Picton Castle sailed off the hook from our roadstead anchorage at Iles de la Madeleine on Tuesday morning, meaning that we got underway under sail alone, without the use of the engine. We sailed away from the archipelago in light wind, turning and bracing the yards as the wind varied, and carried on under sail […]
Picton Castle’s visit to Iles de la Madeleine has been fantastic and the crew have fallen in love with these islands in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. With a year-round population of about 13,000 people, these islands can almost triple in population in the summer to about 35,000 people. They’re part of
Picton Castle sailed from Summerside, PEI last Tuesday, bound for Iles de la Madeleine. Twelve new crew members joined us in Summerside and they were all oriented to the ship and began their instruction in safety procedures and the sails and rigging while at anchor. We did two drills on Tuesday, one simulating a man
Summerside was hardly all work and no play. Each crew member had a couple of days off to explore the town and the beautiful countryside of Prince Edward Island. A group of our crew had tickets to a big concert on the day the ship sailed in, so they drove across the Confederation Bridge (which
Picton Castle sailed in to the inner harbour and the anchorage at Summerside on Thursday and dropped the anchor, all under sail alone. As the crew furled sail, Ron Casey, the Executive Director of Downtown Summerside and host for our visit, came out to meet the ship along with his team in period costume representing
Editor’s note: Here we offer Chibley’s second set of log entries. To be sure, this is not her second log as these clearly represent three separate log entries, although we cannot say with precision exactly to which days she is actually referring. We suppose that does not matter. Today! It was hot today, hot all
The distance from Pugwash, Nova Scotia to Summerside, Prince Edward Island is only about 40 nautical miles. Picton Castle sailed from Pugwash on Sunday morning, following Fair Jeanne, Roseway, Mist of Avalon and Pride of Baltimore II out of the harbour at high tide into a sunny and very calm day. Pugwash was the final
The Bosun School, Picton Castle’s shore-side marine skills development opportunity, is quickly approaching. Starting September 1, young mariners will come to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to advance their development by learning skills that are often difficult to master while at sea. An irony in modern sail training and sea education programs today is that it is
Introduction by D. Moreland It is a difficult thing to write a preamble for chronicles of such an internationally well-known character as Chibley the Cat of the Barque Picton Castle. So well known is she on every continent and at so many far-flung islands that I tremble at the task before me. But as the
Manoeuvring a big ship in and out of the harbour in Pugwash is a bit of a challenge. Small, narrow and there is a strong current running through the harbour at about five knots for a good part of the day – the only time that a ship like Picton Castle could enter and leave
