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Newfoundland by Randy Williamson
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##Donna Zimmerman, Bill Zimmerman, and John Ingram celebrate our successful passage to Newfoundland.
##Donna and Bill Zimmerman contemplate the six-foot climb from the deck of Mystic Star to the dock.
52 May 2014 SpinSheet
ill and Donna Zimmerman have crewed with me on trips to the Caribbean and to Maine, so when they asked me if I would crew for them on a trip to Newfoundland, I could not say “no.” Mystic Star, their Outbound 46, is well equipped for extended cruising and a fun boat to sail. Donna and Bill sailed Mystic Star from our home port of North Point Marina in Rock Hall, MD, to Shaefer’s Canal House in the C&D Canal where another crew member, John Ingram, and I joined them. We left on a favorable tide through the canal on the morning of July 10 and had a good sail down the Delaware Bay. As we approached the mouth of the Bay, I tried to convince Bill to turn right (I prefer warm water sailing), but he insisted on going left for Newfoundland. Bill set a way point just south of the Georges Bank with the intention of turning there to round the eastern tip of Nova Scotia, then straight on to Newfoundland. The weather was good with little fog, but the wind was light and off the stern most of the time. About 150 miles offshore, we encountered a commercial fishing boat that was putting out lines that had a floating radar reflector attached to a bright red ball with a line of about 20 feet between them. We were glad that we encountered this in the daytime as sailing between the reflector and the ball would have been a major problem, as the connecting line would have wrapped around the keel. We saw a few pods of dolphins, several whales, and occasionally a large ship but mostly had the ocean to ourselves. As we approached Nova Scotia, we received a weather report indicating that the eastern tip of Nova Scotia had severe weather which would make
rounding it hazardous. We altered our course to Halifax where we cleared customs into Canada on July 15. We stayed at the Royal Nova Scotia YC. Bill obtained a sim card for his cell phone, and we did some provisioning and a little sightseeing. The forecast did not improve, so we did an overnight sail to the southern entrance to Bras D’Or lakes. Along the way we heard the Coast Guard issue a PAN PAN regarding a vessel named Petral which was out of Cape Breton Island and had been reported overdue. I observed a vessel meeting Petral’s description passing us on a reciprocal course and called them on the VHF. I received a weak response but was able to make out that it was Petral. They were receiving the Coast Guard signals but had been unable to make a connection with their transmission. We relayed to the Coast Guard that they were okay and gave their position and that they expected to arrive in Halifax the next morning. Petral’s transmission was so weak that we could not understand them when they were only two miles from us. Hard to believe that one would sail these remote waters in gale conditions without a working radio. We entered the Bras D’Or lakes via the lock and motor sailed to the town of Baddeck where we tied up at the marina just before the front coming from the east went through with winds of 45 knots and heavy rain. Early the next morning, we motored through the narrow northern cut out of the lakes and into Cabot Straight for the overnight crossing to Newfoundland. The southern coast of Newfoundland is a series of fjords. We first sailed into the beautiful White Bear Bay and enjoyed the dramatic spinsheet.com