Daily Waypoints and Ports of Call

The Picton Castle has returned to Lunenburg Nova Scotia. This marks the end of the year long Voyage around the Atlantic Ocean. During the voyage I attempted to mark a waypoint on my portable GPS for each day we were at sea. I then took that data and have messed around with it to create a map that you should be able to see on this page. If you are receiving my blog as an email message, then you may have to go to the actual online blog with your web browser to view it.

If you click on the image, you will see a full size version.




I have imported the information into Google Earth. Download the Google Earth file. If you have installed the Google Earth application on your computer, then it should start-up automatically; otherwise, you might have to save the file and open it in Google Earth at a later time.

By my records, we visited 55 ports, 27 countries, and 4 continents. I have put the information into a PDF document that is kind of interesting to look at. It shows the ports of call and when we were there. It's not an "official" list, but it's the one that I kept in my journal.

I guess this is really the last post that I will make to this blog. The voyage is over, the memories of the good times are already getting sweeter. I really enjoyed writing this blog especially after receiving all the comments from people thanking me for keeping it up.

As always,
Thanks for reading,

-john

Home at last

I am actually at home writing this blog post. I have been working on some final details to summarize the voyage, so I have been holding off on this one. I actually got home to Westborough Massachusetts on Wednesday, May 27th. I have spent the last few days getting caught up with friends as well as my two cats. I will be rejoining the Picton Castle for the nine week summer voyage at the end of June. On that voyage we will be coming to Boston for the Sail Boston 2009 event (yes, it IS going to happen). If you will be in the Boston area July 8-12 you should come by and check out the ship. But before I get too far down that path, let me tell you about the last few weeks on the Picton Castle.

We left the British Virgin Islands on May 6 after a nice beach bonfire and cookout on the little island of Sandy Cay. The BVI is a very nice place to sail. I have been here three time previously with my Venture Crew so I knew what to expect. The islands are pretty close together, so close that sailing among them it is easy to forget that we are in the Atlantic Ocean. Once outside the islands the seas build to their normal height, but inside the island group it is like sailing in a large protected bay or harbor.

We rounded the west end of Jost Van Dyke and said our final good byes to the Caribbean Islands. We then headed pretty much due north to the Island of Bermuda that was 830 nautical miles away. During this passage I had hoped to get more opportunity to do some sail making, but I was still on the 12-4 watch, so it was pretty difficult. The mate did allow me to work with the sail maker during watch, but that was only somewhat successful. The challenge with the 12-4 watch is that when not on watch all we feel like doing is sleeping. It makes it very difficult to work on projects. Getting up early is an option, but not always easy with just a few hours of sleep after getting done with watch at 4am. I did the best that I could, but it was a lot less than I would have liked and certainly not the opportunity that I had hoped for. Being on either the 4-8 or 8-12 watch would have worked out better I think, but that was not possible.

During this passage we all started working on sea bags. They are basically similar to the ditty bags, except quite a bit larger. They also have a sewn in cloth bottom rather than a wood base. It was pretty fun working on it and helping others along the way.

We also had our ship's concert. It was good fun. Each watch had a skit or song that they created and several crew members had their own acts that they performed. It was a very nice time on one of our last Sundays at sea. NickSA and Buddy were the masters of ceremony and did a great job keeping everyone in stitches.

We arrived in Bermuda on May 13th, pretty early in the morning. We ended up motoring a little so we could arrive in time. Bermuda is a good decompression stop. It gave everyone an opportunity to get laundry done and relax a bit before the final passage of the voyage. It is a good place to stop and make sure that there will be no surprises with the weather as we transition into the cold north Atlantic.

The morning of the 14th I worked with sail maker Dave doing the second layout of a new royal sail. The second layout is where we mark out the sail on the assembled panels that have all be stitched together. We will then take the panels back on the ship and cut out the sail and spend several weeks on the finishing details. We will add corner patches, grommets, tabling, bolt ropes, cringles and perhaps even rope covering before the sail is finished and ready to be "bent on" and used. It is a pretty cool process.

That afternoon I spent with Scientist (Nick) on a quest to find the best Dark and Stormy in the town of St. George. The Dark and Stormy drink comes from Bermuda made from pretty much the only things they make on the island; Barrits Ginger Beer and Goslings Rum. After much scientific research we came to the conclusion that the best is found in the can that we bought in the grocery store for a fraction of the cost. For some reason the bars and restaurants just never made them any better than they come in a can. It was tough research, but necessary.

The next day I was up early with Kevin and David for a trip to the exact opposite side of the island for a visit to the Royal Naval Dockyard. We took the ferry from St. George; the trip lasted about forty minutes. The bulk of the day was spent wandering the fortress and checking out the Bermuda Maritime Museum. We spent three to four hours in there before grabbing a late lunch and catching the bus back to the ship. The bus ride took us nearly three hours! We did make a brief stop in the capital city of Hamilton, but not more that thirty minutes. It's just really slow going on the roads, especially when they can't be in a straight line.

Here are some pictures from our brief stay in Bermuda:



The morning of May 16th we were all hands at 8am to make final preparations for our departure to Lunenburg. We raised our anchor and motored out of the harbor at 9am, right on schedule. The weather was quite nice, but as often happens, that can mean that there was little to no wind. We ended up motoring nearly four days due to the light winds. Such is the nature of having to be in a certain place at a certain time and the wind not cooperating.

One watch, when I was on forward lookout, I spotted a huge pod of dauphins near our bow. Within minutes they were all jumping seven to ten feet out of the water. It was quite a sight and would be the last one of the voyage.

We crossed the gulf stream at some point, either on the 18th or 19th. It is pretty hard to know when we were exactly in the gulf stream because it is like a river with no banks. It tends to wander around a bit. The only way to know is to monitor water temperature, which we did. The trouble heading north is that the transition is from warm water to slightly warmer water. Once we were on the north side of it though, there was no doubt. The water changed from twenty-four degrees Celsius to nine in the space of an hour! Very dramatic indeed.

We arrived in Nova Scotia the morning of Thursday, May 21 and anchored in Port Mouton Bay about thirty-five NM from Lunenburg. We spent that day getting the ship all pretty again for our return to Lunenburg. Since we could not clear in to the country until we arrived at the dock in Lunenburg then we basically had no contact with anyone except the few passing waves of some boats and a cell phone call or two. That night we had a little party on board, which was really nice. We all knew that as soon as we arrived in Lunenburg that our time together was mostly over since we would all be consumed with friends and family and the distractions of being in port. This was one of the last times that we would all be together.

The next morning we set sail and moved the ship a bit closer to Lunenburg so that we could be sure to make our 2pm arrival as promised on Saturday. This was our final night with everyone on board. The tension and excitement of the end of the voyage was overwhelming. Of the 25-30 trainees that did all or part of the voyage, only seven of us were on board for every passage. Some went home for brief periods to deal with home life, others took trains between some ports. It's not a meaningful number, but one that I though was a bit interesting.

Finally we hauled back the anchor for the last time on May 23rd and sailed for Lunenburg. We didn't even bother to fire up the main engine, just sailed off the hook like we have done so many times on this voyage.

At approximately 1400 (2:00pm) on Saturday, May 23, 2009, the barque Picton Castle sailed into Lunenburg Harbor marking the end of our year long voyage around the Atlantic Ocean. We were greeted by the entire town as well as many friends and family members.

The feeling of returning "home" was pretty exciting. The reunion with our friends and family would have to wait though. We still had to be cleared into the country by the Canadian Customs Officials. It took a couple of hours for the formalities. When that was over we had our final muster and were allowed off the ship.

Here are some pictures taken as we arrived in Lunenburg:



That evening we had a huge party at the Dory Shop as planned. There was a lot of music, dancing and just plain old visiting with everyone. The entire town showed up and we had beer from every country we visited on the voyage. It was a great night and a nice welcome home.

The next night was the awards ceremony where everyone was given a very nice print of the ship as a final diploma. I had assembled a slide show/movie taken from the 40,000 pictures that everyone contributed. The show was about two hours long, and to my surprise, everyone was just riveted to it. At the conclusion of the awards, the voyage was really over. People started heading for home. Some would stay for a few days to help get things unloaded from the ship and start preparations for the summer voyage.

The voyage lasted 364 days from the time we left Lunenburg on May 24, 2008 to our return on May 23, 2009. We traveled nearly 18,000 nautical miles, visited 55 ports, 27 countries and 4 continents. It was quite an adventure to be sure.

At times it was difficult being away from home. Sharing this adventure with everyone on the Picton Castle was very special. I know I have made some friends that I will have for the rest of my life. I also know that I have changed a bit over the past year. It's impossible to explain or even attempt to. A voyage like this changes everyone; whether it is learning how to live with thirty or so roommates or challenging oneself with new tasks and being out of our normal comfort zone. It was an experience of a lifetime; but not the last one that I will have.

I would really like to thank my friends and family that helped make it possible for me to leave home for over a year. Especially Maureen and Ian who handled my mail and unexpected bills; Nate and Lisa who looked after my house and more importantly, my cats; Ellen being a big help with the Florence support network; my mom for not saying once "I wish you would stay home"; and everyone else that I have not mentioned. Thank you all very much.

This won't be my last blog post. I will have a follow up one with some links and attachments to maps and a list of ports we visited.

That's it for now...

Thanks for reading,

-john