Gap Year Association

Typical Itinerary

Sail for 1 leg (2 or 3), or join for the whole Voyage!

The Picton Castle training program offers paying sail trainees an opportunity to sail around the world as deckhands on a traditional square-rigged ship. No sailing experience is needed.

Everyone on board participates in the ship's operation: handling sails, scrubbing the deck, taking a turn at the wheel, raising anchor, hauling on lines, helping in the galley, going aloft (optional), or keeping lookout. There are training classes in seamanship and navigation, plenty of opportunity to learn square-rig sailing and to explore exotic tropical ports and islands.

There are three watches at sea around the clock: 4–8, 8–12 and the 12–4. How your day breaks down depends on which watch you are on. If you are on the 12–4, you are on watch from noon until 4 PM and then on watch again from midnight until 4 AM. In between those times your time is generally your own, unless it is "All Hands," which means that all crew are on deck. There are also times when you will have to participate in Galley duty and/or you may be assigned a Dayman position.

Each Watch has chores specific to that watch:

The 4–8 always lights the stove and does a saltwater deck wash and gets the ship clean and tidy on deck. The 4–8 tightens braces and halyards that may have gone slack overnight and usually sees to re-nipping the buntlines. These chores begin at 6:00 AM or dawn, whichever comes later. They also clean up at the end of the workday.
The 8–12 watch cleans the ship below decks, which we call "domestics." This is a cleaning of the ship's living quarters and heads every day. This watch begins the day's projects: sanding, painting, tarring, rigging, sailmaking and so forth.
The 12–4 carries on with the ship's work under the supervision of the Bosun.

Depending on how long the Picton Castle is in each port, the time is divided among the three watches, or whatever we can do to look after the ship adequately and give the crew the most time on shore. Typically a port layover is three full days or six full days. The rule of thumb is two days free, one on watch.

Leg 1 - Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada - Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia
April 15th - August 7th, 2021
Lunenburg, Panama, Galapagos Islands, Pitcairn Island, Takaroa, Tahiti

Leg 2 - Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia - Bali, Indonesia
August 7th, 2021 - November 15th, 2021
Tahiti, Huahine, Palmerston Atoll, Niue, Fiji, Vanuatu, Bali

Leg 3 - Bali, Indonesia - Cape Town, South Africa
November 15th, 2021 - February 10, 2022
Bali, Rodriguez, Reunion, Cape Town

Leg 4 - Cape Town, South Africa -Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
February 10th - June 12th, 2022
Cape Town, St. Helena, Grenada, Martinique, Anguilla, St. Barths, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Lunenburg