Canada

Sailing trip in Canada – Jul/Aug 2004

Captain Dalhuijsen was assisted on this occasion with crewmembers: Wouter Dalhuijsen, Sandra Fountain and Adriaan Andersen

We started in Halifax. Sandra & Adriaan arrived on Wednesday 14 July 2004, but we didn’t leave until Saturday 17 Jul 2004, after Wouter arrived. In the meantime we stocked the boat with tinned meatballs and a host of Canadian coastal charts.

The weather for most of the trip was: fog, little wind and sunny spells with rain. Due to the reduced visibility we hopped from buoy to buoy up the coast of Nova Scotia in the first week. Each night we anchored in almost deserted protected bays. Superb! We used the dinghy and the newly acquired Canadian canoe to explore the inlets and get ashore.

17 Jul: Halifax-Sambro Harbour (16 NM, Wind F3-4)

18 Jul: Sambro Harbour – Ship Harbour (44 NM, Wind F2-5)

19 Jul: Stay the day in Ship Harbour (do a hike on Passage Island)

20 Jul: Ship Harbour – Mushaboom Harbour (17 NM, Wind F0-2)

mainly motoring in fog

21 Jul: Mushaboom Harbour – Tor Bay (21 NM, Wind F0-3)

mainly motoring in (dense) fog… we entered the bay on GPS and radar only. You can smell the pine trees on the land nearby when you come in to anchor, but you can’t see it…

22 Jul: stay in Tor Bay (hike to the light house)

23 Jul: Tor Bay-Louisbourg (77 NM, Wind F 3-4)

sailing with spinnaker in fog

24 Jul: visit Louisbourg (old english/french/english fortified city)

we were not allowed to land at the fort by dinghy and had to make a detour through the bush (and the ticket office!)

25 Jul: Louisbourg-Sydney (55 NM, Wind F4-1)

First sailing then motoring in dying wind; enter harbour at night – hard to pick out the navigation marks in between the ferries and traffic lights
It was nice to put all the theory about navigating in reduced visibility into practice: radar, GPS, night sailing. We had plenty of opportunity to play with all the gadgets.

Next was the crossing to Newfoundland:

26 Jul: Leave Sydney for overnight crossing to Port au Basques (94 NM, light winds)
mainly motoring, not much shipping and a clear cold night

27 Jul: Tied up to a dock in Port au Basques

washing, showering and… Moose burgers!

Wouter bought a ‘wiggle’ to catch fish (no bait required). Over the next few days we mastered the tricks and finally caught cod or mackerel with every try…. Maybe not surprising, given the proximity of the Grand Banks – one of the most prolific fishing grounds in the world! Captain Dalhuijsen was very scared of fish-blood on his teak deck and tried to kill the fish softly by feeding them Martini. This might work for French fishies, but a proper Canadian cod only enjoys the drink! Finally we had to revert to the trusted knock with the winch handle to dispatch the fish.

28 Jul: Port au Basques-Bay de Moine/Dublin Cove (23 NM, wind F0-3)

29 Jul: Dublin Cove – Kings Harbour (46 NM, max wind F3)

30 Jul: Kings Harbour – Hare Bay (55 NM, max wind F5)

Finally sailing in good wind! The fog returns occasionally making the entry to Hare Bay on radar: find the narrow passage in between the cliffs

31 Jul: Hare Bay-Great Cuilen Bay (37 NM, max wind F4)

1 Aug: Sailing in Bay d’Espoir, anchor in Harbour Le Gallais (34 NM, max wind F4)

2 Aug: Bay d’Espoir-Fortune Harbour (65 NM, max wind F5)

The last few days were perfect sailing! And all that ever broke was the topping lift (nearly taking Wouter out). Erik even attempted some Astro navigation: after 3 hours of calculations, he proclaimed that we must be able to see Iceland……

The docking in Fortune was a masterpiece of boat handling by our Captain, a feat that we still talk about! In Fortune we left Erik and Wouter to take the bus to St John and our flight back to London. We had sailed almost 600 NM, but this included –unfortunately- 72 hrs motoring…..

Erik and Wouter sailed together in 3 more days to St. John.

go back

Dublin Cove

To Sydney

Sandra

Tor Bay fog