Running Free
Joyce & Carl Berdie

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Us
Joyce
and Carl Berdie invite you to
take part in their adventure aboard their 1980 Freedom 40 Cat Ketch called
RUNNING FREE. They
sailed RUNNING FREE for 12
weeks in the summer of 2008 from Lake Superior to Rochester, NY,
in Lake Ontario . The summer of 2009 was spent sailing from
Rochester up the St.
Lawrence River to Quebec City. The summer of
2010 RUNNING FREE found its
way to the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island
& Nova Scotia) ending up in Dundee on the south shore of the Bras d' Or
Lakes. 2011 found Running Free sailing around the south coast of Newfoundland,
up the west coast to St. John’s
and a six day offshore adventure that ended back in Newfoundland
at the Royal Newfoundland
Yacht Club for repairs and for Joyce to join the crew. July and most of August were spent going west
and south, ending up the season in Wickford
RI. 2012 plans are for Running Free to enjoy New
England and then on south to Annapolis
for the boat show and the Keys and Bahamas
for the winter.
August 27, 2011 We should
have stayed in New
Bedford where they have a hurricane barrier. Instead we sailed to Cuttyhunk
Island in the Elizabeth
Island group south of Martha’s
Vineyard. Spent a wonderful
day there. It reminded us of Madeline
Island due to it’s being a summer
people place and not a tourist destination.
Not much to do there but relax.
Climbing the hill lead us to some fabulous views of Vineyard Sound and Buzzards
Bay. With Hurricane Irene
predicted to come to us, we decided to sail to Wickford,
RI, to try to have Running Free pulled from
the water and left for the winter. We
cut our travels short by a week, but thought we could see the places we missed
in Narragansett Bay next year when we return. We are
currently in a Marriott Inn waiting for the hurricane to pass. Runnning Free is still in the water but fully
battened down for the storm. We’ve spent
the last few days taking all the canvas off of her and getting her ready for
the winter. When we arrived at the
marina, we were told we would be the last on their list to haul out behind all
their long term costumers. At that time
the list was 60 boats long and yesterday it had grown to 100 boats and they had
already hauled out close to 60. At least
they have assured us that they would pull us out prior to them putting any
boats back in after the hurricane passes. There’s been no wind to speak of yet,
but the rain has begun to fall and we are enjoying the suite we are in with air
conditioning, cooking facilities, a swimming pool, etc. If the power doesn’t go out, we may be able
to enjoy this hurricane! Yesterday we
took a taxi to get our rental car at the airport which we will drive back to Minnesota. Should be back by next Saturday. It’s been a great summer on the water. Have met many good people and seen beautiful
places but we are looking forward to getting home.
August 22, 2011 We ran into Judy and Aubrey on Veleda IV
again in Boston and yesterday in New
Bedford when we came in. It’s always great to see a familiar face in a
new harbor and yesterday we saw two. We
heard our friend Roland Falkenstein, who we met in Bermuda
in 1998 and sailed with in Grenada
and St. Kitt’s in 1999, was getting his (new to him) boat ready for the water
in New Bedford. As it was just 20 miles from our mooring in Marion,
we beat with several tacks to find him just inside the hurricane barrier. He took us to a great Portuguese restaurant
where we ate for next to nothing with a $14 bottle of 2001 Portuguese
wine. We loved catching up with him as
well as seeing his new boat. We spent
another day in Boston so we could
tour Harvard and the Peabody and Natural
History Museum
and see the offices of “Dewey, Cheatam and Howe” from NPR’s great radio show
“Car Talk”. It is always fun to use
another cities public transit and we used a “Charlie” card to take us there on
the MTC subway. We had a easy sail from Boston
to Scituate Harbor
where we took a buoy and bought groceries at the supermarket within walking
distance to the dinghy dock. From there
we sailed to Provincetown and
arrived just in time to see their “Mardi Gras” parade. We thought Trinidad
had a lot of strange characters in their Carnival, but P-Town was a really
different sort of crowd: A combination Gay Pride Day, Mardi Gras, and Madeline
Island’s 4th of July
parade all rolled into one. We finally got to go beachcombing at P-Town and are
enjoying wearing shorts, t-shirts, and having the hatches wide open on Running
Free. We saw a pilot whale as we crossed
Cape Cod Bay and motored through the canal to come out the other side in a 15
to 20 knot wind right on the nose. The
ride to Marion, MA,
was uncomfortable but the stay at the Beverly Yacht Club was very nice. Joyce has been suffering from a summer cold
and stayed below for most of the beat to New Bedford. While I don’t enjoy beating that much, it was
good to go under sail and let the boat sail itself as we made the 20
miles. Today we toured the historic part
of New Bedford and saw the Whaling
Museum. New Bedford
bills itself as the town that “Lit the world” in the 19th century
due to providing all the whale oil. We
are smelling the fish plants again, just like in Canada,
as this is the largest fishing port on the Atlantic coast in the USA. Tomorrow it looks like we’re off to Cuttyhunk
harbor and then to Narragansett Bay in Rhode
Island. We’ll
be looking for a place there to keep the boat for the winter and will head home
from there.
August 15, 2011 We’ve got our photos showing again as the
cheap “PDF Maker” has been deleted and I’m now using the official trial version
of Adobe to make the files. We’re
waiting out a rainy day in Boston after spending a week sailing down the Maine
coast. After leaving North
East Harbor,
we sailed a long day up Penobscot Bay
to Isleboro Island. The first part of the sail was very foggy,
but then as we went by the home of Wooden Boat Magazine, we saw the regatta
they sponsor come down the bay with around 100 wooden boats sailing right by
us. It was very dramatic and challenging
to stay out of their way while still getting some great photos of many of the
yachts. Isleboro was the site of a Seven
Seas Cruising Association “Gam” and we arrived after it was all over. We were able to see many of the boats and met
Judy & Aubrey on Veleda IV in the anchorage. They had sailed from BC west
and were considering closing the loop of their circumnavigation. They had been to all the places I had wanted
to go in Europe and it was good to hear first hand about
them. From there we sailed to Camden,
ME, and spent a day rolling on a mooring as
it poured rain. Took the water taxi to shore to get off the boat. Boothbay came next followed by a couple of
days in Portland. We had a motor sail to the Isle of Shoals
that is part Maine and part New
Hampshire and spent a peaceful night on a free
mooring next to the big religious retreat located there. The next day brought us into Gloucester
which is one of the few working fishing ports in New England
& home to Gordon’s Seafood. We spent
the afternoon sightseeing and found a great Italian delicatessen to enhance our
larder. Saturday brought us to
Constitution Marina in Boston where
we’ve paid for 4 nights. We spent the
afternoon exploring the USS Constitution, (Old Ironsides) and the Charleston
Naval yard with its history and WW II destroyer Cassine. We walked the Freedom Trail yesterday from Bunker
Hill monument (close to the marina) all the way to Boston
Commons. It was a day filled with
colonial history after seeing North Church,
Paul Revere’s home, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market and the North End’s Italian
festival honoring one of their saints.
August 4, 2011 We’ve just
been able to replace the programs we lost when the laptop failed us that enable
us to update this website. We left Brooklyn
and sailed to Shelburne NS.
where we spent a couple of nights waiting for good weather. We met a number of other sailors and had a
good time in the yacht club bar trading sailing stories, drinking beer and
enjoying great burgers cooked by the volunteers that run the club. From there we sailed around Cape
Sable up to the Tusker Islands. We anchored with the help of Adrian who owned
a house nearby and invited us over to his party the next day. As we were going to leave at four in the
afternoon, I declined the invitation and Joyce went to the party that turned
out to be a wedding reception for one of Adrian’s
relatives. The whole family was Acadian,
so Joyce was able to enjoy the mix of French and English that was spoken, while
trying to keep all the family ties straight.
The
sail to Maine started off wing
and wing in light winds, and actually allowed us to sail virtually the whole
way without the motor. As the winds
increased, Joyce got me up to reef the mizzen and I noticed some sheet
lightening in the distance. At the
change of watch, the lightning was getting more frequent with the winds at 18
to 22 knots. Within a couple of hours
the wind came around to a beat, and then a beam reach. The storm came on fast with the wind going to
a broad reach and gusting over 30 knots with lightning and thunder all
around. I just held on and Running Free
sailed herself beautifully throughout the entire storm period. After the storm the wind went back to ten to
fifteen knots and we had a good sail in the fog up to Mount Desert
Island Maine. Getting into Bar Harbor
was a little frustrating as the Mainiacs tend to “farm’ their lobsters by
putting pots all over and feeding them until they are large enough to
keep. We were dodging lobster pot buoys
in the fog, which can be really challenging, trying to keep your course,
We
cleared customs in Bar Harbor and stayed one night on a
rolly mooring. The tourists and bustle
of the city were a little much for us, so the next day we brought the boat
around to Northeast Harbor,
where we are right now. Tom and Rose
have sent us our mail, which should arrive tomorrow. Today we hiked up the South
Bubble Mountain
in Acadia National
Park and had lunch at Jordan Pond with their
famous popovers. Tonight they have live
music in the park that we plan to see.
July 28, 2011. We’re in Brooklyn,
NS.
It’s a small town on the Mersey
River across from Liverpool. We’ve had an enjoyable run from Halifax,
anchoring the first night in Indian Harbour
where we saw a derelict “WetSnail” 32 named Lady Jayne, from St.
Paul, MN, at anchor. We are very curious as to who and why it is
there. Our next night found us in
Lunenburg where we made true 2 sayings about cruising: 1.) Cruising is just working on your boat in
a lot of exotic places, and 2.) The difference between being a tourist and a
sailor is that tourists can only look at the scene, while sailors are a part of
it. I changed oil and found that our
alternator had a big crack in the mounting which explained why we were going
through belts too frequently. Our laptop
also died leaving us with no way to update the website and organize photos. The helpfulness of the Nova Scotians came
through, however, and we were able to get the alternator rebuilt in a day and a
half, and the computer hard drive replaced in two days. Thanks to Danny’s
Computer Patch & Lunenburg Automotive Parts. We did lose most of our info
on the hard drive and only were able to save about 400 photos.
We
had dinner with John Steele, who we met in the Caribbean
in 1999 and got a tour of his beautiful Bristol Channel Pilot Schooner, Papa 1,
and the new Blue Nose II, both of which he built and is building through his
Covey Island Boatworks (http://www.coveyisland.com/built.php). Last night we anchored in the Folly Island
Channel, next to Covey Island
(where Steele first started his boatbuilding business) and met up with Rod and
Gail Fraser who were going the other direction.
Gail and Rod had been advising us through e-mails on places to see and
go to and it was great to have a gourmet dinner with them on their classy 41’
sailboat Nor’easter. We met them last
year in the Bras d’Or
Lakes in Cape
Breton. Tonight we’ve signed up for dinner at the
marina where Wayne, the manager, cooks a meal every night. I think we will be off to Shelburne tomorrow.
July 22, 2011 .
We’ve been enjoying the cosmopolitan city of Halifax
for the last three days. The
boat is cleaned of all the salt and full of fuel, food and charts. We saw the Harry Potter movie yesterday and
Joyce is taking care of laundry right now.
Life is good again. Tomorrow
we’re off to Indian Harbour
and then Chester and
Lunenburg. These should be runs that can
be made in a morning each, just the right kind of cruising.
We
left Louisbourg , Cape Breton,
early in the morning on the 13th and made Canso, on the NE tip of Nova
Scotia, by dinner time. It feels good to be south of Cape
Breton. We had to wait three days in
Canso for weather that allowed us to run to Liscomb Harbour. Liscomb Lodge there is a wonderful resort up
the river from the Atlantic where we had a good dinner
ashore and enjoyed a completely calm night of rest at their dock. From Liscomb, we motored to an anchorage
north of Sober Island
near Sheet Harbour
. We got stuck there for two days with
high winds out of the southwest and finally were able to make Halifax
, motorsailing in light winds the whole way.
Currently
we’re at the Armdale Yacht Club up the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour. It is a large club built on the site of a
prison that was used to hold the French during the Napoleonic wars and the
Americans during the War of 1812. Rob
Beck, one of the members, has taken us under his wing and helped us find what
we need in the city. The weather has finally turned nice, and I have actually
worn shorts for the first few days of the entire time I’ve been aboard this
year.
July 12, 2011.
We are currently waiting for weather to change again. We're sitting in Louisbourg
Harbour in Nova
Scotia . The
wind is SW 15 gusting 30 (the direction we want to go). We arrived after a long 28 hour passage from
St. Pierre . As we got closer, the fog closed in on us so
that by the time we got to the harbor entrance, visibility was down to about
100 yards. The autopilot got us past
the rocks, using the Fugawi navigation software. When we were able to see the government
wharf, I took it off autopilot and tried to steer with the wheel, only to not
have the rudder turn. Realizing that
the steering was gone, I got the anchor down just as Joyce waved the Coast
Guard boat over & they came alongside. They towed us to the “recreational
wharf” where we’ve been these last three days.
Sunday
saw us visiting the Fortress of Louisbourg which was the French North American
stronghold from 1713 to 1748. It was
well defended from the sea, so the British took it in 1745 and 1748 by
attacking it from the land (same tactics they won Quebec
with). When the coal mines
in Cape Breton
closed down in the 60’s, the Canadians decided to employ the miners by having
them rebuild the fortress. They have
rebuilt about a quarter of the total area and it is quite a place. It’s manned by bilingual actors dressed in
costumes of 1747. We enjoyed our visit tremendously, partly because it was the
second sunny day ashore that Joyce had seen since arriving in NFLD
on June 24th and only my fifth.
Monday
had me chasing down the hydraulic leak in the steering (I couldn’t find it). I
filled it with fluid, bled the system, and everything seems to be working fine
now. I also re-bedded the spray hood in
hopes that it would fix the leak we have been experiencing in the aft
cabin. We enjoyed a Celtic Ceiligh
(kaylee) show last night at the Playhouse.
Fine fiddling, good entertainment & free tea & oat cakes during
intermission. Tuesday morning we warped
the boat (in the rain) from the
windward side of the dock to the leeward side after the lobster boats had left
so that we weren’t being blown into the dock with the waves slapping us silly
with their noise. We’ve had a lazy day
after that. My big accomplishment was
having Donna from the RV park drive me five miles out of town to the only
working ATM at a Irving Gas Station.
You know you’re in the middle of nowhere in Canada
when there are no ATM’s and no Tim Horton’s.
July 6, 2011
While Running Free didn't make it to Europe, we made it
to France--St.
Pierre, that is. It's just south of Newfoundland.
We're enjoying the French ambiance: fresh baguettes,
croissants, and other baked goods, cheap French wine, internet access at the
dock with good fresh water. I’ve just been running back and forth across
the street to the gas station filling up our jerry cans with diesel so we can
go on to Nova Scotia. Unlike Canada,
they don’t print a lot of English here but a lot of the population speaks it
somewhat, so it is easy to find our way around. It's probably a good
thing we didn't end up in Europe as the Euro is at $1.45
and everything is very expensive.
We
had two uncomfortable passages to get here as the wind seems to keep out of the
southwest, which is the direction we have to go. We motored into 10 to 15
knot winds, right on the nose, and one meter seas. Our trusty Perkins
engine just keeps on going (knock on wood).
We
had our dinner at the hotel in Trepassey which was a disappointment,
considering the last time I ate there was with Larry & Judy when it was so
good. Left that night in the fog and came into St. Lawrence about noon in the fog. Right after a short nap,
we heard the honking of a horn right outside and found Bill Molloy ready to
lend us his truck for the afternoon. Bill had taken Larry lobstering the
last time Running Free was in St. Lawrence and it was great to see a friendly
face again. We drove up the dirt roads surrounding the town and got a
good look at ‘backwoods’ Newfoundland
. Bill took us home and let Joyce use their internet connection and we
met Donna, Bill’s wife, and friend, Phyllis, and their three pet beagles.
Bill claims that he didn’t learn to walk until he was seven because he was so
cute the women wouldn’t put him down. One of the highpoints of cruising
is that you throw yourself on the mercy of strangers and find out how wonderful
people can be.
It
looks like we will leave St. Pierre
either Friday or Saturday for Louisbourg, Cape
Breton, a 170 mile passage, as we
may get favorable winds then. We are currently on the windward side of
the dock, getting pushed into the dock, but with 2 inch seas, it’s not a bad
place to be.
July 2, 2011 A lot has happened since the last update. Running
Free is now sitting on the dock in Trepassey once again. We had the mainsail
repaired by Milton of United Sail Makers in St. John’s,
a third generation sail maker. He also repaired our dodger window. Joyce joined
the boat while we were at the Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club in Conception
Bay. After getting two new pairs of
glasses and re-provisioning, we had a good sail to St.
John’s for one night where we meet Sebastian on a
Dutch boat and another French boat, the first going to Iceland
the second to Greenland prior to Iceland.
Quite an adventurous lot! I somehow had no desire at all to do either.
After leaving St. John’s we
sailed to Fermeuse. On the way I saw what appeared to be someone making smoke
signals to us on land about twenty feet above sea level next to a waterfall. A
puff went up twenty or more feet in the air every 10 seconds. On checking the
chart, we saw it was called the “Spouter” the most dramatic blowhole I have
ever seen. We’ve seen several minke whales, had a pod of dolphins around us and
have seen multitudes of puffins and a few seals. We spent a chilly night at
Formeuse and then had a nice day sail to Trepassey, where Wayne,
the Harbormaster, greeted us at the dock once again. We were in luck, as a crab
boat came in that night and we were again treated to several free pounds of
crab.
It’s a pleasure having Joyce back on board as everything is now back in
place, and she knows just what to do while maneuvering and making sail. Not to
mention the good cooking I missed while being a bachelor at the RNYC.
The sun is out with the wind blowing in the higher teens from the northwest.
We were thinking of leaving tonight on an overnight to St Lawrence, but the
weather has to calm down considerably before we will do that. It is predicted
to be out of the west until Monday, when it will be “light”, so we may be stuck
here until then. Watch the SPOT under “Find
Us” to see the results.
June 17, 2011 . This is a hard entry to write, as I am
undergoing many emotions and I have never been a very emotional sort of
person: First is the ending of the dream to cruise Europe on Running
Free, then in no particular order are; turning Running Free from a beloved
second home to a crowded space occupied by people who don’t know each other
very well and having to re-organize everything to fit in, to turning Running
Free into a wet heaving mess, followed by a crippling loss of the mainsail, a
loss of the ability to set the staysail, some conflicts between captain Carl
and captain Chris and not being able to see clearly as my glasses were
overboard.
The
story starts on Thursday June 9 when I checked the weather predictions and saw
that for the next week there was only one small spot, any where near where we
would be going, that had winds of over 30 knots, and another small one that
showed winds forward of the beam. Both spots were predicted to last for
less than 4 hours. We topped up the water tanks with the sweet water from
the brewery, finished changing the boat from a coastal cruiser to an offshore
one, got a good dinner, a good night’s sleep, and left on the high tide Friday
early afternoon, (ignoring that leave on a Friday superstition). We had light
southerly winds and sailed slowly Friday night into Saturday. The winds
clocked to the west and we were able to sail wing and wing through most of
Saturday night. Sunday morning the winds continued to clock to the north
and as they picked up into the east by Sunday noon
. According to our GPS we had a 152
mile run our first 24 hours and over 130 miles our second. Not bad for a
cruising boat.
We
had started out with a full main and a reefed mizzen, and Sunday afternoon as
the winds exceeded 25 knots we put a reef in the main and were on a beat to
weather. We were no longer sailing our great circle route and were making
the best course we could. As the wind changed we tacked a couple of
times, and then as the wind increased to consistently over 30 we lowered the
mizzen. When the wind lowered to below 20, the reef came out of the main,
and the wind went back up to the 30’s quite soon thereafter.
Water
temperature this whole time never got above 5 C or 40 F and it was raining,
misting, pouring rain, or fog the entire time. Seas were from 2 to 4 meters.
The mizzen mast had a leak causing water to run down it into the cabin and
across the cabin sole. The boat was tightly sealed down below and
condensation caused almost everything to become from moist to soaking.
The furnace was giving off fumes that stunk and stung the eyes. I was the
only one of the crew able to go off watch and get into something resembling dry,
(my feet were never dry). The rest of the crew lived in their wet
gear. Alan got sea sick during the beat and was pretty well incapacitated
for some time. With Catherine on watch, I went below and had Chris dash
by me with his hands over his mouth, into the head, for his first time being
seasick. Both seasick sailors had scopolamine patches.
I
went back on deck and decided to make our ride a little more comfortable by
heading further downwind and off course to the south. As Running Free was
turning a large wave slapped us around much faster than I wanted, and the main
gibed across the boat with the boom raising high, both luffs shredded up to the
boom lash hole. The port side sail went forward of the mast when the
outhaul let go. At that time it appeared that the entire sail was a
goner. (Unless you know the Freedom 40 rig, this may not make any
sense.) We got the motor going, and with Catherine at the helm, I was
able to get the remains of the sail on board and secured. We then got the
storm staysail set and headed south, somewhat more comfortably for the next
day, Monday.
My
exertions wiped me out and as I recovered down below, Chris and Catherine kept
everything under control. It was during this time, under our tiny storm
staysail that we covered approximately 180 miles in 24 hours; with a top boat
speed of just over 10 knots and the top wind gust of just over 50 knots.
Seas were from 3 to 6 meters with breakers. While down below, I made the
decision to return to North America and forget about the
idea of cruising Europe on Running Free.
In
order to make the course change to get us home, it was necessary to gybe the
staysail. My memory of this is a little foggy, (in fact the whole voyage
could be remembered differently by my crew). I got the lazy sheet rigged
prior to rigging the starboard running backstay, and before I knew it, the
sheet bashed my head knocking my glasses lens overboard. The flaying sheet
knocked the starboard backstay free while fouling the flag halyard on it.
It also knocked out a window in the dodger. With the motor going and the
staysail down, we got the portside backstay over to the starboard and raised
the staysail, only to have its halyard get entangled with the backstay that was
already flying free. This left the staysail stuck half up, but at least
on the right side of the boat. This allowed us to set course back to Newfoundland
, and we got the motor going as the wind died down Monday night.
The
trip back consisted of figuring out if we had enough fuel to get home, as well
as two trips partway up the mizzen mast. We were able, after the second,
to get the mess cleared up. This relieved me because winds were expected
to increase Wednesday morning and knowing we could sail under staysail added a
measure of security. On Tuesday, Catherine mentioned that she thought the
main was ok above the reef points, and couldn’t we sail under reefed
main? After some investigation, it turned out she was right. We got
the main up and motor sailed all the way into Conception
Bay Wednesday morning in winds of 10 to
20. While lowering the main to go into port, the sail slapped my head,
knocking my dark glasses into the drink.
Running
Free now has a slip at the Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club. My crew left
Wednesday night as 38 knot winds howled outside. I am awaiting Joyce, who
arrives on the 23rd. The mainsail is at the sail makers, who said it
didn’t look very bad and would be repaired within a week. Conception Bay has
the best weather in Newfoundland, the excess food has been sent to the local
food bank, down below is slowly drying out, the laundry is done, I should have
new glasses this afternoon, and life is, once again, good.
Statistics;
668.5
Miles traveled through the water
Average
Speed 5.6 knots through the water
Top
Boat Speed 10.01 knots
Top
Wind gust 50.1 knots
Fresh
water used 35 gallons
Highest
water temperature: 40F, 5C
Lowest
water temperature: 33F, 1C
June 6, 2011
We are in Quidi Vidi waiting for weather for the crossing. We reached St.
John's after a long run from Trepassey, arriving at 10:30 in the evening. Communicating with
St. John's traffic control was an
experience arriving in the dark on the 1st. We went to the head of the
harbor, where the guide said that electricity was available, (unlike the floating
docks), only to find out in the morning that the electricity wasn't on for
another 4 months. David the Harbormaster told us we could connect at the
floating docks so we moved there in the morning. When we got to the
floating docks we met Jay and Mary Lou on "Screech" from Maine.
They had left their boat in Newfoundland
over the winter and had driven up to take it south. It worked out that
Larry and Judy were able to drive Screech's car to Maine
and solved the problem of how to get Larry and Judy back to their car in Dundee.
Larry and Judy drove me to the airport to pick up a rental car, Catherine and
Chris and later Alan, my new crew. After spending the next morning
shopping, we got back to the boat and met Dave Fong on a beautiful Baba
40. Dave invited Running Free and Screech to his brewery in Quidi Vidi
for beers at 4, which we, of course agreed to. Dave then invited us to
use his slip next to the brewery as his boat was being hauled for work.
Quidi Vidi is a tight little harbor, with great fresh water and a calm, wind
free space. Leaving St. John's was trying, as as soon as we had slipped
our lines, in accordance with the harbor control, the "Athabasca" one
of Canada's destroyers, decided to leave on maneuvers and another ship was
hovering in the harbor waiting for the slip to free up. We, of course,
couldn't argue with a destroyer, and ended up putting a new scratch in the gel
coat as we maneuvered out of it's way. In this process, both ships and traffic
control were communicating with us and at one point I got confused and asked
who had just communicated. The answer was "the ugly ship behind
you". With visibility of less than a mile we followed the Athabasca
out of the harbor as they ended up having to stop and reverse to keep from hitting
shore. I believe they were training new crew as their maneuver seemed
most unprofessional. The entrance to Quidi Vidi left rocks on both sides
of Running Free about five or ten feet away, making it a big relief to actually
get in. We now have full fuel and water tanks, a full larder and only
need winds out of the west to proceed. Also in the harbor is Sean
Moriarity, who plans on rowing to Ireland. It will be interesting to see
if we see him again.
May 30, 2011 Currently Running Free is tied to the
wharf in Trepassey while we have 30 knots of winds howling outside with fog and
rain. We made it in two jumps: Fortune to St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence
to Trepassey. We've been greatly enjoying the hospitality of the
Newfoundlanders: while in St. Lawrence we met Bill who took Larry out
Lobstering early in the am. When they arrived back with 7 lobsters,
Bill gave us three for supper. Last night the Trepassey crab fleet came
into the wharf to unload and we enjoyed a fresh crab dinner gratis from the fish
harvesters. I thought this was rather amazing as we were much more in
their way than anything else. The friendliness of this rock continues to
amaze. Enjoying a lay day yesterday after the 17 hour sail from St. Lawrence we
took a 7 mile hike up to the lighthouse and back and couldn't see much due to
the fog. It felt real good to stretch our legs however. We're
hoping to have two days of good weather sometime in the next week so we can
take our comfort getting to St. John's. With luck our next stop will be
at Fermeuse just around Cape Race. With out luck we may be forced to
overnight to St. John's in one sail of about 85 miles. I'm hoping to get to the
library this afternoon to post this update and don't think I will be able
to update again until St. Johns.
May 25, 2011
I'm on my way with Larry Carpenter and Judy Taylor as crew. I have
been lazy in updating this site as Larry has done such a good job on his site: www.allegro.mncarpenters.net
. Please jump to it to see the story and a lot of great photos by jumping
to Larry's links. Running Free is currently in Fortune Harbour
Newfoundland tied to the wall waiting for the wind to go down and the rain to
stop. We hope to jump to either St. Lawrence or Trepassey tomorrow
morning: St. Lawrence is about 45 miles Trepassey is about 130 miles. We
will make the decision when we get to St. Lawrence. We've had two
overnight passages so far; from Baddeck to LaPoile included a great wing and
wing run down the Great Bras d' Or and an 11 knot over the ground romp through
the passage from Great Bras d' Or to the Cabot Straight, (the buoys were at a
45 degree angle). On arriving in LaPoile we noticed our main mast had rotated
90 degrees due to the bolt coming out of the mast at the base. We had also
ripped the sail when the clew knot came out. The fix was much easier than
first imagined and we proceeded to Doctor Harbour just past Burgeo after two
days. Doctor's was a perfectly protected, deserted anchorage mindful of
the North Channel or Northern Lake Superior, loon calls included. The
next stop was Francois (franzway) Harbour, like LaPoile an "outport"
with no roads or cars. We hiked to the top of the mountain overlooking the
harbor and saw the waterfalls that feed the waterfalls that ran right through
"downtown". This is one of the most spectacular towns I have
ever been in. We were able to purchase live lobster there for $5. a pound
and had a great feast, prior to being told the dock we were on was condemned
and likely to be very uncomfortable that night. We moved Running Free to
tie to the ferry boat before deciding that our best course of action was to
leave that evening to get to Fortune.
May 7, 2011 We’re
preparing for Carl and Joyce’s longest separation since they got married as
Carl leaves for Cape Breton , Nova
Scotia , on Monday. An earlier trip to our
boat, Running Free, brought new batteries, solar cells and other supplies to
the boat. Carl also rewired the mizzen mast and patched the bottom paint
while he was there. Judy Taylor and Larry Carpenter are driving up on the
12th to help Carl move the boat up to St. John’s
, Newfoundland . On June 4th,
Catherine McArthur , Chris Belanger and Alan Olson fly in for the
crossing to Ireland
. Judy, Larry and Alan are fellow Minnesotans we have known for years,
while we met Catherine two years ago in the Thousand Islands
area on our way out of the St. Lawrence Seaway .
Chris is a friend of Catherine’s and they are both Canadians. The
Atlantic crossing should take 12-14 days and Running Free will sail about 1,700
miles. Joyce will be working at her school until June 8. She
& Al’s wife, Beth Olson, will fly to Ireland
to join Running Free the 3rd or 4th week in June.
August 24, 2010.
We've been home for a couple of days and find it hard to believe we did
everything we did in just 2 months. We
sailed Running Free about 1,000 miles through the water from Quebec City down
the St. Lawrence River past the Gaspe Peninsula to New Brunswick, to Prince Edward
Island and finally to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
We
are keeping our boat for the winter in the Bras d'Or Lakes in Cape Breton. The crew at Dundee Marina had our masts and
the boat out of the water before lunch last Tuesday, the 17th. We drove our rental car back to the Canso
Causeway that evening and realized that it took us less than 3 hours to drive
what took us over 3 days to sail. The
next day we drove to Chester, Nova Scotia, to see this quaint little sailing
town, after meeting a couple from there, who sold us on it. After visiting with their daughter, who owns
a B & B there, we drove on to Lunenburg to tour that historic town. On Thursday we visited John Steele who we met
in the Caribbean in 1998. John owns
Covey Island Boatworks and he let us visit the shop where they are completing
the schooner "Farfarer" and also where they are starting on
laminating the frames for the "rebuild" of the famous 143' Bluenose
II. The Farfarer is an incredible yacht,
over 50 feet, and trimmed in exotic woods.
It even has a slate galley counter with a large fossilized fish in it's
surface. The Bluenose is an icon in
Canada, and even appears on their dime.
It was a great honor for Covey Island to be one of three companies to be
chosen to "rebuild" her. We
will be looking forward to hearing about the saga of its' "rebuild".
We
found our house to be in good shape after 8 weeks and were thankful for our
good housesitter, Heather. On Lake
Calhoun, our Escow, the EpoxE, was very low in the water because of all the
rain. It took Carl several hours to bail
it out before sailing it. It is for
sale, if anyone is looking for a fantastic 28' 1955 sailboat in good shape.
August 16, 2010. We're back in
Dundee in the Bras d' Or Lakes of Cape Breton Island. We left here on August 5
and headed a few miles northwest for Clark Cove by Marble Mountain. The dinghy
engine worked like a charm as we explored the beach at the base of Marble Mt.
We collected bits of white marble to take home. From there we got passage
through the Barra Strait
bridge and sailed for Baddeck. It was Race Week there so we dodged the
racing sailboats coming into the harbor only to find that all the spots were
taken at every dock & mooring in town. We anchored in The Harbor, a
beautiful anchorage, a mile north. This is where Alexander Graham Bell
used to test his experimental aviation & boat models in the early
1900's. A couple days later, we were able to pick up a mooring buoy at
the Baddeck Yacht Club.
We really enjoyed going to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in town and
learning about this interesting & talented man, his wife & family. We
got a chance to tie up the last couple of days at Baddeck Marine &
rented a car to drive it along the famous Cabot Trail before going to Sydney
to pick up boating friends from last year, Jan Dennis & Brian Beckwith, at
the airport. We enjoyed our visit with them that evening before heading
back to Baddeck.
After Baddeck, we sailed to Maskell's Harbor where we took a mooring
buoy. This is a lovely, well protected harbor. It was a highlight
after that to motor through a long, narrow channel into Orangedale where we
tied up to the old town wharf. We enjoyed touring the Orangedale Train
Station museum and the retired Stationmaster, Martin Boston, gave us a great
tour. We enjoyed t-bone steaks purchased in the general store in town
which sold everything from soup to nuts, including appliances &
furniture.
So now we are in Dundee about ready to go pick up our rental car.
We'll drive this down to Lunenburg and then to Halifax by Saturday. Our sails
are off, the masts come out and Running Free gets hauled tomorrow. We've got
airline tickets home for Saturday from Halifax, and are sad to see the end of
this summer's cruise. The Bras d' Or Lakes are a sailor's dream:
hearty winds with small waves, hardly any insects, and lots of beautiful
anchorages.
August 4,
2010 We are very happy to be here in Dundee,
Cape Breton Island, at the marina. Had a
great trip through the Lennox Passage and through the lock into the Bras d'Or
Lakes at St. Peter's. Got invited to a chowder dinner at the marina on
Sunday night. Best chowder I've had since Bouctouche at
Sanquin's. Have met some fun folks from Shediac,
New Brunswick, who are next to us now at
the marina. We're waiting for a "stator" alternator part for
our outboard motor. The outboard didn't work in Little Harbor (about 12
miles away) much to our disappointment as we wanted to go explore in the dinghy.
It's been raining all day so we're happy that this little marina has a good
cafe (called The Stuffing Box) and that we're at the dock. Just baked
brownies and made lentil soup. Nice thing to do on a rainy day.
This lake is just beautiful. It's so nice to sail in
waters that are calm with pretty islands all around. Reminds us of
northern Minnesota. We'll
head up to Baddeck as soon as the outboard gets it's part tomorrow a.m.
We're pretty sure we'll keep the boat for the winter here at Dundee. The
masts have to come down. Their insurance requires this as three boats
have fallen over on their jack stands in the past due to the high winds that go
through here in the winter. The other marinas are following suit
too. So we have about 1 1/2 weeks before we have to get serious and put
the boat to bed and leave for Halifax to fly home. What a summer
it's been. We've seen some wonderful places & met so many wonderful
people that we now consider good friends who we will stay in touch with.
July 29, 2010
We're in Pictou, Nova Scotia.
It's raining outside with the wind is gusting to 35 knots. It's very nice
to be in a snug marina. This is where the first Scottish emigrants
reached Canada
in 1773. A replica of the historic tall ship "Hector" is moored
right by us. We've revised our plans and decided against going to the
Iles de la Madeleine because of the time we have remaining and the potential
for a couple of grueling passages. We finally had a passage getting here
from Charlottetown, PEI, where we only used
the engine for getting out of and into the harbors. We averaged over 6 knots
and were happy to go "wing and wing" the whole way. As we came
into Pictou harbor, a small screw came out of our steering pedestal that
resulted in locking the transmission in reverse. When we started the
engine to come into harbor to take the sails down, we were going over 7 knots
and it was a little traumatic. Imagine putting your car into reverse at
30 miles per hour. Carl managed to diagnose and fix the problem, while
Joyce sailed through the narrow entrance into Pictou. This lifestyle does
contain its quota of stress. We toured the Grohmann Knife Factory, the
lobster hatchery and the fishery museum here yesterday. Hopefully
tomorrow the weather will get better so that we can sail the 33 miles east to
Ballantyne's Cove.
July 25,.2010 We are currently in Charlottetown
on Prince Edward Island, the
birthplace of Canada
in 1864. It is the provincial capitol of PEI
with a population of 39,000. It’s been quite a journey since our last
entry. We left Chandler, Quebec, at 7pm
on the 16th after a fine dinner. We got about 2 hours of good weather before
the wind came on our face (right where we wanted to go) and the waves got big. Carl got seasick twice on his watch while
Joyce braved it out down below. 22 hours later, after sailing over 130 miles to
go 80, we entered into Miramichi Bay
and anchored behind an island. We had a beer, Carl took a shower,
and right as Joyce was showering, a line squall hit dragging our anchor from 20
feet of water to over 40 before Carl was able to get it reset. We spent a day recuperating and just after
leaving the anchorage our alternator belt decided to break. We quickly dropped
anchor & Carl put on a new one. We
made our way to Bouctouche and joined up there with Gary and Sheila Steeves,
who we met while up the Saguenay Fjord.
They took us on errands and had us over to their cottage for
dinner. Joyce got to do laundry there. We spent a couple of days there prior to a
passage to Summerside, PEI, and then another
day's passage dead into the wind to Charlottetown where we
arrived late aft. to see how PEI
boaters enjoy their Saturday nights.
After a switch of marinas this morning, we are peacefully enjoying
catching up while it rains outside.
July 16,2010
We're awaiting good weather to make the almost 100 mile passage to New
Brunswick. We are contemplating
leaving this pm for a night passage and are hoping for the south wind to
leave.
July 9, 2010 Carl & I are enjoying being on our boat
again and traveling the St. Lawrence River. We are
in a quaint town called Matane at their marina. It's on the south shore
and is a little warmer this side with less currents & tides. We've
seen a number of belugas (in the Saguenay Fjord especially) and today on our
sail, we saw some dolphins. Looking forward to seeing some bigger
whales. Tomorrow we'll head about 45 miles East to Ste. Anne de
Mont. We hear that there is a good seafood restaurant there by the
marina. The food has been wonderful. There is no recession in
Quebec. Very friendly people and they put up with my not so good
French.
July 6,2010 We are back in Tadoussac.
It was socked in with fog the whole time we were up the Saguenay Fjord.
We got out just in time. We had thick fog in Anse Ste. Jean this a.m. and
when it lifted around 10, we left for this village again. Sure enough the
fog was still here. Good thing we'd been here before but it was still
hairy getting into the harbor.
We enjoyed being 30 miles up the Saguenay Fjord where the mama
belugas have their babies in Baie Ste. Marguarite. Saw them in there as
we motored past. Off limits to everyone by 400 meters.
Endangered We climbed what seemed thousands of stairs to see a statue of
the Virgin Mary in Bay Eternite.
This quaint town is quite a tourist place as everyone wants to see
whales. They pay to go out in assorted vessels (which have permits to get
closer). Carl saw them on his walk after we docked at the marina in an
adjoining bay. Tomorrow we have a 10 hour run across tides and currents
to the south shore city of Ramouski. Hope to get the Mercury outboard
engine working again and get parts for it. Not fun rowing a inflatable
dinghy.
No recession in Quebec. Everyone seems to be doing
well. We've been eating some of the best food and pastries. In Anse Ste. Jean
yesterday we got salmon pies that were so exquisite that I went and bought
another one just before we left the marina after the fog lifted a bit this
a.m.
July 2,2010
We're adventuring again! Currently we are in Tadoussac waiting for two
hours after low tide to go up the Saguenay River to Cap Eternite.
The tidal currents will only rule our life for a couple more days. The
run from Quebec to Cap a L'Aigle
was 72 miles that we averaged 8 knots for while seeing up to 13 knots on the GPS
due to the current. Yesterday from Cap a L'Aigle to here we had the wind
directly behind us gusting to 25 knots, quite a run! We saw our first
whales (belugas) and seals but the rules of the sanctuary are such that
"if you can see them, you are probably too close. They want us to
keep at least 400 meters from any whale! Joyce speaks basic French to get
by and many Quebecois speak what English they know. We have had some
interesting and fun conversations & have met some lovely people along the
way. The food has been very good & fun to try. Poutine (french
fries covered with brown gravy with white cheese curds), fresh mussels steamed
in white wine & herbs, duck confit panini & canneloni & smoked meat
(pastrami?) are some of the foods we've tried. Along with that, plenty of
fresh baguettes & croissants!
June 27, 2010 We've had a busy time since arriving
Tuesday. Yacht Club de Quebec has been one great place to stay and we have been
honored by them flying Old Glory while we've been here. We are reminded
of the reasons we cruise when we meet incredible people along the way.
Thanks to Denis who lifted Carl up the mast to retrieve a lost halyard, to
Lilly who led us in our rental car to Costco for supplies thru over an hour in
traffic, and to Peter who drove us back from returning the rental car. We
have also enjoyed the company of Bruno, Claire, and our friends from last year,
Joe and Joan, who we had a great dinner and nighttime tour of Quebec last
night. Running Free is back in seagoing condition after replacing
one bilge pump, rebuilding the other one, fixing an air leak in our fresh water
system, replacing the head sink drain hose (that could have sunk
us). Today sees us off to the marina in old town Quebec prior to
travel down the river.
Spring 2010 Finds Carl suddenly retired in
October, looking forward to getting back to Quebec and Running Free on June
22nd. We have paper charts to the Bras D' Or Lakes in Cape Breton Island,
NS. New equipment this year is limited to a AIS (automatic identification
system) that should help us identify the larger vessels around us. We
will update our site as time and internet connections allow.
August 6, 2009
We're back in Minneapolis as of July 25th. We didn't take the Amtrak back due to
Canada
's train strike so we flew back
instead. Carl's back at work & Joyce is enjoying a few
more days until the STATE FAIR and then school starts. Tom & Rose & Jim
& Ellie, the two sailing couples who lived in our home last month, left
everything ship shape for our return. Jim & Ellie are now back on
their boat Meta Fog in Nova Scotia & Tom & Rose are now house sitting
for Larry Carpenter & Judy Taylor who are sailing their boat in
Lake Superior
this month. Links to their sailing websites are
listed above.
Running Free has been left in the hands of
Francois Lemelin and the Yacht Club de Quebec. While in Quebec City we benefited tremendously from the friendship of
Joe Mainguy and his wife, Joan Murphy, who are bi-lingual and Quebec natives. With Joe's help translating the French
conversations in the Custom's office, and with Francois in attendance too, we
were able to get our proper permits to leave the boat in Quebec over the winter.
July 19, 2009
Quebec
City is magical! It is so historic and beautiful. We left Trois Rivieres
on Friday at 1:30
p.m. and
had a 80 mile
motor down river to Quebec City
. We arrived at low tide
(as suggested) at 10:30p.m. We got into the Marina de
Quebec's outer basin and within a few minutes the lockmaster opened the lock
for us. It was a strange, almost surreal, experience though as the city
was showing a historical video which was projected all along the numerous grain
elevators next to the marina. The weird
music that went with the video added to the strangeness. There were people lined up along the lock and
the whole length of the marina walls. So, we're in the lock holding the
boat steady as she rose up and our boating friend, Brian Beckwith, shouted to
us from above the lock "ahoy, Running Free!" It was music
to our ears hearing his voice again. They got here a day ahead of us on their
boat " Roving Seas
". We were
pretty exhausted after such a long day of motoring with the East winds getting
stronger as we got closer to Quebec City
.
We got out of the lock and it's DARK
& we're coming into a place we've never been to. Tons of people
so close to us we could touch them as we slowly motored along
the wall to the far end of the marina. It was a good thing the dock
boy had a flashlight that he motioned to us with. Bless him and “merci” for being
there at our designated slip and catching our lines as by that time
it had really started to blow. We turned off our good old Perkins (very
hot) engine and drank beers in celebration of getting to Quebec City
, our last destination of the
summer. We will now work on getting the boat stored here for the winter
& hope to take the train back to Minneapolis so that Carl can get back to work by
August 3. Au revoir! Joyce & Carl
July
17th 2009 We've had an incredible time in Montreal . The Port d'Escale Marina is right below the main tourist street, Jacques
Cartier, in old town, behind the Circusdu Soleil tents. The 2nd day
there, after we finished a great lunch of mussels and were walking home,
we ran into our marina neighbors, Brian & Jan, walking down the street. We
first met this couple in the Ogdensburg, NY, marina. What other type of
lifestyle allows this familiarity in unfamiliar places? After three
nights of action packed Montreal ,
we scooted 25 miles
and stayed a calm night at anchor near a quaint
village called Contrecoeur. We are now in Trois-Rivieres and are
not looking forward to tomorrow and our ten hour day through the
Richelieu Rapids to Quebec
. City. We have to time the tide and may
get in well after dark. The best time to get into Quebec City is at low tide, but the marina we'll be staying
at has a lock that can only be entered at high tide. That could
mean a l o n g wait before we'll finally be secure.
The weather has been unusually cool and I've
regretted not bringing my long underwear. We seem to experience rain
almost every day. Our first run in with "French
Canada" was anchoring at Valleyfield when they were holding the hydroplane races. It
rained all day and the races were called two hours early, we were able to
get into town because of this. After returning to the boat, we looked
across the channel to see hundreds of tents set up for the celebrations.
Right after sunset the thunderstorm hit, winds to 41 knots, lightning and lots
of rain. I sat anchor watch for an hour or so in the dark. The next
morning, we didn't see a single tent set up.
We'll try to post some photos in the next
couple of days, once we're secure in Quebec City . Joyce will get her stitches out while there
also. Her hand is healing well after that nasty docking accident in Clayton , NY
. Au revoir!
July 9th
2009 spent
all afternoon visiting Upper Canada Village , near Crysler Park after clearing into Canada this noon .
This is a collection of buildings saved from the flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway turned into a living village circa 1866. Our
passage from Oswego
to Cape Vincent averaged 7.7 knots with 8 to 10
foot seas,
exciting but quite uncomfortable. The 1,000 Islands reminded us of the North
Channel with cabins, castles
and homes all over the place. The Antique Boat Museum was a special treat the day after spending an
afternoon getting Joyce's hand stitched up. She caught it between a cleat
and a mooring line and it meant an ambulance trip 20
miles upriver to Alexandria Bay 's ER. A tour of the Boldt Castle and Yachthouse later in Alex Bay was an interesting afternoon for us before leaving the
1,000 Islands
for "The River".
July 4,
2009 We're
cruising again! We left Sodus Bay on July 3, after hearing that they celebrate the 4th
on the 3rd. We wanted to see fireworks on the 4th so are now in Oswego NY only to find out they celebrate the 4th on the
5th. We leave shortly for Cape Vincent NY and hope to see fireworks
tonight.
We arrived in Rochester on Saturday and were able to paint the bottom and get
ready for launching on Monday. The boat came through the winter fine down
below, but was horribly mildewed on deck. While installing our hot water
heater I found the throttle cable was in shreds, and we delayed departure a day
while a new one was ordered and then replaced. Between rain showers we
were able to motor to Sodus Bay and
had a great Prime Rib dinner at Pappa Joes for $11. Leaving Sodus Bay yesterday we flew at 7.2 knot average to Oswego in winds just over 20 knots. We're currently
tied to the quay there and after breakfast will leave in winds of 9 to11
gusting 18.
August
28, 2008 We're Home!! Was it all a dream?
Actually, coming home to a broken water heater, a stack of mail 2
feet high, and a lawn and garden that are totally parched
makes it all feel too real. Running Free is on the hard in Rochester
, NY . We pulled the broken water
heater out (it went about the same time as the one at home, go figure), un bent
the sails, cleaned, packed and winterized before renting a Buick to drive
home.
We spent our last days in Canada
with our new Canadian friends. Thank you, Bruce and
Lila, for the great time you showed us at your house and the Port Credit Yacht
Club in Mississauga . Thank
you, Kim and Sandy, in Whitby , for
the great meal at Kim's restaurant and the hospitality you showed us at your
home.
All in all it was a great summer. The wind was behind us when it blew
hard, we never had to beat into it the whole summer. The worst negatives
were the cold and fog in Lake Superior and the day we
got hit by a fly hatch in Lake Huron . We were
covered in small fish flies! The poor economy kept many boaters off
the water, so we never had trouble finding a slip, or a good place to drop the
hook. Each lake showed a distinct personality which was fun to
discover: Superior =solitude,
Huron=wilderness, Erie =parties, Ontario
=yacht clubs and cosmopolitanism. We are looking forward to
learning about Quebec and the
Maritimes next year.
August 9,
2008 We're in Toronto
. The sailings been great, the weather cool. The sail from Port
Dalhousie averaged 7.2 knots. Port Dalhousie is where the next GLCC
Rendezvous will be and it should be a dynamite location. Our computer's USB
drives are all acting funky, sometimes working and sometimes not. This
has been very frustrating, and will require some rethinking for next
year. We are enjoying our third stay at Hanlon's Point Marina in the Harbour
Islands of Toronto
. We're meeting Sandy Nichol at The St. Lawrence Market. We met Sandy
10 years ago on our Trinidad cruise and it will be
interesting to hear about her later adventures in China
.
August 4,
2008 We've been moving fast. We're in Dunkirk
, NY , in Lake Erie
. Since leaving Prudy & Charlie's, we've stayed a night at the
Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, Put in Bay in the middle of western Lake Erie (I
didn't see one drunk and don't know whether to be happy or disappointed),
Vermilion, Ohio the next day, followed by Cleveland, where we stayed one night
at the Edgewater Yacht Club, and the next at the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame. We were there when they opened, and they almost had to kick Joyce
out at closing. It's a fun place, once you realize it's not the
artifacts, but the listening that makes it great. Geneva
on the Lake was the next stop. It was
a little bit like the twilight zone in it's '50's feel, small cabins for rent,
shops & food stalls more like a Mexican town than Ohio. We arrived in Erie,
PA, just in time for the Annual Corn Roast at the Presque Isle Yacht Club
and spent a couple of nights there seeing the sights. Tonight we're in Dunkirk
and will leave for Fort Colborne , Ontario
, tomorrow. The next day we should go through the Welland
Canal which will take us down Niagara
falls in eight easy stages (locks). From there
it's on to Toronto . It's
looking like we'll leave the boat in Lake
Ontario for the winter.
Internet connectivity has become more of a problem so our updates haven't been
as frequent as hoped. Hope to have Lake Erie
pictures posted soon.
July 25,
2008 It's great to
renew old friendships. We are currently tied up to Prudy and
Charlie Billiu's dock in their backyard near Metro Beach just off Lake St. Clair .
Prudy showed Joyce how to bake a cake in a pressure cooker over an alcohol
stove in Annapolis
in 1977. We stayed here on our 1998 trip
as well, (see our Wisconsin
to Maryland pictures). We'll be hearing the Detroit Symphony
tonight with them at Metro Beach and hope to leave on Sunday if our mail gets here
tomorrow. We've been pushing hard since leaving the GLCC rendezvous in
Little Current. A night in Killarney to eat the "best fish &
chips in the world", watching a family of otters near our mooring and
watching a bear swim across the "cut" right behind our stern was
followed by a sail to Cove Island . Cove
Island
had one of those perfect anchorages, where the
writer of the cruising guide liked it so much they made it much scarier than it
is to get in.. Thanks to the GLCC Harbor Reports for getting us in
safely. A short sail from there to Tobermory on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula saw our last day in Canada . A long day's sail to Harrisville Harbor in MI had us being greeted by Billy and Diane Maier,
s/v "Outlandish" who we met in the Chesapeake Bay in 1998. Diane brought us dinner and the
leftovers have served us well. From Harrisville to Port Austin we motored
and spent the night. From Port Austin to Port Sanilac saw us average over
7.4 knots the whole way: WE FLEW!!. Sanilac to Port Huron saw us get the big staysail up and flying. We
actually had it up for over an hour before the wind headed us. Today's
journey from Port
Huron was mostly
motoring due to the currents and heavy ship traffic in the St. Clair
River. We were lucky to get down it today as it will be closed
periodically over the weekend for the "Offshore PowerBoat
Races". We have seen lots of fast, loud powerboats.
July,
14, 2008 Life is good!! It's hard to believe that we are
actually doing this. We've been blessed to have such support from
friends, employers, colleagues and complete strangers. We are currently
docked in Little Current, Ontario ,
where Manitoulin
Island
's only road connection to the mainland
is. The Great Lakes Cruising Club is holding its annual Rendezvous, and
it's turning out to be a fine party. After leaving the
"Soo" we spent one night in Milford Haven, (whose only claim to fame,
other than a protected anchorage, was the bigamist that built two houses in the
bay for the two sisters that were his wives). From there we went to
Bruce Mines and anchored overnight. This is the spot where the Marquee of
Queensbury lived and wrote his boxing rules. Then on to Thessalon
where we were able to shop and check e-mail from the library using the marina's
bikes. The wilderness part of the cruise resumed with stops at Long Point
Cove, Oak
Bay
, Fox Island Harbour and Benjamin Bay (a great sail with 20+ knot winds). After
hearing those high winds overnight in The Benjamins, we left the next morning
for Little Current where we had the 'pleasure' of paying over $6.00 a
gallon for diesel. We have a wi-fi connection here and it has been
great fun to do email on the boat and to talk via Skype to friends and
family.
The Rendezvous has 90+ yachts in attendance
from 30-55 footers. Events include dinner dances, seminars on
cruising the area, volley ball contests, blindfolded dingy races, a pet show
(yes, our birds will be there) and lots of socializing. Our dock actually
has two other Freedom Yachts on it-- we've never seen more than one at a time
before. We will be leaving on Wednesday and going to Killarney, Ont.,
before leaving the North Channel area and crossing to the tip of the Bruce
peninsula (Tobermory) prior to returning to the west side of Lake Huron
(Michigan) for a while where we will meet up with sailing friends from
our previous Caribbean cruises
June 30,
2008 Moored in the Canadian side of Saulte Ste
Marie. We spent most of yesterday racing the 30 knot predicted winds and
got tied up about an hour ahead of the the high winds. The friendly
marina crew convinced us to stay over for July 1st. (Canada Day), which has all
the local party centered right on our marina. and we plan on heading down
the St Mary's River on Wednesday. The water temperature in the
marina here is a full 27 degrees warmer than Lake Superior
and we are looking forward to packing away our long underwear.
June 26, 2008, sees us leaving Michipicotan
Island ( Quebec
Harbour ) in a fog. We
arrived yesterday and entered in the fog as well. Good old dead reckoning
has been replaced by GPS Chart plotters and
PC's. It sure makes sailing easier. While in Quebec
Harbour we saw three woodland caribou,
a black bear, a beaver swimming by our stern and many loons. Some locals
had put out a salt lick about 100
yards from where we were anchored (by an old fishery) and
it provided much entertainment. We also explored three wrecks partially
submerged in the harbor. We collected assorted agates on Agate
Island in the harbor. The
previous day we spent exploring the Otter Head area, anchoring in Otter Cove
and running the dingy up for lunch at Cascade
Falls . We later explored Old
Dave's Harbour and the lighthouse on Otter
Island . We've seen only
2 small fishing boats so far. Where are the other sailors?
May 12th sees Running Free in the
water with hull polished and bottom paint touched up. The new furnace
turns out to overheat, so will take some time to get used to setting it on
medium when we are cold. Our home on City Dock is being renovated, so we
are temporarily at the Apostle Islands Marina on D dock. Cleaning and
rigging are next on the agenda.
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This page was last updated on 07/22/11.
