The Barque Picton Castle is happily anchor at “The Saints,” a lovely small group of islands just south of the big French island of Guadeloupe. There had been some civil unrest in Martinique and Guadeloupe recently but things are back a very pleasant normal now. We had cancelled an earlier stop at Martinique some weeks ago when things were a little worked up but reports from trusted sources in these islands told us to come over, things were fine now.

We have just sailed from Antigua, tacking in an attempt to get to windward of Guadeloupe to keep the fresh breeze that this large island blocks, but gave that up on a squally night with a lee shore coming up close by. We fell off and sailed along the western side bound for the Saints where, in days gone by (1973), one Brigantine Romance, while at anchor, was rammed by a French minesweeper coming in to harbour with some kind of cowboy at the conn. Quite the kerfuffle with a snapped jibboom and broken spritsail yard, but we got their flag and flag staff. Tempers were a bit hot, say, white hot? But lovely spot anyway. The French CO decided it wasn’t his fault somehow…a bit of history, we called it the Battle of the Saints. I thought anchored vessels generally had the right of way over vessels making way – what do I know?

After several days at anchor at the main island of Terre de Haut in Les Iles des Saintes, we shifted the Picton Castle to Terre de Bas, the smaller of the islands and are now at anchor in a tiny and improbable but beautiful little cove. The Saints are just a treat. Beautiful in a Caribbean way and yet very country French with fine coffee, baguettes, wine, good cold biere and croissant and even the kids dressed pretty with style etc. The locals tend towards a light mocha in complexion running from quite white to a rich brown. Les Isles des Saintes, just a fishing outpost back in the day, never had any major cane agriculture here calling for lots of African slaves so the ancestry is largely Breton French. Well painted and well kept old wood frame and plank houses dating back plenty, plenty years, small and with wooden shutters line the streets close aboard, they do. Likewise pretty painted wooden fish boats moored just outside the small surf or pulled up on smooth beaches, nets hanging from trees and in neat piles on the sand in the shade – fishermen landing big dorado in the late afternoon, caught by line well out to sea. Pretty and steep hilly fields with goats staked out looking up at us with their devilish eyes and bleating sporadically for reasons unknown.

We are relaxing here at anchor and about to have a swim call – plenty of time to do ships work once under way and the crew have worked plenty hard. Lynsey took the ferry over to the main town to clear out with the gendarmes, should be back soon and off we sail for the BVI – clear blue skies, a nice force 4-5 easterly– yup, we do all just love it here in these West Indies. Sure, we want to be in Lunenburg soon, but soon enough for that, meantime we are here and that’s pretty sweet too.

Saintes beach

Saintes clothing

Saintes restaurant

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Finding Bermuda

Bermuda – this small island, or more correctly, archipelago, 13 miles long, almost equidistant between the Caribbean, Florida, Virginia, Newport Rhode Island and Lunenburg Nova Scotia was clearly dragged up from the sea floor right here in this very spot by Providence with north bound passage making sailing vessels in mind. Bermuda is in exactly the right spot for a vessel to put in to take a breather and wait for weather when north bound.

Not so necessary when bound for the south, as every mile made south of Bermuda is all in the right direction, towards reliably good weather, sweet winds and small seas. Bypassing Bermuda when south bound is often a good idea. Putting in to Bermuda is just what the Picton Castle did for a few short days on the way north. Now grant you, in olden days this island could be pretty hard to find when sailing from Europe against the prevailing westerlys coming from the east before they got figuring out longitude sorted out.

Great mystery surrounds this small coral rock literally right here in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of a convergence zone you can get any kind of weather making it hard for Elizabethan ships. It probably did not help that for a very long time they were not quite sure where this island was. Some even thought it moved about. So much mystery that we are told that Shakespeare set his famous play “The Tempest” on Bermuda.

We don’t know much about “The Tempest” but we know Bermuda pretty well. Our passage north from Jost Van Dyke was fine with good sailing until about a day and a half out when a big high pressure system filled in, as it often does round about here making for clear skies but stealing all the wind. We fired up the strong, reliable Alpha diesel engine and motored onward before the weather changed to something less useful.

Bermuda Triangle

We get asked plenty about the ”Bermuda Triangle” do we believe in it? Is it real? How come so many ships, planes, boats have been uniquely lost there? Why such a mysterious place? And so on… Now, I am all for a good mystery, even a good proper conspiracy, but the Bermuda Triangle is a pretty easy thing to understand and sadly requires little or no proper mystery.

Of course more planes, ships, boats have been lost here. There are probably more car accidents in Chicago, New York or London then there are in say, the middle of nowhere, pick a spot without a road or town in maybe the Great Plains, not so many accidents there, eh?. There is an enormous amount of human vehicular traffic in what is called the Bermuda Triangle. Unlike most of the rest of the world’s ocean, this patch of Atlantic is infested with craft of all types, many of which might be well advised not be out there to begin with. In this oceanic region we have all the shipping routes from east coast US and Canada including the Gulf of Mexico (Montreal, Halifax, Bay of Fundy, Boston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Newport News, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami, around to New Orleans, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston) back and forth to Europe (fill in the names of any significant European city on the coast) – lots and lots of ships in this old triangle.

We also have an enormous amount of amateur yacht traffic and now, with the unleashing of fleets of weekend sailors due to the simple and cheap navigation capacity of GPS, we have even more yachts out there sailing deep sea, or trying to sail back and forth from north to south in quest of tropical dreams. Many of these yachts would not have ventured off shore without GPS and wisely so too.

Same goes for air traffic, compounded by back in the day so much military flight training of brand new and inexperienced aviators taking place right here, not to mention that there was once a very important US Naval Air Station at Bermuda, an exceptionally effective one on that big permanent aircraft carrier 650 miles off the US coast – now long gone due to Bermuda’s lack of congressional votes. And all this was true before radar, satellite navigation, Loran, RDF, Omega, Decca etc, etc making things just that much harder when visibility and weather got not so good.

Ah, the weather! And then there is the weather – weather can be quite convoluted all around Bermuda. This region is dominated by a big convergence zone of North America; Cape Hatteras is right there spewing low pressure and other weather systems off the continent, expanding and intensifying when they hit the ocean first hitting the Gulf Stream with its hot waters, the dribs of the Labrador Current (very cold) mixing in and crazy systems coming out of Alberta – you could call this area a weather cauldron and, back to point #1, all right next to one of the most populated and nautically busy parts of the world. Are there more marine incidents in this Bermuda Triangle of ours? No doubt – but how could it be any other way? The North Pacific has typically worse weather but so few ships transit that ocean we see very few incidents in that part of our water globe. Not so many traffic accidents in Siberia either is my guess…

Taking a Pilot

We took as our pilot Captain Wendell, who has guided the Picton Castle into Bermuda before with excellent professionalism, with his two trainee pilots this time to practice taking a ship through Town Cut which leads into St George’s. Easy enough for a ship like ours really, the channel is 250 feet wide and about 25 feet deep, plenty enough room for us. But they take 40,000 ton cruise ships through there too with only feet to spare under the keel and no possibility of turning around or stopping, meaning they had better be pretty good. They are, so not to worry. As most commercial ship traffic now goes to Hamilton we had a nice berth alongside at Penno’s Wharf right in downtown St George’s. This was nice for us in this short visit and permitting us to just step ashore as we pleased and also paint the skiff instead of working her so hard. She has been hard at it for months now in the islands.

Old St George’s

Old St George’s Town is a very pretty town and remarkably historically intact. All pastels and plaster and narrow streets right up to the front door steps of the low houses, many of the buildings date back to the 1700s. A walk around through narrow stone streets is a treat. There is a beautiful old church that looks like some ruins from the middle ages – it turns out that this is the ”Unfinished Church” that got damaged in the 1920s and for that and other reasons never was completed. It sits atop a hill overlooking St George’s and the harbour making a perfect place for a picnic. All around St George’s are little park-like settings and small coves for crew to go off to, throw a frisbee and generally ‘hang out’. A few of our more senior crowd make a point of finding some fine B&Bs to relax in on their off watch and I am sure they found a nice one here.

Ship’s Work

This was also a last chance to get some second layouts on sails, David spread out a new hand sewn jib and a new royal for final cutting and sewing. Of course the Mate got the topsides painted to perfection as well as re-stowed the hold, always a big job. Lynsey was very busy with getting customs and immigration forms sorted for our arrival in Canada ever so soon. Donald got some eggs, fruits and vegetables for the 730 mile passage but no too much as everything is some expensive on this mid-Atlantic rock. But it is nice to eat well too, and we do.

Picton Castle Stamp

And here is an excellent place to make an announcement: the Barque Picton Castle is to be featured on the new Bermudian 70 cent stamp, so honoured as a frequent visitor to this hospitable isle. June 11th these will be released, we are told.

Time to sail – no storms predicted, not great sailing or fair winds on the screen either but nothing bad – drills completed, lines singled up, engine warmed up, push boat standing by the bow, jib loosed to pull the bow off the quay. Captain Myron Robinson, Senior Pilot, stepped aboard and took his place on the bridge with me and the Barque Picton Castle put to sea again on this last passage for Nova Scotia from which we sailed a year and 18,000 miles ago.

Bermuda – in diver’s lingo, quite the decompression stop as we keep rising to the surface of the world we left behind a year ago in Lunenburg.

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From Les Isles des Saintes we had a fine sail to the British Virgin Islands in sweet balmy trade-winds. I suppose that we enjoyed this small passage in particular as we all knew that trade wind sailing would be drawing to a close soon enough. Never mind, enjoy it while we can. We carried on our way in the Caribbean Sea in the lee of Guadeloupe surprisingly well and sailed right through her wind shadow. And then kept sailing in the lee of the islands of Montserrat, Nevis, St Kitts, Statia and Saba, across the Anegada Passage where soon the tips of the Virgin Islands were in sight early-early just after one fair dawn.

This must have been much how Columbus first saw these myriad islands. A passel of peaks dotting the horizon, hence he named these islands after St Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins – seems rather a lot of virgins. We broke through into the calm waters of Sir Francis Drake channel by way of narrow Round Rock Passage, sharpened the yards up on the wind and made our way towards Spanish Town Virgin Gorda. We tacked a couple times and anchored the Picton Castle near the big blue Barkentine Caledonia, with the goodly Captain Kim Smith of Lunenburg in command. Here we provisioned up with fresh food and the gang got to visit the Baths. The Baths of Virgin Gorda are a must see stop in the BVI. These are wonderful rock formations of giant boulders pushed up through plate tectonics to create a maze along the edge of the sea providing great snorkelling, hiding places and picnic spots.

Then we sailed for Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. Up anchor and off the hook under sail for the 20 mile sail. The Picton Castle must have made quite a sight sailing along in these smooth waters, many charter boats came close and took pictures. By late afternoon we were at anchor at JVD for our last tropical island visit. Here the goal was to get in as much small boat handling as we could in these perfect sailing conditions. We are all aware that the minutes were ticking by. The skiff was launched, Sea Never Dry, our painted up dory with her Senegalese sails was hoisted over board, and the piece de resistance, Mr Bones, was launched. Yes, our fine Grenadian fishing boat was finished ready to be launched too. Matt had dome most of the work but most anyone had a hand in her coming together too, whether it was planning, sanding, puttying, painting, caulking or just helping Matt bend planks – this was a collective effort and interesting boat building experience on the decks of this barque. Bones was launched and rowed around with her Grenadian oars and pronounced a stunning success. Soon Bones became the auxiliary shore boat.

What else does one do at your last tropical island after four months in the tropics, over two months in the Caribbean alone and after being at sea in a big square rig sailing ship for almost a year? Well, you can imagine what you might do. Our gang hung out together a great deal, there was reggae music to dance to at nights, there was plenty small boat sailing to do and the dory ventured far and wide, and ashore there was a good deal of important nothing to do too as well. Onboard plenty of ships work to do – never ending; what with checking over the rigging before sticking our nose into the North Atlantic – trade-wind sails changed out for new storm sails, braces renewed, gear lashed, bits and pieced well stowed, full surveys and inspections of every part of the ship before heading north.

At Jost we missed seeing the famous Foxy who would always greet us with a special Picton Castle calypso song. He was off with his wife Tessa visiting family in Australia. Foxy Callwood had very recently been awarded by Queen Elizabeth II the MBE, or Member of the British Empire (we think that’s what it stands for) for doing so much good in the BVI. We figure we have to call him Sir Foxy now.

Then it came time, the Picton Castle and her crew sailed, again, off the hook under sail, now bound for Bermuda and Nova Scotia – about 1,600 miles. We had a fresh fair easterly that would take us plenty miles on our way for the first leg of this homeward bound passage. That was good enough for now.

hanging at Foxy s (photo from Geoff)

Limin

Mike and Job in the dory (photo from Deb)

Mike and Paul land a fish (photo from Deb)

Steph and Buddy in Jost (photo from Geoff)

The dory at Ivan s (photo from Geoff)

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We sailed from St Pierre, Martinique on a bright morning and made our way north and to windward of the next island, Dominica, as to go to leeward would mean pretty much losing the wind and the ability to sail. Over night we had plenty of squalls, some even pulling the wind into a westerly direction for several hours. Eventually the wind came in clear again and we found ourselves to windward of Marie Gallant but just barely. Rather than motor around we tacked into the night working our way to windward of Guadeloupe – the Picton Castle is quite weatherly for a square-rigger and we made 4 points on each tack.

By dawn the second day out we could weather the eastern point of Guadeloupe, sailed between it and the small island of La Desirade and fell off for Falmouth Harbour, Antigua right next to English Harbour. We had been invited to join the annual Antigua Classics Regatta for sailing yachts and vessel of traditional distinction. We thought that this would be different for us, very likely instructional and possibly a great deal of fun, too. The sun was getting low as we approached the harbour so we launched a boat with Lynsey and all the papers, raced her in to clear in at Customs & Immigration before they closed for the day leaving us stuck onboard, while we found a good place to anchor the ship.

So, there we were, the Barque Picton Castle, a big classic square-rigged sailing ship, a barque at anchor at Falmouth, Antigua, just around the corner from historic and celebrated English Harbour. The bay was filled with beautiful classic sailing yachts and traditional sailing craft of all kinds. Quite a sight for our crew. This was a wonderful convocation of beautiful vessels – massive number of beautiful boats, from the eight sweet Carriacou-built wooden work-boat sloops, to a Nevis built island schooner, to the huge, elegant gaff-rigged Schooner Yacht Eleanor (which is being sailed very, very well) and J-Boats Ranger and Valsheda along with a raft of fine schooners like the magnificent Gannon & Benjamin built Juno, General Patton’s When & If, Heron and Block Island schooner Amanda, etc; are all stunning with a very positive tone in this scene, no high pressure modern yachts and associated high-pressure, high-tech racing yachties.

Our goal was to get our Picton Castle crew farmed out on all the other vessels in order to give them an alternative experience, test and exercise their skills as well as simply have good time sailing. After discussion with Kenny Coombs, Man-In-Charge who had invited us, the gang walked the docks in the early morning and all hands found sites for the races that wanted to. Having all our crew sail in other vessels is very much like their “final exam” and they all did very well, I am proud to say. Some yachts were unsure at first about taking these unknown sailors but soon we were getting requests for more crew. We also launched our ships dory and sailed her in the races as well – but one time in the inner harbour…

- Quote of the day –

Mike, Lynsey and Paul were sailing our brightly painted 23’ Lunenburg dory with her bright African fabric sails around the crowded inner harbour of Falmouth. Docks were filled with gorgeous classic and very expensive yachts here, in for the Classic Regatta. Our gang were admittedly grandstanding a little and the dory was getting heaps of attention and cheers from the docks and people taking pictures because it was quite a sight and pretty cool. There was a lady standing in the crowd that was watching from a finger pier surrounded by very shiny yachts and she was evidently annoyed about something. Her blood came to a boil and all of a sudden she blurts out quite loudly and seemed to mean it…

“I just spent 13 million dollars on my boat and THEY are getting all the attention!!!”

We would have sold her the dory for a good price…a lot less than 13 million…

We had a nice open-ship aboard the Picton Castle at anchor in Falmouth for all the traditional yacht racers at the Antigua Classic Regatta – it was supposed to be short and sweet, two hours in the afternoon only (this just in – it was sweet but not so short, peeps lingered…). Crew behaviour all around during all these Classic Regatta activities was all first class in spite of the temptations for excess.

The big modern passenger Barkentine Caledonia joined the fleet, with former Picton Castle Chief Mate Captain Kim Smith in command, for a couple days too. The last day of the races we went out with the fleet – it was quite remarkable to sail along for a while with these outstanding sailing craft like the J-Boats and then we peeled off to sail away and carry on with our voyage in the wonderful islands of the Eastern Caribbean.

dory with other boats racing at Antigua

sailing the dory in front of the fleet, Falmouth, Antigua

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The Picton Castle gang up on the focsle head hove up the anchor at St Pierre and we rounded the northern tip of lava and ash (and jungle) covered Martinique, bound towards Antigua in lovely warm easterly trade winds. Our plan is to sail north along the windward sides of Dominica and Guadeloupe. To attempt to sail in the lee of these high islands is futile as there is nothing but wind shadow calms unless one sails very close to the shore and then is constantly at the braces. Just to starboard as we made our way north, the shore nearby was made up of steep jungle covered cliffs and precipices plunging to the sea from improbable pinnacles. We just spent 3 days in St Pierre wandering about and taking in the local scene – this involved markets, French language, cafes and interesting walks among the ruins. As it happens there is an excellent tattooist here who doubles (or triples) as an internet cafe and Customs & Immigration office (only in France…). Martine at the Café L’Escapade became a tattoo artist after the visit of this very barque in 2002 when she saw a few of the crew boasting South Pacific tattouage and thus found her inspiration. She is excellent with an elegant and light touch and a couple of the crew got so engraved – this done we now carry on towards Antigua.

We are bound for the “Classic Yacht Regatta” preceding the more hi-tech, yachty Antigua Race Week out of English Harbour. This is a series of races for classic type vessels; very big Alden and Fife schooners, gaff ketches, the odd Scottish Zulu, Norman Tunnyman, curious single-handers in old gaffers, Carriacou Sloops and the like. We are headed that way in order to disperse our crew amongst these fine sleek craft for the upcoming week. The Picton Castle will, most likely, remain happily anchored in Falmouth Harbour, right next to English Harbour, throughout these proceedings. We could go stern-to in classy English Harbour but not just now as there will be little room at that inn until Race Week is well past. English Harbour remains a charming bastion of old English nautical history, being formerly the West Indian answer to the British Naval Bases in Halifax, Bermuda and, before the American Revolution, also New York.

St Pierre, under the volcano, once a noble stone-built city of 30,000 prior to being wiped out in 1902 by the eruption of Mt Pele, now a town of about 7,000 sprouting among the ruins, was a treat for all and we like it here beaucoup – history, ruins, French lingo, baguettes, cheese, coffee, croissants, wine, ladies and gents with style promenading about– it is all good. Early in the mornings as the sun climbed over the peaks we watched fishermen in brightly painted pirogues spreading their nets and pulling them up on the beach. Along this beach we can see at frequent interval big cannons sticking up and slanting towards shore. These, along with a great number of huge old anchors spread about too, were for tying the sterns of ships up back when St Pierre was the main port of commerce. Not so since 1902. Walking along this long curved black beach you can still see sections of cobblestone roads leading into the sea. Pottery shards and pieces of brick, all well worn from tumbling in the light surf, must be from the great destruction as well.

In Grenada we got a little 14’ boat in frame as a project to finish on deck for some of our gang. We have been planking it up and learning how to plank in the process. Our boat-building team was puzzled about how to get replacement knees for it as some had rotted off. After too much discussion regarding makeshift plywood knees, planning expeditions into the forest and like nonsense, I told them to just walk along this big long black sand beach and see what they could find in the way of driftwood with shape – in short order they found five fine pieces of hard driftwood that made perfect knees which are now shaped and installed in de boat.

We are all well enough indeed and soon we will be gearing up our psychology to be excited about getting home, but in the meantime we ain’t done yet with these here fine West Indies, not yet.

Norm and Matt work on the boat

St Pierre, Martinique

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Dominica, where to begin? We had a decent sail down from Anguilla – we sailed off the hook in Road Bay, rounded the west end of Anguilla, sailed past St Martin with beautiful sunny skies. Past Saba, slipped under Statia, sailed in the lee of St Kitts and Nevis. We got buzzed by a multinational patrol plane piloted by a friend of a Picton Castle shipmate. The pilot called and sent greetings. In the night we passed Guadeloupe and the early morning found us in the lee of mountainous Dominica.

We took the ship in close under power so the crew could get a good look at this stunning island. We had spent about three months here two years ago being the ship for the “fantasy/reality” TV show “Pirate Master.” This TV shoot was a whole lot of work, and quite demanding, but fascinating work at that. And, for one thing, we really learned the coast of Dominica. Now this would not be so remarkable if it weren’t for the fact that for all its charms, Dominica has scant few anchorages, decent or otherwise. The island is steep to, very steep to. But by and by we made our way down past the main town of Roseau where we saw the fine schooner Spirit of Massachusetts and got anchored stern to the beach by the Anchorage Hotel, a small hotel which had a dock we could take our skiff too. The anchor was let go in over 100’ of water on a steep incline and we had hawsers going to trees on the beach holding our stern inshore and thus in effect, pulling the anchor up hill. The ship was quite secure.

We had planed to stay awhile as Dominica has a very special character and we have many connections here we wanted the gang to take advantage of. It certainly is a stunningly beautiful isle, covered with all lush tropical rain forest and craggy mountains. Most of the Lesser Antilles were completlly deforested in colonial days, in the interests of big profits from the brutal making of sugar. Not so much in Dominica. This island was not cut down like so many others and retains much of its natural flora and fauna. Everywhere one can find bubbling hot sulfur springs underfoot and some of the beaches are even too hot to walk on barefoot. When we sailed around the island during the filming we were just stunned by the majestic beauty of the place.

Our history and guide books tell us that Dominica has been inhabited for about 5,000 years and peopled in successive waves of indigenous groups coming up from South America over time. There is still a group of about 3,000 Caribs, the last large and identifiable such group in the West Indies. They were often (and the books still do) described as “warlike” but weren’t they just defending their homeland against invasion? We saw a t-shirt with an old photo of Geronimo on it with the caption “Homeland Security – Fighting Terrorism since 1492.” And this they successfully did here and in most of the Lesser Antilles with success for about 125 years. Spain had shown little interest in these smaller islands in the Eastern Caribbean even though they considered them theirs, as they considered the entire Caribbean theirs. But in due course, at about much the same period that Plymouth Plantation was being established in Massachusetts, these islands were invaded and taken over by the English, French, Danish, Dutch and even Sweden got one little one. Now these islands are all independent except the French and Dutch ones. Well, St Thomas, St John and St Croix were sold by the Danish to the USA in 1917…

Well, I guess we have to say that Dominica is really and truly wonderful. Its complete lack of long white sandy beaches has made it immune from conventional resort development, so we don’t see massive gated and insulated resorts. Its lack of decent anchorages has made massive marina development unattractive too to those that make money doing that sort of thing, so, again we see no massive, exclusive marina complexes. So what is left is a vibrant local culture and identity on an island left to its own devices which, as it turns out, are quite excellent. It is hard, if not impossible, to describe what all the gang did because, in fact, I do not know. But here we go a little anyway.

In the Caribbean, Dominica is known as the Garden Island, supplying many of the drier islands with fruits and vegetables. The market is just bursting with all manner of beautiful produce. Donald is in his element shopping and bargaining and getting fine fruits and veggies for the ship

The architecture of the main town of Roseau mostly dates from the 19th century and earlier. Few buildings over two stories built of volcanic stone and wood very much in a West Indian Victorian vernacular. Narrow roads lead out of Roseau and take you through the steep craggy jungle covered mountains to small villages with goats, free-range chickens and usually a backdrop of reggae music.

Rudolph Xavier, our friend who was our guide, leader and scout as well as driver during the TV shoot two years ago, was back to see us and it was great to get together again – Mr. Xavier is a most excellent guide and gentleman. Anyone visiting Dominica would do very well to meet him and put themselves in his able hands for their visit.

And of course, crew took full island tours all around the island to Carib Territory, went diving on underwater vents, found great local restaurants where you can get delicious Caribbean dinners, and internet and so forth and so on. Back on the ship, work is ongoing with afternoon swim breaks – swing rope from the fore-yard plunging into the sweet Caribbean sea.

architecture downtown Roseau

Dominica s lush rainforest

PC anchored and tied to trees ashore

running stern lines ashore, Dominica

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Picton Castle crew could make tourism commercials for Dominica. Every crew member I have spoken with thinks this is one of the most beautiful and unique islands in the world. I continually hear comments about how friendly the people are, how many different activities and sights there are to do and see, and about the natural beauty of the island. The interior of the island is mostly mountains and rainforest, the coastline is mostly rocky with a few black sand beaches. The island is lush with an incredible range of biodiversity. It has been fantastic to introduce crew on this voyage to old friends here, as well as meeting new people.

Two groups have taken trips to the Indian River, in the northern part of the island. This river is a protected natural area with a variety of species of birds, fish, crabs and other fauna. It’s also famous for being featured in the second “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, when they rowed up the river to find Calypso in the woods. Our guide yesterday, whose nickname is James Bond, said that he rowed Johnny Depp up the river in the same boat we were in. All boats in the river must be rowed, no use of motors is allowed because the government is trying to protect it.

Crew have also been discovering the natural hot springs. A group went yesterday to Wotten Waven, which is inland from the capital city of Roseau, to soak in the hot springs at a spa. The hot water was diverted through a bamboo pipe into an oval-shaped cement pool, filling it chest-deep with warm water. Many local people on the island swear by the therapeutic properties of the hot water, saying that it is good for the skin and promotes good health. Dominicans can live a long time – the world’s oldest person was a Dominican woman who died in 2003 at the age of 128, and there are a greater percentage of the population that are centenarians (age 100+) here than anywhere else in the world. I think a good soak in a hot spring is good for mental health and stress relief as well.

Work continues on the ship as well, mixed with some fun. Yesterday’s watch put the dory into the water and started to get it rigged for sailing. The ship’s dory, which has been named Sea Never Dry, doesn’t look much like a typical boat from The Dory Shop in Lunenburg now because of its Caribbean makeover. The boat is now painted a combination of two different shades of pink, some blue hues with accents in some other tropical colours. The sail, made on this voyage from a variety of fabrics, is also unique. Hopefully the watch that is on duty today will get to finish rigging the boat and take it out for a sail.

Hot springs tubs, Wotten Waven

Lynsey and James Bond row on the Indian River

Lynsey, Deb and Carl on the Indian River

Pool at the hot springs, Wotten Waven

Trees on the Indian River

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It is often said around the Picton Castle that we only have a 300-ton barque in order to carry wonderful small boats around. This is only half a joke. Being competent at small boat handling is an essential component of being a good seaman therefore we have been on the lookout for a good place to launch all of our boats and use them without too much in the way of distractions from ashore.

After gale-driven bays and being alongside much of the time last summer in Europe, followed by increasing opportunity for small boat handling as we made our way down the coast of Africa, many of our gang have become well advanced in small boat handling. This they learn in the course of making boat runs to and from the ship and through direct study and instruction at sea and in the different ports. Recently in Carricou our crew has been learning and practicing beach landings in modest surf.

From Bequia we sailed south in the Grenadines for Mayreau, a tiny island with about 300 inhabitants and a sweet, quiet crescent moon bay with smooth waters, making this anchorage perfect for boat practise. The good Sloop Bob, Alex Brooks, Master and Picton Castle shipmate, with fellow Castle alumni John Gallagher and friends Sarah and Kiera sailed in company with us from Bequia to this secluded cove. Once anchored the Mate went straight at getting boats launched. One brightly painted 23-foot dory with new sailing rig, our 20-foot wooden skiff, our 24-foot fiberglass rescue boat and one 12-foot Senegalese fishing canoe. The next day was spent sailing the dory around with its big rig and tooling all around with the other boats. An island schooner sailed in for a couple of hours too. The day naturally ended with a big barbeque.

dory sailing Mayreau

Senegalese sails dory Mayreau

silhouette ship dory Mayreau

sunset cruise Mayreau

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This may be the first Captain’s Log written on board an airplane. While we’re breaking with tradition, I should explain that I’m not the Captain, either. I do, however, plan to write some Captain’s Logs over the next two weeks as I sail aboard Picton Castle in the Caribbean.

My usual work location these days is in Picton Castle’s office in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. There are two of us who work for the ship from shore, coordinating all the necessary details behind the scenes in order for the voyages to take place. Susan Corkum-Greek will be holding things down shoreside while I am away sailing.

I have sailed with the ship before – circumnavigated on World Voyage 4 as a trainee, then continued on through our Summer Voyage in 2006 that saw the ship sail the Great Lakes as part of the ASTA Tall Ships Challenge, then spent a winter aboard the ship as we did short sail training voyages and filmed a TV show in the Caribbean. About two years ago I came ashore to continue my work with the ship, focusing more on logistics and trainee recruitment. I am thrilled to be heading south to meet the ship for some proper tropical sailing.

As I fly along at 517mph, Picton Castle is sailing towards Anguilla at a much slower speed. They left the Tobago Cays on Monday (Mayreau specifically, with a brief stop in Union to clear out), planning to arrive in Anguilla on Thursday. I flew out from Halifax at o’dark-thirty this morning and, after an overnight stay in Saint Maarten, will arrive in Anguilla tomorrow, having covered a considerably greater distance.

The crew has had a good introduction to the Eastern Caribbean already. After an epic passage from Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, which started with sailing off the hook and continued for two weeks under sail alone until they reached Carriacou where they let go the anchor, still only under sail, the crew arrived just in time for Carnival. In fact, the island of Grenada was the original destination for this passage but because the ship made such great time (with help from some currents off the coast of Brazil), they arrived early and had a few days to spare during which they danced in the streets with the Carnival revelers and prepared the ship, which after a long ocean passage needed some attention to look her best coming into Grenada.

The crew had an extended stay in Grenada where they explored local markets, rum distilleries, sugar cane plantations and waterfalls. From Grenada they sailed for Petite Martinique, one of the outlying islands of Grenada that is very quiet and relaxing. After a second trip to Carriacou, the ship departed from the country of Grenada and headed on to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The first stop in this country of many islands was Bequia, one of the sweetest islands around. As winter is the time that cruising sailors are, well, out cruising in the Caribbean, the anchorage at Port Elizabeth was full of boats. Bequia has an interesting history of whaling and boatbuilding, but it’s also a great place to lime (liming being a Caribbean term for relaxing or chilling out). The ship continued on to another one of the Grenadines, Mayreau, for a few days before heading to Anguilla.

Because researching the ship’s upcoming ports is part of my job, I can tell you that Anguilla is British overseas territory, best known for its stunning white sand beaches. Picton Castle will be in port during the Moonsplash Reggae Festival, an annual event that is put together by reggae musician and local Anguilla restaurant and bar owner, Bankie Banx. Sounds like the crew will be in for some interesting adventures ashore.

Even more than enjoying the tropical warmth and beautiful islands, I’m looking forward to being aboard again. It’s kind of like coming home.

Passage from Gibraltar to Morocco was a bit rough towards the end. We hove-to a couple times in small gales and large seas piled up, but we had a fine Thanksgiving Day feast while hove-to. Soon enough wind and seas laid down and we carried on our way.

Essaouira is one remarkable and exotic port of call, more in keeping with a traditional Picton Castle port than we have had all the last six months sailing around Europe. But first, why Essaouira? What brought us here? We did a bunch or research; Casablanca seemed interesting but very much the big city. We talked to some other mariners, particularly the master of the Bark Gunilla, a fine Swedish school ship we met up with in Portsmouth, England. Then of course we looked at lots of charts. It seemed as if Essaouria would be a real window into Morocco and North Africa. We were far from disappointed. And the place actually has an anchorage, something pretty rare along the north western African coast. Mostly one long beach hereabouts in this part of the world. A lot of swell in the bay but good holding at Essaouira and pretty well protected from most quarters.

The chart and pilots books made us believe that GPS might be a little off here. This is true in many parts of the world where there has not been recent upgrades to the charts due to these areas not being of much great commercial or military value – these, of course, are the places worth visiting for us. Doubtful GPS coordinates not a problem either, we steered in on fixed ranges. These were of ancient stone towers, one near the shore and one on the crest of a Sahara sand dune. These ranges have probably been guiding ships in for centuries. As the prevailing winds here are northerly and the approach is west-east, it means that this is a true sailing ship port which sailing ships can reliably plan to both sail in and out of.

Due to recent gales all along the coast of Europe all the way from northern Scotland to the approaches to Gibraltar we had a big northerly swell running and piling up as the long shore shelved closer to the beach. 10-15 and 20 foot swell at times as we closed with the coast. We made our way towards the bay entrance slowly as I was not completely sure that we could even safely get in to this bay due to the swell. We were ready to turn around at any time. But as we got closer and closer the swell laid down and once past a natural formation jutting out into the sea we rounded up not too far from an ancient breakwater just fine in only modest swell.

The Mate let go the heavy port anchor and three shots of chain and it took well. Astern of the Picton Castle in this lonely desolate desert bay was a small rocky island with a couple of ancient stone towers jutting up improbably as sea broke heavily on the windward side. This island was apparently the source for the colour purple in ancient times. This colouring came from shells somehow and was worth twenty times its weight in gold. So we are told.

While the crew were furling sail and getting yards braced and trimmed, a heavy blue wooden work boat came out the ship with a fellow in a snappy uniform – he asked us to follow him in with our skiff to look after all the formalities. This we did but it took longer than we thought. Launching our fine Lunenburg Dory-built skiff and motoring into this small packed harbour we could see we might be in another world. Over 50 wooden built fishing boats between 60-80 feet long were rafted up inside this ancient harbour with castle towers looming over. And over 250 twenty foot heavy built plank on frame wooden work boats all painted dark blue or yellow. These boats were all rafted up and jammed together in this tiny man-made harbour. Half a dozen large fishing vessels were hauled up on a slipway being scraped, caulked, painted, welded and generally being worked on. Plenty of fish being unloaded too. The air was redolent of salt, low tide, bottom paint, fish and the hard to describe heady brew of a working seaport. Seagulls wheeling about overhead, screeching and calling.

Clearing in was special – after months in Europe where interest in spending much time on such formalities have dissolved down to a bare minimum, now we were at an obscure outpost of weathered vestigial bureaucracy where great and friendly interest was taken in each passport, each home address, each profession of each crewmember, each signature, each purpose for visiting Morocco. Clearing in took 5 hours. But it was done. When we left the office of the Douanes/Gendarmerie night had fallen. Over the towers of the ancient Moorish castle framed by a couple tall date-palms a thin sliver of a sharp silver moon against an inky sky was accompanied by two piercingly bright planets looking as close to a symbol of desert Islam as one could hope for.

Essaoiura Harbour

Essaouira blue boats

Essaouira old city walls

Kolin haggles for a camel, ship at anchor

the ancient medina walls

the harbour, Morocco

the slip in Essaouira

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