Busy in Lunenburg

It has been a while since we posted a Captain’s Log, things have been quite busy around Picton Castle. The ship is still snugly tied to the dock in Lunenburg and now that our first Bosun School has finished we have been working away steadily on a number of different projects.

Local carpenter Dave Rodenhiser has been replacing planks in the deck, the crew have been learning how to caulk and pitch the seams to make them watertight. The saloon sole, where most of the extra rope, sails and rigging tools are stored, has been inventoried, cleaned and re-organized. Finn is pleased that he has got the boiler for the furnace working in the engine room, which will heat the ship enough during the winter to prevent the pipes from freezing. Winter preparations also require putting antifreeze in all the pipes in the ship that normally carry water. The new wire seizings on the shrouds done during the Bosun School are now being primed and painted, as are the now rust-free rails on the foc’sle head. The topmasts are being de-greased so they can be painted (usually they’re greased to help the yards move up and down smoothly), and the jibboom has been varnished after it had been scraped and sanded during Bosun School.

In the ship’s office up the street, we have been working on plans for the Atlantic voyage which will begin in May 2008. The Captain and Lynsey have been examining charts for Europe, dividers and calculator in hand, to determine the best route to take the ship to all the places we want to go. We have been researching ports, figuring out what vaccinations, visas and other documentation the crew need to get, making connections with people in Europe and checking out festivals that we may want to participate in. We’re also working to check off as many items from the to-do list as we can now by getting equipment serviced, major purchases researched and arranged and provisioning planned. Of course, we have also been spreading the word about the voyage. Trainee applicants have been coming to Lunenburg since the beginning of September for their in-person interviews and they look like the beginning of a great crew.

The crew are still enjoying Lunenburg, maybe even more now that tourist season is almost over. A few shops and businesses that are only open seasonally have closed their doors for the year, or plan to shortly. The fall colours were at their best last weekend, the days are getting noticeably shorter and the weather cooler. We’re happy to settle in and stay busy for a long Lunenburg winter.

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