About The Voyage

All of this, “oooo, I’m sailing on a tall ship for 4 months” mumbo jumbo may not mean much without some context, right?

The Picton Castle is a three-masted barque based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (30 mins from where I grew up). It looks like this:

Photo brought to you by logan007 on Flickr

The PC makes its living these days as a sail-training vessel. People pay to go on board, learn how to sail a traditional square-rigger and see extravagant things around the world. As an aside, I won’t exactly know what “square-rigger” means until I am on the ship. In fact, “square-rigger” may be a word I just made up.

I will be joining PC in Cape Town, when it will already have been sailing around the world for 10 months. Some people join the ship for 1 leg (4 months) like me, but the majority have been on board for the whole voyage. This is the ship’s 5th circumnavigation.

My itinerary is as follows: Cape Town, Namibia, St. Helena, Grenada (and unspecified other islands in the Caribbean), Bermuda and then Nova Scotia, where the ship’s voyage will end.

This is not a cruise. The only thing that will be luxurious is my hair. As a trainee I will become a member of the crew, learning to do everything from sail-making to celestial navigation. I will work, sleep and eat. My primary motives for doing this adventure didn’t actually include “learn how to sail”, but I do see this as a bonus.

There is no internet access on board; I will live like old-timey people from Gloucester. Thankfully, I’ll have more newfangly things than Captain Cook had in the 18th century. (For example: vegetables). When I am in port, I will update with photos and blogs as time allows. If you get antsy waiting for more, please don’t yell at me because I am a softy.

There are many reasons I’ve chosen to do this, up to and including: my love affair with the ocean, my creepy enthrallment with ships, naval history in my family, to drill a self-sufficient work ethic into my soul, to turn my world upside-down and grow from it, and a very sexy itinerary.