May 17, 208 16-31N / 080-11W The day comes in mostly cloudy, warm and humid. Winds pretty steady Force 5 at ESE. Sea moderate to 6 or 7 feet. The Picton Castle is 400 miles due north of Panama sailing close hauled by-the-wind, yards hard on the backstays and skirting Rosalind Banks to our West. …
By Cara Lauzon Another exquisite night full of silver moonlight, turning into another clear sunny day. The flying jib has been bent on and test set with success! With the sun returning, the sailmakers are back on deck filling the quarterdeck with white canvas cloth, and ship’s cat Fiji is enjoying sprawling on the cloth …
By Cara Lauzon Last night was another clear and beautiful night, the moon was so bright it’s hard to tell when it’s dawn. Ship’s cat Fiji was slinking about in the moonlight she seems to be enjoying it. Towards 5:30 it started to cloud over and there were lightning flashes beginning. As the morning wore …
By Cara Lauzon Yet another beautiful sunny day out here! The 8-12 watch is currently dressing the royal yard to send it up in the next coming days. The new hands are sitting in the sunshine as they learn knots and whippings. Ship’s cat Fiji is as usual helping with the royal yard and being …
By Cara Lauzon Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed the rest of a Sunday at sea working on personal projects and enjoying the sunshine. Right before dinner the 4-8 set the main topmast staysail and inner jib, helping stabilize the rolling motion of the ship. We woke yet again to clear blue skies! This morning lots of …
After a lovely overnight sail under starlit skies from Porto Sancho, we fired up early this morning to make our appointment with the pilots off the historic port of Funchal, Madeira. As soon as we were tied up and cleared in, we sent down the main t’gallant sail and yard so the carpenters could do …
BOUND FROM: Rodrigues Island, Mauritius, Indian Ocean TOWARDS: Reunion Island, France, Indian Ocean TIME ZONE: GMT +4 NOON POSITION: 20°36.7’S / 059°23.3’E DAYS RUN: 118nm PASSAGE DISTANCE RUN: 243nm DISTANCE REMAINING: 233nm COURSE AND SPEED: WxN 247T, 4.6 knots WIND: Wind Force 4, SSE WEATHER: fair, 4/8 cloud, visibility very good, barometer 1019 millibars and …
By Cheri Davidson After all of our Seamanship Derby fun on Saturday, Picton Castle motor-sailed around the northern tip of New Zealand and into the Bay of Islands on Sunday. There were lots of lovely green hills and lush mountains and rock coming right up out of the ocean. It all looks a lot like …
By Kate “Bob” Addison On the last day of the year, it seemed appropriate to look back at 2012 and all that it brought for the Picton Castle and her crew. I’ve had a great time today looking back through our old log books and re-reading old Captain’s logs – hope you enjoy the review …
By Kate “Bob” Addison June 22, 2012 It’s Friday morning and there’s an air of quiet industry here aboard Picton Castle, at anchor off Old Harbour, Block Island. We sailed in yesterday, dropped the hook just before midday. We sailed up the lee (east) side of Block Island in the early morning sun and light …
