By Tammy Sharp Editor’s Note: In Antigua we met many skippers of these wonderful wooden sloops built in Carriacou, an island just north of and part of the country of Grenada. They needed crew to help get these sloops to St Barts for the West Indies Regatta. Our crew were ready for the task and […]
Tales of Carriacou Slooping in the Leeward Isles Read More »
By Wendy Heisler So there we are: a rogue crew of 7, bobbing in a lazy circle not far from Antigua. Just us and an engine-less wooden Carriacou Sloop called Good Expectation, which we had previously believed was called Great Expectations. We had been floating in approximately the same position for 24 hours. The wind?
A Good Expectation: Antigua to St. Bart’s In An Old Smuggling Sloop Read More »
On April 23rd, 2011 the Picton Castle motored into Road Bay, Anguilla. This long and relatively flat coral island represents the most northern of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean. It’s white sand beaches glittered in the mid-morning sun and its indigo and cobalt waters shimmered as they lapped against the shoreline. For many
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
I’m always better at remembering something when I can sing it. Learning the alphabet? Much easier with the alphabet song than to remember a long string of letters. Canadian provinces? The tune started with “the provinces of Canada are fun to remember, fun to remember…” and it still helps me get them in the right
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
