Sailing In Newfoundland and to the Azores

Neil Hammond Bose

Description

This is a book of days and moments spent sailing on the east coast of Newfoundland and over the Atlantic to the Azores. Newfoundland is a beautiful cruising ground, one of the best in the world for a short period of the year in July and August, perhaps from late June. Optimistically and romantically, the Bay of Exploits has been called the Caribbean of the north. Many cruising days in summer start from calm in the morning, develop into a strong wind in the afternoon, sometimes as much as 25-30 knots, and drop to a peaceful calm again at the moorings in the evening. It can be sunny and warm throughout. The effect is exaggerated by starting and ending at a really sheltered anchorage, of which there are many on the coast.

The book has some factual information on anchorages and passages, but this should be used with the usual caution of any cruising information. Newfoundland has a rugged coast for those who like to be self sufficient and it suits the cruising sailor who does not expect to find a shop, chandlery or restaurant in every harbour. There are places where one can sail for several weeks without seeing another sailing boat.

Sujets

• Bateaux
• Bateau
• Recreation
• Sailing
• Sports
• Water Sports

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456604752
• Langue: English

Extrait

Picture by Diabaig Roe-Bose
 
Sailing in Newfoundland and to the Azores
 
Neil Bose
 


Copyright 2011 Neil Bose,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0475-2
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
 


 
 
To Desmond Jerome (D.J.) Murphy who dreamed of sailing around the world.
Preface
 
This is a book of days and moments spent sailing on the east coast of Newfoundland and over the Atlantic to the Azores. Newfoundland is a beautiful cruising ground, one of the best in the world for a short period of the year in July and August, perhaps from late June. Optimistically and romantically, the Bay of Exploits has been called the Caribbean of the north. Many cruising days in summer start from calm in the morning, develop into a strong wind in the afternoon, sometimes as much as 25-30 knots, and drop to a peaceful calm again at the moorings in the evening. It can be sunny and warm throughout. The effect is exaggerated by starting and ending at a really sheltered anchorage, of which there are many on the coast.
 
The book has some factual information on anchorages and passages, but this should be used with the usual caution of any cruising information. Newfoundland has a rugged coast for those who like to be self sufficient and it suits the cruising sailor who does not expect to find a shop, chandlery or restaurant in every harbour. There are places where one can sail for several weeks without seeing another sailing boat.
 
I bought my Contessa 26, Murphy’s Boat , in March 2003 and re-acclimatized myself to sailing after a break of almost 20 years. We kept the boat at Holyrood Marina in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. The first season we sailed amongst the inlets of the west side of Conception Bay, the second season we took the boat to Bonavista Bay and in 2005 we sailed up the coast to Notre Dame Bay. That winter we hauled the boat out at Lewisporte Marina. In 2006 we sailed to some of the western parts of Notre Dame Bay and then crossed the Atlantic to the Azores islands, part of Portugal.
 
This is a book of dreams and atmospheres. It describes a re-awakening after twenty years of looking after a young family and the exceptionally long hours required to build a strong career as an academic researcher. I thank all those who made it possible, the friends who sailed with me and the friends I have met along the way. But I especially thank Fiona Roe, who feels queasy on any boat even at the dock, who realizes the importance of sailing to me - probably the only activity that really gets me to switch off completely from everyday life - and who has supported all the voyages and has accepted the changes that have occurred along the way.
 
Neil Bose, Tasmania
 
 
Newfoundland to the Azores
 
We rode the bus south from Lewisporte, Newfoundland, to St. John’s, the capital, in July 2006. I had six hours to think. We would be moving to Tasmania in 2007 and I didn’t want to sell Murphy’s Boat . I knew I would never be able to replace it at anything like the cost I would be able to sell it for and I knew it could make the trip – if given time. The bus stopped at Gander Airport for half an hour and we got something to eat. By the time dusk fell and we arrived in Mount Pearl on the outskirts of St. John’s, I had made up my mind to sail.
 
Synopsis: Lewisporte - Dog Island (Dildo Run) – Seldom (Fogo) - Horta, Faial, Azores. 14 1/2 days Seldom to Horta. Winds forward of the beam for most of the way so we were driven 60 miles north of Azores. 1 day calm, 1 day following wind/reach. Hove to for 8 hours in 35 knots plus. Sailed for extensive periods with reefed jib only or reefed jib and triple reefed main. Vane gear steered the whole way. Boat handled well, but I need to reduce persistent small deck leaks in strange places. Crew did very well.  
So read my first report to those who had asked to be updated. But many asked for more and some said: what about those 8 hours hove to; there must be more to it than that?
 
The new boat
 
I first saw Murphy’s Boat , deep in a snow drift in February 2003. Yachts in Newfoundland don’t get launched until May at the earliest and even then there are often still snow drifts in the woods and ice on the ponds.
 
I had time to replace the engine mounts and get the gear together before launching on some brilliantly sunny days at the beginning of May. Rigging the boat was like opening presents. The gear was in good order and the boat had been rigged and fitted out for a long ocean trip. I went round checking everything, aligning the mast and seizing the rigging screws with wire. It was magic to be on the water again on a boat that was really capable of going to sea.
 
It is 10 miles from Manuels to Holyrood. I spent the night with my three children on board and we set off early the next morning. It was still very cold at night. We had to hand start the engine as we had learned the hard way that the cabin lights, though lovely and bright, were a heavy user of the limited energy stored in the batteries.
 
The wind, about 5 degrees Centigrade, was blowing out of the north. By the time we were entering Holyrood Bay we were romping along in 1 metre waves with a smattering of white caps, but these lessened as we got further in towards the head of the Bay. We tied up on the outside of one of the Tee piers in the marina. There was plenty of room as none of the Holyrood boats had been launched for the season yet. Soon after we arrived the rain came down heavily and it was even colder and wetter as we packed up the sails. The children had enjoyed it, had been exhilarated and anxious at times. They described the waves as enormous.
 
 
Conception Bay
 
Brigus, Carbonear and Bay Roberts
 
One of our first ports of call was Brigus. Not a usual Newfoundland outport, the town of Brigus is largely owned as upmarket holiday houses by professionals who live in St. John’s and come out for the weekend. The streets are neatly sign posted, much like a New England coastal town. There is a museum and a teashop. Brigus was once the home of artist Rockwell Kent, and his controversial story concerning his, most likely unfounded, suspicion as a German spy by the Newfoundland government, is explained in the museum. It is also the home of Captain Bob Bartlett who assisted Perry to the North Pole.
 
Brigus’s fish plant is now closed and the harbour is dead. The entrance which sits between rock clift and a wood pier, is very narrow and involves a sharp turn to port just inside the pier. Once inside it is difficult to turn around as the width is narrow and the inner harbor is full of boats. We lay alongside close to a little wooden bridge and enjoyed the tranquility and safety of the harbour. We had lunch at the teashop, replenished our milk at the store and read about the history of the town at the museum.
 
Fiona, Kiyomi and I returned at the time of the Brigus Blueberry Festival. This festival brings several tens of thousands of visitors to Brigus and a whole heap of yachts and motor boats. This time there was no room to enter the harbour and we rafted up three abreast on the outer harbour wall, hoping that the wind would not swing to the east in the night. During the festival the town could not be more different from its normal dreamy atmosphere. There was a competition for Missed Blueberry, actually cross dressed men. The evening featured a most impressive fire work display set off from the adjoining cliffs. We obtained a spectacular view from the bare rock outcrop on the seaward side of the harbour.
 
A day or two later we sailed on to Carbonear and tied up at the pier nearby several fishing boats. This is a luxury of sailing in Newfoundland. There are very few yachts, and now not so many fishing vessels, so yachts are welcome to use the public wharfs. These wharfs are distinguished by their distinctive yellow wooden foot rails. There is often no charge, or sometimes only a very small charge.
 
That evening I was sailing with my mother, Noelle, who also had not sailed for many years and at the time was in her late seventies, and my son, Lachlan. We stayed two nights and investigated the museum and the pubs. We went to a play put on in a theatre for the summer months; excellent for the visitor and much more than we had been expecting. The wind blew strong from the south west, making our berth alongside uncomfortable, but not dangerous.
 
After, we drifted south in light winds, avoiding a small iceberg aground off the Mad Rocks. The clouds of a summer squall gathered as we tacked into Bay Roberts giving us our first opportunity to test the slab reefing system in earnest, but not before we took in a bucket full of water or two over the cockpit coamings. The original reefing pennants led up over the reefing clew, inwards along the boom, up over the tack, down to the foot of the mast and back to the cockpit. Great to avoid going forward at all to take in a reef, but involving so much friction that the system did not work as quickly as it should have done and there was a possibility of chafing the sail through the moving rope. Later I modified the method so that the tack was first lowered to the hooks either side of the boom and the reefing pennant was only used to pull in the clew. I would become so used to reefing with this system that a reef could be dropped within 30 seconds or so. In one day sail out of Horta in the Azores we reefed twice within minutes as violent gusts came down at us out of the hills behind the town.
 
Murphy’s Boat had no trysail, or provision for one, but the mainsail was fitted with three deep slab reefs. We found that the Conte