Barque Picton Castle

Wow. The best experience of my life. Hands down.
The Barque Picton Castle is a Sail Training Vessel. This means, even if you have no experience sailing (like me before i went), you can still apply to go on a voyage, learn to sail and see the world. They will teach you to sail. That’s what they do best.
It’s a three masted, square-​rigged tall ship. It’s no luxury yacht. It’s old school traditional sailing with all the grease and tar included.
I sailed on World Voyage 5. I did half the voyage, starting in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and ending 15,000nm later in Bali, Indonesia. For a month before we set sail we readied the ship, and ourselves, for the voyage. Everything from loading cement and books and food into the hold, to fire safety and emergency evacuation training, to practicing knots, learning lines and sail commands.
There is no way for you to NOT learn on this ship. Once you are underway at sea, you have no choice but to observe and absorb everything around you. But how much you learn is really up to you. Every day at sea you are put onto a ‘watch’. Either 12 – 4, 4 – 8, or 8 – 12. Both morning and night. Those hours are spent on deck, keeping the ship running and sailing smoothly. Sail handling when required, steering at the helm, keeping lookout, and various ship maintenance (fixing things, painting things etc.) The hours you have between watch are yours to do with as you wish. For some that means eating and sleeping. But others take full advantage of the incredible learning opportunity and get involved in things like sail making, rigging, reading, carpentry projects etc.
There are also workshops during long sea passages on things like Piloting, Charts, Celestial Navigation, cargo and provisioning, or any subject you want to ask the Mates about.
I really could go on and on about the complete and full experience sailing around the world can give you. The ship is amazing. The crew are always amazing. The ocean is amazing.