Picton Castle is back in the water again after a week in drydock. The ship was taken out of the water last Wednesday and went back into the water yesterday. Our beautiful barque was well cared for by the staff at Lunenburg Industrial Foundry and Engineering while she spent a week on dry land.

Going into drydock is a part of regular, routine maintenance that ships go through. Taking a ship out of the water allows you to clean the hull thoroughly, inspect it and paint it. There are a number of valves below the waterline that are cleaned and inspected as well, it’s through these valves that water is taken in for the water-maker, the main engine cooling system, fire hoses and other salt water plumbing. Picton Castle’s hull was cleaned with a high pressure power washer and given two coats of bottom paint. The draft markings, which indicate how deep in the water the ship is sitting, were freshly repainted as well.

While the staff at the Foundry were working on the hull, our crew were working aboard the ship. The galley is getting a thorough cleaning, the salon head is being overhauled completely, and the fresh water tanks got a final coat of paint. We also took the opportunity to let down both anchors and almost all the anchor chain on dry land so we could rust bust and treat the anchors and the chain. Because it’s so rare to see the whole hull, the Captain took the crew on a walk around it yesterday morning to point out all the parts and what they do, while making a final inspection before leaving drydock.

In order to get the ship back into the water, the process of hauling it out was reversed. The giant chain that holds the cradle was slowly let out, the cradle slid down the track and into the water until the bottom of the cradle was deep enough for the ship to float up off it. The blocks that held the ship up when it was out of the water were removed and two small boats towed the ship back to her wharf. Our crew were on the ship, the Foundry staff were on the upper level of the cradle and at the controls of the giant chain, and the divers were below the water to make sure the track was clear.

Picton Castle is snugly tied to her own wharf again, where preparations for the Voyage of the Atlantic continue.

back in the water

going back into the water

new bottom paint

tarring the anchor chain

the after photo

the before photo

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Picton Castle left her wharf for the first time since July 2007 today, being towed a few hundred metres away to the drydock at Lunenburg Industrial Foundry and Engineering. Instead of using her main engine, the ship was manoeuvred with the help of three tugboats. They pulled the ship away from the wharf, along the harbour and into the cradle at the Foundry.

Getting all the pieces in place in order to take the ship out of the water must be done precisely and takes a while. There is a long track that goes from land down into the water and a cradle, a platform that supports the ship, slides along the track. Before the ship arrived, the cradle was sent down the track into the water. The ship was towed into the cradle and secured with dock lines once it was in the proper position. Workers from the Foundry measured to make sure that the ship was exactly in the middle of the cradle. The ship was supported below by blocks as the cradle was hauled up, so it was important to be sure that the blocks were in the right places. Before the hauling began, divers swam below the ship to make sure that everything was lined up correctly. Once everyone was satisfied that the blocks were in the right positions and the track was clear, a giant chain began to haul the cradle up the track. The bow of the ship rose first, those on shore could see the ship’s waterline rise above the surface. The hauling stopped for a few minutes so the divers could do another check of the blocks, and more blocks could be put in place. They reported that the stern of the ship was still sitting two inches above the blocks, while the bow was now resting on the blocks. Again, once everyone was clear, the giant chain started to haul the cradle up. The process was stopped once more and inspected by the divers, who reported that the ship’s stern was only half an inch above the blocks. Everything was looking as it should and the ship seemed stable, so the hauling began again and continued until the cradle reached the top of the track.

The last time Picton Castle was out of the water was in May 2005, here in Lunenburg, just prior to the fourth world voyage. Seeing the whole hull is quite unusual and makes me realize how huge the ship really is and how much space there is below the waterline. Putting the ship into drydock allows us to clean the bottom and inspect the hull thoroughly, put on a new coat of anti-fouling bottom paint (paint that discourages sea creatures from attaching themselves to the hull) and overhaul all the through-hull fittings.

Drydock 1

Drydock 2

Drydock 3

Drydock 4

Drydock 5

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As Picton Castle’s sailing date draws closer, work continues aboard the ship to prepare for the Voyage of the Atlantic. Many of our professional crew members have already arrived, the rest will be here in the next couple of weeks. As we have more hands, we are able to accomplish more tasks. Many projects that have been ongoing throughout the winter are nearing completion and we’re happy to be able to check things off the giant “to do” list.

Finn has made great progress in the engine room, doing some projects himself and working with local tradespeople on others. New light fixtures have been installed in the engine room and in the breezeway, all with new wiring. Pumps and valves have been sent away for service, returned and re-installed. Sections of piping in the bilge have been taken out and are being replaced with new pipe.

With the combination of steel and salt water, some welding projects are inevitable. Some items, such as the pin rails on the foc’sle head and the ladder from the well deck to the foc’sle head, have been removed from the ship and sent to a local welder’s shop to have sections replaced. We also have a welder working on the ship, with projects like replacing some of the sections of the foc’sle head rail and the quarterdeck edge.

The crew recently checked a huge job off the list by getting the water tanks ready for the voyage. Picton Castle has two big tanks for fresh water, located in the hold. The insides of the tanks needed to be wire brushed and thoroughly cleaned out, then painted with special paint made for water tanks which the crew report is thick like marshmallow fluff.

One of our recent arrivals is David, who will be the sailmaker on the upcoming voyage. He got right to work, laying out sails at the local fire hall to make new sails out of old ones. Patching sails will be another big job, whether it’s replacing rope coverings, patching holes in sails or replacing a worn out sun patch.

Deck and rigging work continues as well, with final coats of oil put on the blocks the crew spent many hours overhauling this winter, priming and painting on deck when the weather permits, getting rigging bits and pieces ready to be sent aloft again.

David patching a sail on the third floor

Nadja sews on a new rope covering

new light fixture in the engine room

Sarah priming

water tank paint drying

Welder Timmy and Finn measure for new quarterdeck edge piece

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A week ago, the final instalment of the trainee fee was due for those trainees joining Picton Castle for the full year or Leg 1 of the Voyage of the Atlantic. Making that final payment represents a real commitment, and also a huge leap of faith.

As a former trainee, I remember the combination of excitement and nervousness I felt that grew as the time to join the ship drew closer. Right now, there are a group of trainees with those same emotions. They’re wondering what activities and challenges they will face in a day, what their shipmates will be like, how to fit all their gear in a duffle bag or two and how on earth they will learn and remember all 175 lines of running rigging.

Trainees have a lot of details to take care of in preparing for a voyage. One of the most important things on the list is to make sure that their passports are valid for at least six months beyond the end of the voyage and that they have enough blank pages for all the stamps they are sure to collect. While immunizations are less of a concern on Leg 1, trainees need to see their doctors or travel health clinics to make sure they are vaccinated for the areas the ship plans to visit. Trainees also have to make their own travel arrangements to meet the ship and set up health insurance coverage. All of this is in addition to preparing to leave their jobs, homes and families for an extended period, which is no small task.

As the beginning of May approaches, excitement builds. Trainees have told me about shopping trips for foul weather gear, gym memberships to get in better physical shape and internet research on ports the ship plans to visit. Many report having a hard time concentrating at work as their thoughts turn frequently to the adventure ahead. It’s time to begin the countdown—54 days until our first all hands muster!

Picton Castle has a temporary addition that makes her look quite different when walking down the dock. Because the ship’s stern is closest to the shore, it’s impossible to miss the cover over the quarterdeck. Made of plastic sheeting fastened over a wooden frame, this cover will help keep the quarterdeck dry and protected so that we can continue to work through the winter.

Many vessels that are kept outside during the winter are covered to help protect them from the elements. Picton Castle is usually not covered for the winter, but with the carpentry work on the deck that started in the fall, we have chosen to cover the quarterdeck and continue. The cover doesn’t stop it from being cold, so there are still days when it is difficult to work, but it does keep the deck dry enough to be able to carry on with replacing some of the wood and caulking. You can see this work in progress, under the cover, in the photo below.

Quarterdeck Cover

Wheel and binnacle under cover

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Lunenburg, Picton Castle’s home port, is fairly quiet in the winter. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do. One of the nice things about having the ship tied up for a while is that the crew can work regular, predictable hours, taking most evenings and weekends off. That much time off is a luxury to the crew of a sailing ship, so we’re sure to make the most of it.

Most evenings you can find at least some of the Picton Castle crew at the newly renovated Grand Banker, the local restaurant/pub that becomes our second home in the winter. The place got a facelift in November with new floors, a slightly revised booth arrangement and a fresh coat of paint. The changes make it easier to move around and the new decor looks great. The Grand Banker has started a trivia night on Saturdays, and the Picton Castle team placed first for two weeks in a row in February.

Ben, Kjetil and I took curling lessons at the Lunenburg Curling Club in November and have continued to curl through the winter. We have recruited the rest of the crew to play with us, or at least come and watch, when the club hosts “Friday Fun Night” which is open to anyone, whether you’re a club member or not. Some of us are really improving from week to week, and we’re all having a good time playing this very social sport.

For the crew of a barque that sails mostly in the tropics, we’re really embracing winter. In addition to curling, we have been to the local arena to ice skate a few times. Skating was particularly fun before Christmas when we had a whole group of former crew visiting and there was a huge crowd at the rink. Lynsey and Rebecca have been snowboarding at a hill a short drive away from Lunenburg and hope to go again before the winter is over. I’m sure that all of the crew have thrown a few snowballs, made snowmen or snow angels.

Ben sweeping

Kjetil calls the shots

Maggie delivers a stone

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Much of Picton Castle’s rigging has been sent down from aloft and brought into our warehouse for the winter. This helps protect it from the harsh Canadian winter weather, and it also allows us to work on it so that everything is in great shape when it goes back up in the spring.

Kjetil and Ben have recently been working on overhauling the heads’l sheet pennants. They started each one by cutting away the old chafe gear, seizing and serving then removing the block from the wire eye. The block was taken apart, the wood outside was scraped and oiled, the sheave inside was wire brushed and greased to make sure it can turn smoothly, and put back together again. You can see on the left in the photo below that the block was sitting in the eye, ready for the next step. The wire splice was in good shape still, so it did not have to be replaced. The next step was to worm and parcel the splice. Worming means filling in the grooves between the strands of wire with marlin and parcelling means wrapping a strip of fabric around the splice over the worming to help keep it in place and make the surface more even. Next the splice and the eye were served, meaning that marlin is wrapped tightly around the wire, over the worming and parcelling, to protect the wire. The serving is then covered in a generous amount of pine tar which helps to preserve it. The block is held into the eye by a seizing, which you can see in the middle of the photo, also made with marlin. The last step is to protect it further by sewing leather around the splice which protects the serving. The leather is soaked in warm water to make it flexible, then sewn on by hand.

The sheet pennant is about six feet long and connects the clew of the sail (the aft corner of a fore and aft sail) to the sheet (the line that controls the trim of the sail). One end of the sheet is made fast, the other end goes through the block and to the pin rail. On the other end of the sheet pennant, a shackle connects it to the clew of the sail. The process for overhauling the other end is much the same, just without the block. The old chafe gear, seizing and serving are cut away, the splice inspected, then the splice and they eye are wormed, parcelled, served and covered in leather.

Ben sews leather around an eye

Sheet pennants in stages

Sheet pennants other end

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Winter has really taken hold here in Lunenburg. It’s snowing outside my office window, the beginning of what is forecast to be five centimetres tonight. The wind is blowing from the southeast, causing whitecaps in the harbour and I can hardly see the golf course across the water through the snow and fog. Picton Castle is still tied snugly to her wharf, rocking in the waves that are formed when the wind blows up Lunenburg Bay.

Work continues aboard as we prepare for the Voyage of the Atlantic. Finn is making great progress in the engine room, mounting and re-wiring lights, getting parts overhauled and keeping the furnace running when it gets really cold to stop the pipes from freezing. Kjetil, Ben, Ryan and Sarah have made good headway in overhauling all the blocks (over 300 of them!), which were sent down and into the warehouse in the fall. Each block is taken apart, inspected, scraped, cleaned, greased and oiled as necessary. Some take only a few minutes to overhaul, some take much longer. They’re also doing some varnish work, with yards laid across sawhorses in the warehouse for scraping and sanding, then hung from beams in the ceiling to varnish.

The office continues to be busy, with packages arriving almost daily by courier or mail that contain catalogues, publications and samples as we provision the ship for the voyage. We need to make sure there’s enough of everything from crew T-shirts to Chibley’s flea medication. We have heard recently from a number of people in Europe who have connections to Picton Castle, many family members of former crew who worked aboard when she was fishing or carrying cargo. They’re excited to see what the ship is like now, and we’re thrilled to share her with them. There are only a few more months of winter, and a few more months until we sail away on our next exciting adventure.

Kjetil overhauls a block

Ryan sands a yard

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May 2008 will mark the beginning of a whole new adventure for Picton Castle. The ship will set sail on a year-long voyage around the Atlantic, calling at ports in twenty different countries. This voyage will have all the characteristics of our now-famous world circumnavigation voyages: long sea passages broken up by weeks of port hopping, in-depth training in seamanship and square-rig sailing, the time and guidance to develop in skill and confidence, and the entry into the kinship of shipmates. Everyone who sails with us is a working crew member who stands watches, takes a turn at the helm, helps in the galley, sets and takes in sail, keeps the ship in good shape and enters a port knowing they played a role in getting the ship safely to her destination.

After a winter of being tied up in our home port of Lunenburg, the ship will set out across the Atlantic in May 2008. The first landfall after the Atlantic crossing will be southern Ireland, followed by a run into the Baltic Sea to the Aland Islands. On the way back out of the Baltic we’ll stop in Denmark on the way to Bergen, Norway where Picton Castle will meet up with the fleet of European tall ships. The ship will sail to Den Helder, the Netherlands and Bremerhaven, Germany in company with the fleet before heading down the English Channel with a stop at Ipswich. Picton Castle will return to her roots in Milford Haven and Swansea, Wales as we visit ports close to the castle for which the ship is named. Brest is next on the itinerary, then into the Mediterranean past Gibraltar to Mallorca. We’ll head back into the Atlantic and visit the Canary Islands, the Madeira Islands, Dakar in Senegal, and the Cape Verde Islands before crossing the ocean again, this time dipping south of the Equator to Fernando de Noronha, an island group off Brazil. The journey will continue with a few months of sailing in the Eastern Caribbean, experiencing some of the best sailing, anchorages and island hopping in the world, before arriving back in Lunenburg about a year later.

We are thrilled to be introducing this new and exciting voyage. In 10 years of operation, we have found Picton Castle is at her best on long voyages. This new voyage will give us a chance to bring the ship back to Europe where she was built and served most of her life fishing, carrying cargo and working as a WWII mine sweeper. Picton Castle’s award-winning program will remain much the same as on our world voyages but with the added challenge and wonder of sailing different waters and exploring different ports.

No sailing experience is necessary to join this amazing voyage. All you need is a desire for adventure, a willingness to get along with your shipmates and a reasonable level of physical fitness. You can apply online or through our office. Contact us with any questions you may have about this opportunity of a lifetime.

john tars the mizzen shrouds

Kristin comes down from aloft

nadja watches other ships

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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.

Dave replaces planks in the quarterdeck

Ryan painting in the headrig

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