For more than a week now, Jay has had a group of students from the Picton Castle Bosun School working with him in The Dory Shop. The Bosun School is a land-based program aimed at young mariners who wish to advance their skills away from the necessary distractions of a ship that’s underway at sea. This is the third running of the program and we’re delighted to have young sailors from Canada, the USA, Finland, Iceland and Denmark in attendance.

After weeks of ‘company’ in the shop, what with our fall dory building course, followed by a second course for students of the Picton Castle Bosun School, Jay is once again back to building boats solo. He tells me that suits him just fine for the moment. He’s got the first plank on a new Black Rocks dory, his radio is tuned to the CBC (as always!) and there are enough people dropping by to break up his days.

So I just got an email from the Barque Picton Castle, still in the Caribbean, currently en route to The Saints from Antigua where crew members participated in last weekend’s Antigua Classic Sailing Regatta. Not being a racing sort (the ship’s motto is We may be slow but we get around), the Picton Castle sat at anchor for the weekend while crew members signed aboard a host of beautiful schooners that needed extra hands. Those crew who weren’t otherwise engaged took the ship’s newly refurbished dory out sailing a number of times.