Hundreds lined the waterfront in Lunenburg, N.S. on Saturday as a famous tall ship sailed into port after its seventh and final trip around the globe
The crew of the Picton Castle got a warm welcome from family and friends as she sailed into Lunenburg Harbour on Saturday afternoon.
The ship has been gone since April 2018, travelling around the globe. Her latest leg was a journey from Capetown, South Africa, that ended at its home port on Nova Scotia’s South Shore.
“It was an adventure,” says crew member Dustin Dempsey, who had been on board since the beginning of the journey last April. “Most people won’t understand what we went through in the past 14 months, but just to sum it all up, it was an adventure. Tears of happiness and hard work.”
Dempsey’s mother Denise was among those waiting on the Lunenburg waterfront for an emotional reunion.
“It’s very exciting,” said Denise Dempsey. “A little stressful to see him climbing up there, but I know he loves it, so it makes me proud.”
The tall ship is modeled after an 18th century vessel.
“We use a lot of the natural fibres,” explains Maggie Ostler, Chief Operations Officer for the vessel. “The manila for the lines, the cotton for the sails. So we do things in the traditional way, and for people who are into this, that’s really appealing.”
Some of the crew are trainees, with no sailing experience. Like many of the crew, Dustin Dempsey says he was drawn to the Picton Castle for the learning experience. He says it can be challenging living and working together for more than a year at a time.
“You can’t go for a drive, you can’t relax. When you get mad at somebody, you only have 100 feet to get away, so you just kind of have to blow it off and keep going,” says Dempsey.
That’s one of the lessons that Captain Daniel Moreland hopes to impart to his crew. Capt. Moreland has sailed the Picton Castle around the globe seven times, but this was his last long trip; going forward, Moreland plans to stay to voyages around the Atlantic, while still training young sailors.
“While the voyage is done, it’s never really over,” explains Capt. Moreland. “They’ll be processing this for the rest of their lives, and the younger ones will be mining it for the rest of their lives. It’ll be a defining things.”
For Dustin Dempsey, he has a few weeks to get his feet on solid land and reunite with family, before he sets sailt with the Picton Castle on their trip across the Atlantic later this month.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Emily Baron Cadloff.
