Wednesday through Friday, 9 - 11 September 2009

At 0100 Wednesday we had to give way to a fishing boat even though we had the right of way. The captain of the fishing boat was probably not looking at where his boat was going. Or perhaps he just did not care, assuming that everyone else would stay out of his way. He would have the right of way if he was trawling AND if he displayed the proper lights to show he was trawling. He was displaying no trawling lights.This episode points out the importance of having someone on duty who looks out at the sea and not just at the instruments. The AIS and radar are so good they lull one into complacency. AIS identifies almost all of the boats one encounters at sea and shows them on the electronic chart. The computer projects the course of both boats and computes the closest point of approach with plenty of time to change course. Radar also shows most boats at sea. In this case, however, the fishing boat did not have AIS and did not show up well on the radar.

At 0530 we were able to start sailing on a very broad reach with 20-25 knot winds from the north. For most of the time we were flying only our Genoa as we would be overpowered with the main out also. We had a good sail all day Wednesday and into Thursday’s early hours as we made our way south between Newfoundland and Quebec Province in the northeastern part of the Gulf of St Lawrence. At 0100 I changed our intended course to allow us to stay on this comfortable broad reach until we could make a 90° tack toward Port aux Basques at the southwest corner of Newfoundland.

At 0400 David wanted to unfurl the mainsail as the winds had dropped some. Alas, when I had rolled it up, I did not do it properly and it was all tangled up inside the mast. At 0530 David could not get the main engine to start. This was certainly disturbing. There are times where we badly need that engine. My watch began at 0600. As we were still on UTC time, dawn was 3 hours away. David had wanted to start the engine because he thought the boat was going too slowly in the light airs with no mainsail. I was happy to continue to go slowly as we were getting fairly close to Port aux Basques and I preferred to wait until daylight to enter. Fortunately, when I tried to start the engine around 0900, it started almost immediately. At 1000 we tied up at the public wharf in Port aux Basques. We were the only boat in this part of the harbor.

It was a mistake going to Port aux Basques. We should have stopped at Corner Brook as it is a much larger town -- about 25,000 compared to only 6,000 in Port aux Basques. We would be unable to get much of anything done here, but we did find a hotel that had a good breakfast and internet service. Port aux Basques cell phone system is still analog; none of our phones would work here.

We had an extensive work list:
Tangled mainsail. After about two hours of work, including Trond going up and down the mast several times, we were able to get the mainsail untangled and rolled up properly in the mast.
Fresh water pump. I was unable to get the new fresh water pump repaired. It would probably have to be returned to Jabsco for replacement. The only pump I could find was smaller than I liked, but Al was able to install it and we had fresh water at Maryam’s taps again.
We use LPG for cooking. I had gotten a new system installed in Norway. By now we had used up all the gas in both of the tanks. Needless to say, the tanks used in North America are not compatible with European. Thus we could not just swap the tanks in for new ones. We had to buy a new tank and had to replace the connection system. The connection system that the LPG dealer sold us did not include a pressure regulator. The European pressure regulator is built into the mechanism that attaches to the top of the tank. No regulator could have caused a lot of problems. Fortunately, Trond found someone who knew something about LPG systems. He found a regulator but not a solenoid that would allow us to turn off the gas at the tank from inside the boat.
Our starboard alternator was not working. There was no one in Port aux Basques who could address this issue.
Our generator would start but would not stay running. It has a solenoid which opens the throttle when the pre-heat button is pushed. Once the engine starts, the solenoid is supposed to hold the throttle open, but it wasn’t. When I found the spare, it was the old one that had been taken off years ago. A new one had not been ordered. There was none to be had in Port aux Basques. We would not be able to use the generator until we got to Halifax and found a new solenoid.
I had feared that some of the oil on the galley floor that dogged us on the way down from Greenland was from our autopilot. It turns the rudder with hydraulic rams; these may have started leaking. To investigate we would have to empty the entire lazarette. Fortunately, the rams were not leaking, at least not very much. We did re-fill the reservoir.
David & Delphine, with Al’s help, managed to get a new appointment with the US Consulate in Halifax on Thursday, 17 September. They had to pay a lot of money, but at least they were able to get an appointment.
We needed to buy 400 liters of diesel fuel. This turned out to be surprisingly difficult. There were a couple of retirees who liked to hang around the boat as it was probably the most interesting show in town that week. Also, like many Newfoundlanders, they wanted to be helpful. One of them, Dan, arranged for a truck that sells fuel to the fishing boats to come. His nozzle was too big. Then Dan found a contractor who had a rig for supplying fuel to his off-road equipment. By paying full retail plus a charge for him to deliver it, I was able to get enough to get us to Halifax if we had to motor most of the way.
Dan had worked for C+C, a now defunct builder of very good sailing yachts. This had brought him into contact with a number of interesting people, including Ted Turner (against whom I had often raced while I was at McCallie) and Bonnie Bolden Swearingen, the Birmingham girl who had married the CEO of Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco). He had many good stories about them and their boats. He also confirmed my theory that a new solenoid would fix the generator. Dan had dreams to open a sailboat dealership and sailing school for southwestern Newfoundland. He said there was neither in all of Newfoundland.
The other retiree drove us around on our errands. He waited for us for over an hour as we shopped for provisions at the grocery store. Then he happily drove us around town sightseeing.

Each of Maryam’s crew has many fond memories of the generosity of the people of Newfoundland.

On Friday a rough-looking steel sailboat about 45 feet in length struggled in and tied up next to us in the public harbor. The boat was Canadian, but the crew of three were from England, New Zealand and Alaska. They had been sailing on the west coast of Greenland with the owner, a Canadian professor, doing research at the edge of the sea ice. They said that the had suffered minor damage to the drive train in the ice. They had been following us down the Strait of Belle Isle, but had not heard about the coming gale. In struggling on in the 50-knot winds and pounding waves, they had exacerbated the damage. Now there was a serious alignment problem between the engine and the propeller. Their boat would have to be hauled out of the water. Dashed were their plans of going on to Maine and further south for the winter. This made me triply glad I rode out that gale safely at anchor in Schooner Bay of L’Anse au Loup, Labrador. It even lessened my pique at having damaged the toe rail on the port bow.