2009-05-21 06:29:00
Picton Castle will be returning to Lunenburg this Saturday, having completed a year-long voyage around the Atlantic Ocean. The ship is expected to round Battery Point at about 2 o'clock. After a few weeks refit she'll embark on a nine-week summer program sailing along the coast of the Eastern United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, the Picton Castle visited ports from the ship's past as a North Sea fishing trawler and World War II minesweeper. Crew members also visited the ship's namesake castle. In Northern Europe, she attended Tall Ship events, then it was on to Sainte Nazaire, France, where in 1942 she was one of a convey of vessels to participate in a successful raid on a Nazi-held shipyard there. That visit was followed by calls in Spain, Portugal, the island of Mallorca, Morocco, the Canaries, Senegal and Cape Verde before making passage to the Caribbean where the Picton Castle has been island hopping for the last number of weeks. The next big adventure for the sail training ship will be fifth circumnavigation of the world beginning in May, 2010.
