Well, there we were, through the canal, the Picton Castle moored in hot steamy Balboa on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama getting ready to shove off into the broad South Pacific Ocean, working hard to get provisioned and stowed, sailing time bearing down on us – and we had to get this […]
Chief Engineer Christian has become the Picton Castle turtle wrangler. On the list of requests from Pitcairn Island, one of the things that was asked for was pet turtles, the little kind you have in aquariums. Just had to have pet turtles. In order to have a reasonable number of turtles make it to Pitcairn
Picton Castle’s stay in Panama was an absolute whirlwind. You’ll have to forgive the lack of Captain’s Logs for the duration of our visit, we’ve been so busy with sourcing, shopping, buying, delivering, organizing, stowing and sailmaking that there has been little time left for writing about it all. On Wednesday afternoon we finally sailed
Well, Panama shopping for the ship and for Pitcairn Island too was quite a whirlwind of activity. Shop til you Drop and then get up and shop some more. But many of the gang did interesting things besides shop all the time although shopping in Panama is pretty interesting with all the big markets, back
The pilot decided that our captain would keep the con, which is pretty unusual, and steering was entrusted to in-port helmsman, Nadja, who steered us through all of the locks at the captain’s direction, and we had some of our other more experienced helmsmen, including Logan, Meredith, Siri, Sophie, Julie and Brad, steering through Lake
The Picton Castle crew had an early start on the morning of Wednesday June 9, with all hands waking up at 0345 in order to be ready for the scheduled arrival of our pilot at 0430 (they often arrive early). We had shifted within Anchorage Area F on Tuesday afternoon in preparation, getting to the
By Bronwen Kathleen Livingston Reporting from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia At approximately 6:30 am the server that hosts our lovely new website (and our e-mail) unexpectedly went down. I was in bed, having a dream about exploring Panama La Vieja (Panama’s old city) and was blissfully unaware of the problem. The issue was resolved sometime mid-morning
Wednesday June 9, 2010 All hands worked yesterday to prepare the ship for transit through the Panama Canal. We were at anchor in Anchorage Area B, at the northwest corner of the harbour. We came through the giant breakwater on Monday afternoon to anchor, surrounded by lots of ships, some many times our size. In
Monday June 7, 2010 After the Seamanship Derby yesterday, the crew were rewarded with a power shower, cold juice and popcorn, Donald had been saving some ice in the freezer. It has been surprisingly hot and muggy since we arrived in the Caribbean Sea, hotter than any of us remember it being before. Hotter than
Sunday June 6, 2010 Late last week, a mysterious posting appeared on the door to the salon, something about the 512th annual seamanship competition. All hands were warned to study up on their knots, steering, ship nomenclature and general seamanship skills in anticipation. Watches held secret meetings and study sessions, planning not only their compass
