take us approximately 3-4 weeks to find our way to that storied isle. Everybody was excited to be on our way, but it
The Picton Castle crew love to celebrate the holidays – and they do it well. Preparations for the Halloween marlinspike began on October 30th. Georgie, our party planner extraordinaire, came up with the brilliant idea of having a Halloween Twister game. Using an old sheet from the linen chest she and Alex began their furious
By Bronwen Livingston and Doctor Victoria Adams It turns out that, somehow, amidst all this tropical splendour, ancient Pacific culture, way of life in an age of sail windjammer and stark Second World War history and its remains, our crew found a way to extract themselves from all these things and to engage in a
We sailed through the night back to the island of Espiritu Santo. The winds were a bit shifty, the threat of rain hung thick in the air and the currents strong. The Captain decided it would be best to anchor on the other side of the bay – in the lee of Aore Island across
By Doctor Vicky Adams The Picton Castle had planned to carry out medical clinics on three islands in Vanuatu and we had some donated and purchased medical supplies with us to give out. On previous visits the ship had found people in real need of medical care and medications. On this occassion, happily, this no
