Ashore in Lunenburg NS

You can start from the beginning of my latest adventure here.

If you would like to start at the very beginning of my previous passage across the Atlantic Ocean back in 2008 please head over to here.

For information on how to join in the adventure and sail on The Picton Castle yourself check out her web page:
http://www.picton-castle.com/

It has been 11 years since I first joined the Picton castle in Mallorca to start my adventures.
I have tried to capture something of why I did that and what it has meant for me here:
The Call of the Sea 

Thu Sept 1 2016

The BBQ was delicious, with charcoal cooked chicken, shrimp on skewers, ribs, salads and ice cold beer!

Went for a wander on the waterfront afterwards and then tried to watch the "races" but rapidly ran out of steam so came back to the BnB and crashed.

Woke up about 6:00am this morning really confused about where I was because:

A) The bed wasn't moving.
B) As far as I could reach I couldn't touch anything.
C) I could hear crickets chirping rather than water swishing against the hull.

Then I remembered I was in a beautiful BnB in Lunenburg having signed off the ship yesterday afternoon :-)

Had a lovely breakfast here at Greybeard's. The recomendations by my shipmates were bang on. Fruit animals, smoked salmon quiche, carrot cake, orange juice and lightly spiced coffee. Mmmmmm...

Bob and Rosanna do a fantastic job.

After breakfast I realized that tomorrow  (Fri) I would need to find someplace to stay so I jumped back on my little laptop, and the lovely and  fast wifi, and spent the next two hours trying to find a berth! The Labour Day long weekend is abad time to try to find accomodations in a high tourist area like Lunenburg.

It is now 10:00 am and I've got it settled. Whew :-)

I will be staying at the Kiwi Kaboodle hostel in Mahone Bay for Friday and Saturday night. Kiwi Kaboodle also runs a shuttle service that can get me back to the Airport in Halifax on Sunday which is a bonus!

My back and muscles are telling me that I probably should take it easy (aka 'be lazy') so I'm just going to go tour the Fishery Museum and drink cider in a pub somewhere.
:-)

Oh and mess around online of course.

I guess that means this is the final post of my latest trip on The Picton Castle.
I hope you have enjoyed following along on my passage.

Sailing on the Picton castle is a fantastic adventure, even when only for a few weeks.  There are very few times in one's life that working that hard physically can be as rewarding, that standing watch beside strangers can result in connections and friendships that last for years, and that learning a complex system of lines, processes and language, that so indelibly mark you as a seafarer, can mark a point in your life so clearly.

Eight years ago I headed out for my first adventure on this fine ship. Over the last two and a half weeks I've stepped back into a role I really thought was in the past for good.

Would I do it again?

I honestly don't know, and frankly it doesn't matter :-)

'Living in the now' is probably the biggest lesson I take from this short return to sea.

And in the spirit of that lesson I'm going to let tomorrow look after itself :-)

As always...

Thanks for reading.

And Watch below! :-)

KJ

Scary steering, feeling accomplished.

Wed Aug 31

Our night watch last night was equal parts exciting, terrifying, and satisfying.

As we were motoring towards Rose Bay there was an amazing sunset. I hope the pictures turned out OK (haven't had a chance to look yet).

Once it got dark I started my trick on helm. Just as we started our approach to Rose Bay as luck would have it. I really had to work on my steering to keep the lights I was following in line. We weren't using a compass course just the shore beacons.  Then as we got close the Captain took the con and was giving me helm orders directly. I had never done that before. The orders are directions and turns of the wheel. They are all dependent on knowing where the midships position is. I had no clue when I started getting those orders! Luckily my watchmates were able to check the steering gear and tell me how many turns I had. Once I knew I was already two turns over I could count correctly.

Motoring into a dark bay is frankly terrifying,  that run in was probably one of the scariest things I've done this trip.

Once the anchor was down and the "Finished with the wheel" order was given, I just stood there. I got lots of compliments on the steering though so I guess it wasn't too wavy a route :-)

Since I was off the watch the previous night I had the first anchor watch which was a great way to calm down. The stars were fantastic and the sea was full of sparkling flashes that were almost as bright.

We had a wake up at 6:45 this morning and we were on the capstan hauling up the anchor by shortly after 7:00.  It took 360 push pulls on the capstan bars to get the anchor up. I decided to count to take my mind off the work
 :-)



We sailed off the hook again without the engine running which was awesome.
As the Captain said "There is a special place in hell for Square Rig captains who don't sail when there is a good sailing breeze!"

We sailed back towards Lunenburg until we got abreast of battery point then we fired up the engine and started taking in the sails. The skiff was launched to help with the docking but its motor wouldn't start so they ended up paddling to the wharf while we docked using the engine, the dock lines and muscle power.

Once we were tied up we started taking all the sails off the yards and stowing them in the hold. I spent most of my time out on the head rig lashing up and disconnecting the head sails, then hauling them below to the hold.

Once that was done we had an all hands muster and we got our sea time documents and passports back, plus a nice Picton Castle shirt :-)

I'm going to pack up and then wander off to find my BnB, get settled and then come back for a BBQ at the Dory Shop. It will be nice to sleep in a bed that isn't moving :-)

The gerneral exodus has started, some of the crew are already gone, others are staying on for day or two. I might work tomorrow we'll see.

Later this afternoon will be a BBQ and drinks at the Dory Shop, then it is the Wed races in the harbour in which our Monomoy boat always participates if possble.

I think for sure I will do some tourist stuff before I leave on Sunday.

Managed to get a BnB billet for tonight and tomorrow night then I will have to find somewhere else to stay on Friday and Saturday.

I'm staying at Greybeard's BnB which was highly recommended by some of the crew. The breakfasts are very highly recommended too!

A long shower and clean clothes are first order of business then the BBQ.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Here is a picture of the sunset from last night.

And a couple of the ship tied up at Lunenburg.

Taking her sails down is a bit like a bird molting her flight feathers.
She looks a bit sad without her glorious plummage. Sigh.

Last day's sail

Tues Aug 30

Just got off watch from a truly amazing morning!

Last night I enjoyed my night in by talking to Jayne on the phone (woo <3 ) and smoking my pipe on the welldeck while most of the crew played cards, strummed a guitar and laughed and joked in the salon beneath  my feet.  Two of my shipmates joined me Riley and Shane, they had pipes that they bought in France. During the crossing back it was suggested that nobody smoke cigaretttes only pipes to help with the ambiance for the filming :-)

We sat telling "no shit there I was" sailing stories in a lovely cloud of pipe smoke.

This morning we got an all hands wakeup at 6:00am just as the Sun was starting to rise into a totally clear blue sky.  There was a gentle breeze blowing from the North.

We got the remaining sails ready to set and then it was all hands to the capstan to rise the anchor. We had two shots of chain out (180') and hoisted one up, then the Captain ordered the lower topsails set and the yards braced around to make the ship hove to so that when we got the anchor up off the bottom we wouldn't move.

Once the anchor and it's sulphurous load of mud was hove up to the hawse pipe, we braced the yards around, set the jibs and spanker and started sailing.

The Sun was rising above the trees as we started to make way across the calm surface of the bay. It was silent, no engine or generator simply the soft swish of the ship passing across the small waves.

The Captain called us to the quarter deck and said "Leave evrything as it is and enjoy the next few minutes as we sail out of this remote cove into the Atlantic"

It was a marvelous thing to sail off the hook, handle the sails, and get our fine ship to sea with no smelly engine with its noise and vibration.

After we cleared the island that guards the entrance of the harbour we turned-to cleaning the ship to prepare for our arrival in Lunenburg tomorrow morning.

At around 10:00am we broke into watches and so my watch was on duty.

My trick at the helm was wonderful, we were sailing 'Full and By'. That is where we sail as close to the wind a we can, and my least favourite point of sailing from a steering perspective. I decided to use my new found skills and it was perfect!

The square sails are not set totally in line with each other, as you go up the mast each sail is set a little further off the apparent wind on deck. This is because as you go above the sea the wind actually shifts around a bit because there is less friction. So looking up the mast there is a slight spiral to the yards.  When sailing 'Full and By' you turn the ship into the wind until the highest sail just starts to luff, that is the windward edge starts to shake a bit. Then you fall off a tiny bit and bring her back to luff again.  This keeps the ship as close to the wind as possible.

The twist in the sails as you go higher on the mast.

Previously with my wild steering swings it was very scary point of sailing because I was always close to either getting the topmost sails aback, which is a really bad and potentially dangerous thing in a square rigger, or being too far off the wind. But with my new control it was easy to just keep the edge of the sail shaking. I was feeling pretty cocky by the time my trick was done :-)

After that it was scrubbbing and cleaning anything our AB could think of. Being a beautiful sunny day that was actually just fine..

Around 10:00 am we started the engine a, took in all the sail, and we are now motoring towards Rose Bay where we will anchor, probably in the middle of our watch tonight.  As we were mustering  Mark pointed out that this was likely our last full watch on deck, He thanked Shauna and I for being on the trip from Toronto. Erin our mate echoed the sentiments and then said the magic words "Watch Below".

Lunch was a bit subdued today, I think everybody feels the nearness of the end of the passage. For some that is 5 months from the time they left Lunenburg!  Always an interesting mix of "Yay I'm off this tub" and "I'm losing some close connections and routine". having only been on for two week that feeling isn't as strong for me but I feel it too.

More later.


We are still motoring South down the coast of Nova Scotia. We passed Halifax an hour ago. My off watch this afternoon was very pleasant, lot of sunshine a fairly calm seas.

We have had one Coatguard Fisheries vessel come out and tale alook at us, and we have been the search target for a local Sea KIng rescue chopper :-)

Lots of dolphins around here but they don't seem interested in playing in the bow wave like they do iin the tropics. Somebody suggested that because it is so cold in the water that they re too busy eating to play.

We had an "all hands to stow sail" call just before dinner. I went up to the foreyard with the Bosun and we stoowed the foresail. I felt like an idiot. I just can't get comfortable aloft now, I don't have confidence in the strength of my hands to hang on. I did OK I think but I felt slow and clumsy.  Might have to do more tomorrow once we arrive in Lunenburg as the plan is to take the rest of the sails off the yards and lower them to the deck while we are waiting to be cleared by customs.

We are still expecting to be coming into Rose Bay to anchor in the middle of our Watch so around 10:00pm.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

"The colour of despair"

Monday Aug 29

Came on deck this morniing to a very bumpy sea. It had turned a dark Atlantic grey, or as Adam calls it: "The colour of despair" :-) The ship was motoring South West and rolling pretty heavily. No sign of Sea Sickness so I'll call this a win.

Our night watch last night was not as cold as I expected but we were definitely motoring directly into the wind. The stars were pretty bright while I was on helm so I was able to steer pretty well until a big cloud came up and blocked them.

Lookout was tricky as in addition to watching for ships we had to try to identify the bouys inshore of us against the lights of the shore. I messed up and missed at least one, sigh.

This morning we were motoring into the strong wind and eventually came into the small bay called Sheet Harbour and anchored, where we are at the moment.

My cleaning job this morning was the "Scuttle" which is at the top of the Salon steps and in which all the cleaning supplies are kept. Now it looks reasonably clean, which is good, if the cleaning locker is dirty... :-)

This afternoon we will be sending down the Royal yards and gear.  Looks like we will be anchored near Lunenburg tomorrow afternoon, likely Rose Bay, then we will motor/sail into Lunenberg mid day on Wednesday.

Some of the guys are talking about adjusting their flights ahead a couple of days.
I'm not going to worry about that till we are actually tied up in Lunenburg.

Time and Tide wait for no man as they say.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. Eric from the 12-4 watch came up on deck and asked if I wanted a picture of myself on helm.
I said yes and he got these!

Later

Just finished dinner, which was another excellent Niko repast!
Porkchops in balsamic vinegar reduction, broccoli, couscous, and watermelon for dessert. Tasty precious. :-)

Erin posted the anchor watch list and I seem to have escaped. Woot!
So I get the night off essentially.
The weather bouy outside Halifax is reporting 25 knot winds and 3 meter seas. In Sheet Harbour you can here the wind high up but the bay is pretty calm, pretty strong rain squalls sweep through every now and then. At the moment the sky is broken clouds and bright blue skies between as the sun is setting.

Beautiful.


At our 5:00pm muster the Captain outlined the plan for the next couple of days. We are going to up anchor fairly early tomorrow morning then sail/motor off to Rose Bay which will take about 14 hours. There we will anchor again. Then depending on the weather we will head into Lunenburg aiming to be there around 10:00am on Wednesday.

After then everyone is to hang out to get the rest of the sails off her and the Monomoy back iin the water from the galley house roof. Then we are free to leave.

Not sure if I will move my flight up a day or two or not.

Will wait to make that call on Thursday morning :-)

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Motoring to Canso

Sunday Aug 28

Woke up to find that we had shed all our sails and were now motoring toward a rendezvous with a pilot to guide us through the control lock in the Canso canal.

Watch this morning was uneventful, did a trick on helm.  I used the now visible shore of Cape Breton to guide me like I used the stars last night. Worked a treat :-)

Along with the inevitable cleaning of the heads and showers, I got to clean the Captains Mess. This little room behind the scullery in the stern cabin is walled with varnished wall panels, on which are pictures from the ship's history. One is interesting,, it is a picture of a crew holding a life ring with Picton Castle on it, taken on the ship in the 30s. There is a boy in the picture, he presented the picture to the ship when he was in his 80s a few years ago.

The center of the room is filled with a beautifully varnished table with leather covered benches on each wall.

I first had to scrub the walls and ceiling with a gentle soap and water. Once that was done I used 'Murphy's Oil Soap' to clean and polish the varnished surfaces. This is a fantastic, and sweet smelling, concentrated soap that really makes those surfaces shine.

After that we stood by on the quarter deck watching pilot whales feeding along the tide line until "Watch Below".

There will be an all hands muster at 2:30 this afternoon to get ready to transit the canal.

I hear we will be starting to take down our sails as we continue towards Lunenberg to save time when we get there.  So that is a pretty good indication that our sailing is done for the time being :-(

Apparently we could be in Lunenburg as early as Tuesday!

My flight isn't till next Sunday so I'm thinking I'll be doing a lot of unloading of stuff from the ship :-)


Later

We went through the lock at Canso at around 4:00pm.
I was stationed on the focle head with Ryan and the Chief mate to handle the bow line.
We steamed slowly into the lock then snugged ourselves tight to the side with the capstan once the bow line was secure. Then they opened the inner lock and moved the swing bridge so we could motor through.

There was quite a crowd at the lock to welcome home one of the crew, Riley Kennedy, they had signs and ballons and lots of cheers. He stood on the focsle head looking bemused and waving back. It was quite the welcome.

After we passed through teh lock there was another crowd waving and calling as we passed. I was flaking down the hawsersinto one of the boats  on the galley house roof and I could of sworn I heard someone call my name. I waved but couldn't tell who it was :-)

We are now motoring through the strait heading for the Atlantic.

This part of Cape Breton looks beautiful, I think we should try to get back sometime for a visit. :-)

Apparently the wind is supposed to be right on our nose once we get into the Atlantic so if that happens we will likely anchor somewhere on the coast on our way South rather than fight a head sea all the way.

There is no point in arriving at Lunenburg in the evening because customs only works "banker's hours" so we might end up anchored nearby for another night too, that happened on my previous trip when we anchored in Rose Bay.


Later
Just finished a lovely dinner of great thick BBQ(baked) Ribs with squash. Very tasty.
The air is starting to get a definite bite to it as we get further from the strait. The cold Atlantic is making its presence known. Will need my warm woolies on watch tonight I'm thinking.


Thanks for reading
KJ

Night Watch (Interlude)

Saturday Aug 27

Our night watch was absolutely fantastic.

As the afternoon progresed the sky got clearer and clearer and the wind became steady from the NW, perfect for our SSE course!

As we came on watch at 8:00pm we were till sailing along under all sails.
First business was taking in the Royals. I know they would have preferrred to leave them up as the conditions were perfect. But our watches are a bit short handed so prudence demands that the Royals come in so we could easily douse the t'gallants if needed.

Once that was done it was plain sailing.  A beautiful warm steady breeze, very reminiscent of the tradewinds, no engine or generator noise just the swish of the sea and the slow creak of the wheel.

When it was fully dark the sky was awash in stars with the Milky Way spanning across the whole sky.  With no lights on deck there was nothing to dim the intensity of the stars. The lights of the towns on the Magdeline Islands were on the Northern horizon. For a few minutes thay had some kind of fireworks display that could just be seen rising from the horizon. Best guess for why was "It's Saturday so why not" :-)

My turn at lookout was amazing. Apart from a band of darkness just above the horizon, caused by the density of the atmosphere at sea level and the temperature difference between the sea and the air, everywhere I looked there were stars.

Being on lookout is one of those times when introspection is impossible to avoid.  One developes a kind of alert but automatic scan of the hoirizon and the sea. My mind then quickly begins to do a kind of checklist wander through things of interest, worries, what ifs, plans, songs, existential musings, self critiques and all sorts of random bits of memory.

Last night, being under full sail in a gentle but steady wind, there was the added beauty of the towering masts and sails rising above me and swaying in front of the stars.

It was the last night on which we will be able to sail this fine ship, once through the control lock at Canso it will likely be motoring all the way to Lunenberg.  Knowing that I won't likely get to experience this for long time, if ever again, was bitter sweet.

 How can one fix such a moment in the mind?

My trick on the helm was also great. I was able to steer almost entirely by the stars!
So glad I've managed to get that to work. I can now steer by just standing beside the wheel, like many of my shipmates do, rather than  hunched over the wheel glued to the dimly lit swaying compass card.

The only break in the revery was cleaning part of the galley that hadn't been touched for a very long time. It was inhabited by lots of tiny cockroaches. The only ones I've seen, I guess the Atlantic Crossing was too cold for them.  Mark says that while they were in Toronto they had discovered a spot full of them which they had summarily dispatched but otherwise I've seen nothing but flies.

When "watch below" was called I stayed on deck for 10 minutes more just watching the sails, the stars, and the sea.  This one day and night makes up for all the labour I've done so far.

Is that why people go to sea?  To have those simple things to hang on to when the ship rolls and the ropes are taught and the decks are streaming.

I slept soundly indeed. I didn't even wake up when the engine was started around 4:00am and the 4-8 watch took in all our sails.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

All at Sea

Saturday Aug 27



Was a foggy chilly night watch.
Very dark too, the clouds must have been very thick.
We set the lower topsails and inner jib which was fun with only three people available to do it!  I had to keep checking the lines to make sure I had the right one. That is helped because the clew lines are always on metal pins whereas the buntlines are wood. So you can count back three metal pins and know the next one you are working on the Royal.

Steering was by compass cause there was absolutely no stars visible, so no chance to try out my new found skill :-)

Slept really well, the sleeping bag was just the perfect addition to my bunk. Nice and toasty, but very hard to get out of this morning though.

Our morning watch was chilly and bumpy. The sea had a lovely cold grey colour, the colour I associate with the Atlantic, with steep sided waves. No signs of sea sickness. Which is cool given that we are a actually out at sea in the Gulf of St Lawrence heading SExE towards PEI.  Currently we are sailing under topsails, courses, t'gallants and staysails. Nice to be sailing, the smell and noise of our engine gets wearing after a while.

It was a very busy watch, had to scrub the breakfast dishes, heh.  I love bacon but cleaning up a pan full of baked on bacon grease in cold sea water is NOT fun. Also started scrubbing the ceiling of the Salon, which hasn't been done for a while. That is hard on the neck, especially since I wear tri-focals so have to tip my head back to see!

My trick on the helm was nice, sailing takes much bigger turns of the wheel to correct her course,  but there is a bigger sense of control than when motoring. I used the clouds to check for the drift of the ship's heading and it worked well. Woot.

Rumour has it we may be through the Straits of Canso either late tonight or tomorrow. The cadets from the Maritime Academy on board are hoping we go through in daylight since their whole school will come out to see us go by!

It is 1:36pm and I just got back from loling in the sun on the main hatch. it is now one of those stunningly beautiful sailing days. The waves are a dark blue with scattered intensely white horses. We are sailing with all our sails set. Even sails I never saw set on our trip. This makes all the wet, dark, heaving and hauling worth it!

The clouds along the horizon are non-threatening which is nice for a change.

Erin says the forecast is for the wind to drop around sunset so I suspect we will be back to motoring for our night watch. After we take in all these acres of canvas of course :-)

More later...


Check next post for musings on my last full sail night watch.

Here are some pictures from this beautiful sailing day.

A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By

A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By

That is probably one of the most famous lines from any Sea poem/story.  I always thought it meant using the stars to navigate with. That is, in the sense of figuring out where you are and how to get to where you want to go. Last night I finally figured out what it really means.

One of the things I was told on my previous voyage was to use clouds or objects on the horizon to steer with rather than chasing the pointer on the compass around.  I was never able to make that work.  My second time at helm on this trip, while sailing along Lk Ontarion,  Mark the Aussie AB on our watch told me pointing at the compass "Don't look at this, look at this" indicating with a sweep of his arm the broad expanse of stars and sky.  I still wasn't able to force myself not to look at the compass and try to chase the course around.

Last night however it seems to have clicked. The Fog blanked everything up to about 45 degrees above the horizon but above that the stars were pretty clear. So I found a bright star, in Cassiopea I think, that was lined up between two stays on the main mast when we were on course.  Watching that star I could see when the ship started to fall off her course. Looking down at the compass I could see that the compass heading hadn't changed at all! Then suddenly it would begin to show the course change.

That is the secret! The compass is on the quarter deck right in front of the wheel it will only start to register the turn when the bow has already started going that way.  The apparent motion of the star, or a cloud or point of land, is way faster so correcting the ship course by watching for the shift in these objects corrects the course before the compass has even registered a turn.

The fog this morning was so thick you could actually look at the sun briefly, it was just a bright disk, I used it the same way as a star to figure out how many spokes of the wheel were necessary to make her turn or stop turning.

Sweet.

So "a star to steer her by"  is just that, using a star to keep the ship on course because the relative motion of the ship forward of the compass registers a change in course way faster than the compass does.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Foggy and Damp Motoring Towards Gaspe

Friday Aug 26

Had a very interesting night watch, the fog was very thick, but not very deep vertically. From the focslehead on lookout you could see the stars and then nothing below but grey.  As it got darker the bow wave began to light up as it broke. There is now some phosphorescent organisms in the water. A pretty good indication that the sea is nearby.  Lookout was really tough. I have a bunch of floaters in my eyes and they kind of spark and glow against the mushy grey of the fog. If I thought I saw something I would blink and look a different direction, if it was still there then it was in my eyes not on the sea!

It wasn't all that cold but without the foulies one would very quickly be wet through  by the fog and then the wind would chill you to the bone.

My trick on the helm was great, I actually used the stars to steer successfully for the first time, more on that later.

Our watch this morning was more of the same, only with the sun shining the fog became intensely bright, necessitating the use of sunglasses. These are very quickly streaming with water, which means they are very hard to see through.

I ended up looking over my glasses and then looking through them to check out anything I think I saw.  Not ideal but with the brightly lit fog any object will be a dark spot which would actually stand out pretty well. The mate says we have had several big ships pass within 2 miles of us but we didn't see a thing. You could tell when another ship were nearby because our fog horn sounds for a while.

Steering this morning was very easy as we are motoring with no sails set. Only a couple of spokes either way needed to keep her on course.

It is more than a week since I left my Jayne  and Calgary to join the ship. How time flies when you are having fun :-)  Sitting here in the salon typing up my blog posts it feels like the patterns of being at sea are falling into place. The steady rounds of watch, eat, sleep, scrub, haul, eat, sleep etc are like a big clock ticking the days past.


On the plus side my hands are mostly healed up and I have only felt a slight queasy twinge when below in the chain locker on ship check.  I am wearing my motion sickness bracelet just in case but so far so good. Will see how they work out on the sea proper.

More later...


It is still foggy but now it is raining too. Blah.
We are eating dinner down in the salon for the second day in a row.
On the plus side I can hear the 4-8 watch setting the topsails, the sheets are chain and they make a distinctive rattle a they are sheeted home. Hopefully that means there is enough wind that we will be able to sail tonight too.

On the minus side it will mean that it will be much colder on watch too. Sigh.
I broke out my lite weight sleeping bag and stuffed it with the stuff I have been sleeping under so it i ready to dive into when I get off watch.

Thanks for reading!

KJ

Sailing Down the St Lawrence

Thurs Aug 25

Currently sailing (yay!) under upper and lower topsails, t'gallants, main royal, foresail and inner jib. We are making a good 9 knots over the ground. It is a chilly grey day with the occaisional rain shower.

Had a crazy watch last night. We were motoring down the seaway from Montreal and the steering was nuts. Thankfully I didn't have to have a trick at the wheel, I'm not sure I could have done that in the dark leapfrogging from lighted bouy to lghted bouy.  We were going faster over the grownd than I have ever seen the Picton Castle go, 12.3 knots! For us that is really flying. There was a 6 knot current from the river helping us along. She felt like she was on the edge of control, like when you are going too fast on a bicycle :-)

So instead of a trick at the helm I did lookout and then Shauna and I scrubbed the overhead in the galley and tried to make coffee. The coffe procedure is very primitive now. You take a big pot boil water in it then throw in Foolgers coffee grounds, wait a few minutes and laddle it out into a thermos to put aft on the Aloha Deck. Ick.

It was pretty strong, it was still there at breakfast and it really did a good job at jump starting me caffeine wise :-)

We motored past Quebec City last night around 4 AM and we are way downstream from there now. No wasting time on this trip!

When I came on watch this morning it was still pretty warm, with scattered clouds. We were motorsailing under the lower topsails. Typically our watch does the domestics, cleaning the heads, sweeping the salon etc, but today almost the entire watch was spend setting sails. First the upper topsails, then the main topmast staysail, between the main and foremasts, and then the t'gallants and royal on the main.  Once that was all set the engine was shutdown and we have been sailing in blessed quiet since then.

I did my trick at the helm and, for the first time I stayed on course pretty well and was pretty confident by the end. A very pleasant change from the schmozle of the previous tricks. Well see how I do tonight.

My hands with stood all the line hauling while we were setting the sails so maybe they are starting to toughen up.

The temperature has been dropping steadily all morning but I wasn't cold because with just the four of us on the watch it was a lot of work to set all the sails,  but I'm thinking I might need to start layering up for our night watch tonight.

Erin, our mate, says we might start to see whales in the St Lawrence soon, so I'll try to keep my camera handy just in case.


Later

It is now 4:00pm and what a difference a couple of hours make.
I was trying to sleep and realized that I couldn't seem to warm my legs up!  As the water temperature has gone down the hull has cooled off too and it sucks the heat out of my bunk. Had to put on my flannel shirt and get my blanket over my legs.

Now outside it is rainy and foggy and very damp/cold.

You can even see the fog rolling down the salon steps from the deck!
Going to need my foulies tonight I'm sure. I hope I don't need all my cold weather clothes tonight because I suspect this is not as cold ass it will get. Sigh.
I'm hoping this just feels cold by contrast with the heat we have had previously and once we get more accustomed it won't feel so sharp.

The engine is back on and  Bryson just came off watch and told me we are making 13 knots over the ground.  Woo.


Thanks for reading.
KJ

Musings on a Life at Sea (interlude)

Wed Aug 24


Eight years ago I flew out to re-join this same ship in Mallorca Spain.  I was in much better shape and I had no real idea what the next 6 months would be like.  This time I have a pretty good idea what is coming, but I am a typical computer techy couch potatoe with soft hands and only a vague memory of how everything works.

So why bother?

Good question that.  I am very much enjoying the trip so far. There has been an immense amount of "hurry up and wait" as is typical of a ship tied to the hard. Seeing the ship cocooned in her movie paint make up, with messy decks and everything adrift  was a bit of a shock. Now a week later, and most things put right and on our way to the open sea,  any ship's natural element, I'm beginning to get back into the swing of life on this fine ship.

I see the ship I sailed in my memory almost like a ghost, a bit of double vision, overlayed on her as she is now. I see my shipmates from 8 years ago in the faces of the young sailors I am working with. Yet each is a new person with different life experiences and views. Some have been sailing since April, a double crossing of the sometimes stormy North Atlantic, others are old crew members from previous voyages and passages, and some have only sailed on the Picton Castle for a few weeks at Tall Ship events etc. But every one of them  WANTS to be here.

While we were docked at Clayton an older lady came up with her young grandson in tow. She asked if she could come aboard since she had sailed with the ship before.  All old crew are welcome to do so, which is cool.  She proudly took her grandson around to see the ship, a ship she obviously felt very strongly about. He was less impressed, I got the feeling it was more of a "let's see what Grandma was on about" thing :-)

But her sparkling eyes and pride in her ship is something I can definitely relate to.

I hope people see that when they come into my office and see the pictures of the Picton Castle on my wall, and listen patiently to my sea stories from 8 years ago.
I already have some new stories to add to my collection.  As we get closer to the sea with every passing hour the old familiar feelings of excitement and panic come back.  The resignation as well, the resignation that any sailor must have to endure the long night watches and the heavy labour of keeping a ship in shape to pass through whatever comes her way.

That is more "living in the now" than I am capable of at home.

Perhaps that is the reason for doing this. She is a hard to work physically, frustratingly complex, and beautifully elegant machine, carrying me through both space and time in a good company of men and women.

This small slice of a "Life at Sea" may be all I can get for now.

But it is enough.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Montreal at anchor.

Wed Aug 24

We made it through the last lock at 11:00pm last night.
Steaming down the Seaway in the dark was "interesting".  I was on helm for about 40 minutes and trying to stay in the middle of the unlit channel using the streetlights aand trail lampos alongide was rather scary. On the plus side I only got close to the bank once. The Pilot's comment was "I wouldn't go any further to port unless you want to get your Captain's feet wet."  Yikes :-O

We anchored off the industrial docks of Montreal, in the distance we could  see the lights and towers of downtown Montreal.

When we went off watch at Midnight I hit the rack and was dead to the world until all hands were woken up for breakfast at 7:00 this morning.  Niko is doing a fantastic job as cook, his breakfasts are great, simple but robust, just the way I like them.

Then it was all hands turn to to get the ship ready to motor sail down the river toward Quebec City, Gaspe and the Gulf of St Lawrence.

I got to do some "mousing", using thin wire to essentially lash the pins on shackles into place so they can't come loose and drop out.  The shaclkles were on the iron bumkins that support the blocks for the main braces on te quarter deck.  This meant I had to be leaning over the side of the ship, so my harness was a useful thing.

Then we unshipped all the canal fenders and lashed them back into the breezeway.
They had all been covered with crisco so they would slide easier along the lock walls so manhandling them back aboard was tricky. Like great slippery logs.

We reset the main and foryard back from their "cockbilled" for and aft  position that was needed to clear the sides of the locks. Then using tackles rigged on the end of the main yard and the main stay we hoisted the skiff off the hatcway and put it back in the water so it coud be hoisted back into its davits on the  starboard side. That was an all hands process as it is a very heavy boat.

Finally once everything was squared away we started to hoist up the anchor using our ancient hand windlass on the focsle head. Interesting bit of trivia for you, the windlass was made at the Lunenberg foundary and was the very last one ever made, It was put together from spare parts that the foundary still had!  And unlike other things on this ship that have changed, hoisting the anchor is still a pain in the butt! At least we were using the modern Starboard anchor not the Fisheman style Port anchor and there wasn't much wind blowing. A couple of people asked if I needed to be spelled off, which was nice, but I decided to try and stick it out and made it all the way till the anchor was safe in its hawse on the bow.  I'm going to pay for that later I think :-)

Fiji oversaw the mornings operations carefully going around everyone as they worked.

We just finished lunch and everyone broke off into their watches, which means I'm off till 8:00pm. Woo.

We are curretly motorsailing down the river under Lower Topsails with the Pilot aboard and it is a beautiful sunny day.

Heading Down River to the Locks

Tues Aug 23rd

I have jut got off watch at noon and am typing this up before it gets hot in the Salon.
It is a beautiful breezy day so that might not happen. It's too bad we can't sail cause it would be a fantastic day for sailing.

I had the last dock watch lat night between 10:00 and 11:00 pm. The last thing I had to do was go around and wake everybody up so we could get underway and we were off the dock and motoring down the river by 12:15. A bunch of locals that had been by to see us earlier in the afternoon came down from the bar and cheered us on :-)

The off watches were stood down until 5:00am when we all went on deck to standby as we went through the first lock. This one is a "control lock" that is really only used to control the water level at certain times of the year, it wasn't needed so we just motored through.  Three hours later, just after my watch took the deck we went through two locks in quick succession. Tricky steaming into them and then tying up such that the ship doesn't swing around as the water in the lock goes down. It is amazing how fast the water drops.

I'm glad I don't have to be steering, the pilot gives very rapid fire helm orders and expects them to be obeyed instantly. Nothing wrong with that of course, but our helm takes 14 turns from hard right to hard left which takes time.  Plus there is no indicator to tell how far over the rudder is so the helmman has to count the number of turns and partial turns to keep track of how many to take off to get back to midships.

Interesting to watch the process.

My station is with most of the 8-12 watch at the stern. Erin the Third Mate is our watch officer and she is in charge of the stern line. Lots of pulling and easing. She does most of it of course but we try to keep the line clear to run.

We have a four more locks to go through this afternoon.

Erin says we should be dropping anchor at Montreal around dinner time.

Then we will spend tomorrow undoing everything we did to the ship to make her fit the locks.

Then it is back to sailing I hope and we will be off to Lunenberg!
Woot!

More later

It is now 5:40 and we just went through two locks in quick succession. There are two more a few hour away and then we can anchor at Montreal. We got stuck behind a big freighter. The pilots actully called it up and complained that she was steaming ike an old grandmother. It took her nearly an hour to get through each lock, so we lost some time we should be in montreal around 10:00 tonight just in the middle of our watch.

Not sure what will be happening when we get there,  finish our watch and sleep for sure :-)

Blah, one of the messes on my right hand that I thought was a blister turned out to be an infection, hurt like a SOB when it broke. Maybe now it will heal up.

Otherwise I seem to be doing OK, no sea sickness (yet).

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Ashore in Clayton NY.

WiFi acquired!

I'm now safely ensconced in the library of Clayton NY, as It has the best WiFi in town apparently.

Had a magnificent night watch lat night it started off with a strong wind that made steering really difficult.  I had to turn her over to one of my shipmates, Kelly, because I was rapidly loosing control... sigh.

In my defense I claim lack of practice :-)

I eventually got another trick once the wind had moderated and we set the jibs and spanker which made steering much easier.  It was a beautiful night for a sail, intensely bright stars and Milky Way. The moon came up and added to the wonder.

Hit the sack at the end of my watch and was totally gone until 5:00 ish when we were turned out to help the on-watch bring the ship alongside at Clayton get tied up.

Then we got to go back to bed for two hours till our normal watch call at 7:30.

Spent the morning tieing on the great balks of wood that protect the ship's sides from the wall of the canal locks. I also went aloft for the first time to furl the foresail. Didn't do to bad for the first time in 8 years! When we got off at noon we were allowed to go ashore till an All Hands muster at 4:00pm when we will go over the route for tonight.

The plan is to leave the quay at Clayton around midnight so we can traverse the locks in daylight tomorrow.

We have a had a very curious crowd on the quay all day asking questiions and taking pictures :-)

Fiji is working the crowd collecting pets and scritches as usual.

My hands are a real wreck, the broken blisters are not healing well, because being on the 8-12 watch my hands are in soapy water for most of the first watch. Sigh.

Going to FB and stuff while I have the WiFi, might upload some pictures too.

More later maybe.

Thanks for reading
KJ

Heading out to Sea er... Lake

Sunday Aug 21


Had a very windy watch last night, the wind was blowing a good F4 gusting higher under cloudy skies. Was a nice temperature though which was awesome after the heat of the day.

Fiji, the ships cat, came by to check out how I was doing, which was nice. She then decided to hunt some kind of bug that was under the canal fenders then she went ashore and prowled along the quayside. It looked like she was checking the docklines.

That is exactly like Chibley used to do :-)

Early wake up at 6:00 and we got the ship ready to leave. It was still blowing hard right on to the quay so we had to do some tricky work with the dock lines and engine to get out into the channel. Might have a little painting to do on the stern.

 Once we were underway we set the spanker to help us turn across the wind to head out of the channel between two of the islands.

A strong rainstorm swept over us and so we got a nice shower to start the day :-) Hooray for quick drying clothes.

Once out from the island we set topsails and motorsailed down the lake.

The Mate has split us up into 3 sea watches and we broke off to work.
I am in the 8-12 watch, which I've never been on, before I was always 4-8 or 12 to 4. Biggest change is that the 8-12 watch is responsible for the daily domestics and starting the days ship work. 

On today's menu was scrubbing all the black shit paint off the ship!  Got totally soaked again as we were using the fire hoses, but it was worth it to see our ship emerge from her coat of grease paint.

At 12 noon I heard those lovely words... "Watch below!",  first time in 7 years!  Woot.

Grabbed lunch and am sitting in the salon typing up this report listening to the sound of the water rushing past the hull.  While we  were eating the 12-4 watch set the t'gallants and the Royals and the Captain shut off the engine so we are sailing!

We are off till 4:00pm when all hands will be doing drills, Man Overboard, Fire and Abandon Ship.

Fun stuff.

More later maybe.

P.S.
Got on FB this afternoon and spotted this picture somebody took of us as we were sailing along yesterday evening.

The Picton Castle under sail in Lk Ontario 38 miles West of Presqu'ile Bay
Taken from Ship Appens heading fro Trenton

Get ship to rights for the River day

Sat Aug 20


We got to "sleep in"  till almost 8:00 today. Woo.

This morning was a serious work process of moving all the stuff we had moved off the ship to the dock for the filming back to where it belongs. Th film crew set guys came and removed all the fake wooden wallpaper without destroying the paint which was nice. The black/brown crap paint made of coloured wallpaper has to be washed off with our fire hoses once we are out of the harbour.  The film guys were supposed to power wash it off but the harbour master said not unless you are more than 4km outside the harbour :-)  It rained last night so it looks pretty gross now.

We moved all our collection of propane cylinders, welding gear and fuel tanks back into te breezeway and lashed them into place. Then we "flashed" the sails dropping them into their gear to drop their rainwater load ad start to dry.

We hoisted the the Monomoy boat up to the galley roof which took all hands. A carefully coordinated  action using blocks on the main yard and the foreyard and a heavy line from the masthead run to the capstan. I was on the capstan.

This afternoon will be more of the same.

At least there is a nice onshore breeze blowing so it isn't quite as hot as it was earlier.

More later.

It was a very busy and hot afternoon moving stuff around and hoisting the skiff on to the main deck so we can get through the locks on our way down the St Lawrence.

All the newly joined crew including myself, got our safety orientation, where we toured the ship learning where all the fire extinguishers, watertight doors, medical kits and emergency equipment is stored. We also had to try on the immersion suit which on a hot and sticky day like today was brutal. Luckily we only had to put them on and then we could take them off right away.

Our watch is on duty today so we had to clean up the galley and will be standing dock watches. Mine is from 2320 to 0040, and I'm by myself this time.

Fiji, our ship's cat, keeping a sharp lookout.

Tomorrow we get up early get the ship ready and head out into the lake.
With luck we will have breakfast under sail!

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Left behind...

Friday Aug 19

All hands called after an early breakfast. 

Braced the yards around to the opposite tack and cleared up ready to sail.

Got booted off the ship along with two other new crew because the ship is heading out into the lake to continue filming. The ship will be incredibly crowded with almost 70 people on board. The Captain figured it was best if only the established crew stayed. I'm disappointed in one sense because it would have been the first sail, but in another I don't envy the crew trying to work surrounded by a giant film crew.

Stowed all the secondary dock lines and then got changed into my shore clothes just as a fog bank swept down on the dock.

My Shipmate Allison who is helping us get ready to leave tomorrow drove us up to the Royal Ontario Museum after the ship motored off into the fog.

And we are now ensconced in the air conditioned WiFi enabled restaurant Gabby's across the street.

More later...

The ROM is amazing.
Allison had suggested we could easily spend  a day there and she was not kidding.
Once we had our fill of the interesting displays we headed out of downtown on the subway and streetcar to a renovated area called The Distillery, very trendy :-)
Having a great iced cider at a Brew Pub and then we will wander back down Cherry Street to the dock, probably 20 minutes away or so.

The ship will probably come back around 8:00pm once it starts to get dark.
We'll aim to be there and help her tie up, or not, we'll see.

Later later.

Ship motored up to the quay at around 9:30pm, a ghostly ship looming up out of the darkness. In her black paint job she was nearly invisible except for the lighter grey of her sails hanging in their gear far above. Deft use of capstan and engine snugged her up to the quay, a very slick bit of ship handling in the dark.

I felt a bit guilty dressed in my shore going rig while a very tired crew carried on with getting the ship settled and the film crew  off with their junk/gear.

As luck would have it the Port watch is on duty tonight so I don't have to stand deck watch. Woot.

Did I mention I felt a bit guilty?

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Filming Day

Thurs August 18

Filming Day

An interesting day.
Started by lashing down large timber topmast blank to the rail. Then we lashed all the canal fenders, large 8x8 timbers used to protect the side of the ship in the locks, on top.  We will be heading out into the lake to continue filming tomorrow.  That will be my first sail on this ship since June 2009!

Woot :-)

The crew that are being extras left to get costumed and setup for the filming.

I went with Mark to move the skiff to a new mooring away from the ship then we walked back, shortly thereafter we were told to go move it to a new spot which we did.

By the time we got back they had started filming so we hung out on the Quay watching the fun.  A lot of hurry up and wait as is typical of such activities.

On the plus side they gave us a big feed which was awesome. The film crew called it "lunch" about 4:00pm. They are planning to keep filming till the Sun goes down. We have been ordered to standby in case they need us to move something and then we will have to furl the sails that are hanging in their gear for the shots.

I'll be standing my first anchor watch tonight which will be interesting, only one hour as we are all hands.

The film crew is coming back aboard as I type this so we'll soon see what the evening will be like.

More later

Just finished my first anchor deck watch, was with A-Ron a very interesting fellow who was on the whole trans Atlantic trip. He walked me through the lines while we were doing the ship check and I got most of them right!

Monique and Christie you were right once I hit the deck a lot of stuff came back. :-)

Since A-Ron and I had first watch I'm hitting the rack!

Thanks for reading.
KJ

So it begins...

Tuesday Aug 16 16:33
Made it to the Airport with lots of time to spare.

That is a big change from the last couple of times I've had to go to the airport, which was a great way to reduce my stress level, heh.

Now I'm hanging out at the gate waiting for the flight to take me to Toronto.

FB refuses to load on the Airport WiFi with a security warning and no possible exception,blah. I hope that isn't indicative of EEEbin's behaviour on hotspots.  On the plus side GMail and Blogger work just fine

More later.

It is later and I have landed in Toronto, collected my seabag and got a hotel room to spend the night.

They charge for WiFi if you can believe it!  Sigh.

After doing some digging it appears that the lobby has free WiFi but I can't seem to connect, sigh.  I'm thinking there must be something about EEEbin's browser that doesn't like these hotspot networks.  Maybe I should see if Anderson will spring for data on my cellphone then I could tether it. Just for blog updates of course :-)

Tomorrow I have to figure out how to get to the docks.

Then the fun really begins.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Wed Aug 17

Joined the ship officially this morning after a pretty speedy rush hour cab ride across Toronto.
I signed articles at about 10:30am , was aloft for a refresher by 11:00 and covered in tar a half hour later :-)

The ship is being "dressed" for her role in a series "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood so everything is covered in black paint and wood patterned wall paper.  She looks quite bedraggled poor thing.

The crew looks like a fun bunch so far. Chief Mate and Captain are nice (so far).
Very different kind of feel from the previous passage. Will be interesting to see how it all works.

My old shipmate Niko is the new cook as Donald is back in Grenada.   The ship's cat is a juvenile female called Fiji :-)

This afternoon we will be raising the gaff back into place and continuing with the maintenance that never ends.

Oh and the smell is absolutely fantastic! Brings back lots of memories :-)

More later.
Hoisted the gaff back up into place, which was a fine bit of sailorizing.

After we cleaned up the deck and coiled everything down we had a nice spell of socializing and tale telling on the hatch. 

I am officially in the Starboard Watch according to the First Mate Dirk.

Woot! Wifi at Sailors Mission :-)

Packed and ready...

Sort of.

Got most of my gear packed up and it all fits in my old seabag!  I made the seabag during the last stretch from Bermuda back to Lunenburg when I was last sailing on the Picton Castle.

My plan is to check the seabag and carry an old cloth backpack on the plane. That will have the absolute bare essentials so that I could still join the ship even if the seabag goes awol.  I am flying Westjet so that isn't really a concern, unlike another "Nationally Named" Carrier I could mention.

The tricky bit of the packing was clothes. It is currently really hot in Toronto where we will be starting but who knows what it will be like after we get out into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. I really only need three sets, work clothes, general and travel clothes, and a nicer set to wear if I have to go ashore, and not look like a ruffian from the docks, heh. All that fits in a very small space.

Biggest amount of space taken so far is my foul weather gear it just doesn't fold up very small. I'm also carrying my old rubber boots just in case of cold water, they'll probably never leave the bottom of my seabag.

So tomorrow afternoon my little adventure starts. It'll be fun to just get on the plane and leave all the FB\News\Social madness behind for a couple of weeks.

Updates as I can wrangle them.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. The current plan is to get the ship ready to leave on the 21st planning to arrive in Lunenberg Sept 1st or 2nd. Between the time I get there on the 17th and the 21st the ship will be involved in some filming which will be interesting to be in on.

Knots 'n lines and sails oh my!

Four days to go before I fly out to Toronto.

Woke up in a cold sweat this morning.

I was dreaming that I had been ordered to do something on the ship.  Only I had no clue how to do it!

Eight years is a long time, and even though I have been sailing since it has never been on a vessel with all that lovely rope and billowing canvas. The panicky feeling of that dream lasted all through breakfast and I figured I better do something about it. So I got an old shoelace and started doing knots.  All the knots I could remember. Then I looked up the ones I couldn't remember and tried them.

The simple act of doing that was very calming.  Riding the bus downtown I kept doing all the knots, must have looked a little strange, but then this is Calgary, heh.

It's a kind of Sailor's Rosary or something.


Thanks for reading.
KJ

Off to Sea Again

Well.
It has been almost 8 years since I last headed out to Sea on the Picton Castle.
Now I get to go on another passage on this fine Barque.

Two weeks ago I got an email from Maggie, who keeps the administration of the ship moving smoothly, looking for crew to help sail the ship back to Lunenberg.

Thinking about it for all of 4 hours I jumped at the chance!

So on August 16th I'll fly to Toronto to join the Picton Castle for her trip down the St Lawrence and back to Lunenberg.

I've rebuilt my little netbook "EEEbin" with a new OS and have started packing my seabag.

This post will be the start of a new chapter on this blog.

I'll try to write something everyday and, like last time, I'll update when I get a chance.

Wish this old sailor luck in getting my sea legs back!

As always thanks for reading
KJ