We woke this morning to an overcast day with fog sitting just off the coast waiting for us:). Joyce put on the Keurig to brew a couple of coffees only to find we didn't have enough power to run the coffee maker. I checked the voltage and found my house bank completely dead? I switched to our starter battery after my checks belts etc.. and fired up Rose Lee and the put the batteries on all to give them a good charge. Our initial plan was to head for Lahave but with our charging issues I called Dave Evens (marine electrician) in Lunenburg and he was very accomodating and agreed to meet us when we made port. So afr the day had proved to be pretty interesting and our excitement was not quite over with yet. At 1410 as we passed Cape lahave Island 1/4 mile to port in 300 feet of visibility we heard a bang from below. Joyce did a quick check and didn't see anything out of wack but a quick look at the engine guages showed that our engine temperature was on the rise. I swung open the engine compartment to have a look and saw a shredded belt fly around (quick kill the engine)! We drifted around while I grabbed a new belt and started to install, thank goodness for Joyce,s organization we knew exactly where everything was and ten minutes later we were on our way breathing a bit easier, Joyce was getting ready to roll out the genoa and get some sea room but we got it done in time to resume our course whew!!! Without further inscident we made port in Lunenburg at 1700 hours, this was one of those days that you are glad to be done with. David had called us and was coming to the boat at 0730 the next morning and would hopefully shed some light on a few issues for us.
0 Comments
We had a pretty relaxing start this morning since we were only planning on going as far as Port Mouton. Joyce made us some breakfast while I did some pre-trip planning and our regular pre-trip inspections (check oil, coolant, racors, sea strainer, belts, shaft coupling etc...) I noticed the belt was a little loose so I snugged it up a bit, maybe that was part of our reason for having low batteries yesterday. We fueled up and topped off our water. I was again pretty amazed at our fuel consumption We traveled 98 nautical miles in 14 hrs and burned 9 gallons of fuel, not bad for an 18 ton sailboat. With all of the preparations made and full bellies we left Shelburne at noon under sunny skies with a chance of rain in the forecast. We never had enough breeze to sail and soon met some light fog as we cleared Shelburne Harbour. The fog was not too bad with the sun trying to burn through and we had 3/4 of a mile for visibility. I was watching my voltage out put and found it better on start up but it started dropping off a bit so we shut down any non-essential items for a while fridge etc.. WE had our anchor down in Shelburne next to Carters Island just off the beach wow what great holding and a nice view. We had a nice beef stroganoff for supper which was delicious. Today was a pretty relaxing trip and we are getting used to sailing in the fog every day.
As part of the founders day celebrations Shelburne had a complete settlers village with loyalists living in the historically accurate settlers tents. I felt sorry for them this morning it was pretty miserable with the rain and fog wow they must have been damp. We noticed our batteries were a little low, which was surprising since we had motored for twelve hours the previous day, so I took the boat in to the dock and left it on shore power with the AC charger running to ensure that our batteries were topped up the following day. We had a good day in Shelburne and made plans to head up towards the Bras D'or Lakes over the next several days. I spoke to a retired fishermen Ken, who ran the charters on his nice trawler out of Shelburne' regarding my radar challenges ( he had never heard of such crazy behavior usually they work or they don't). We made plans to head for Port Mouton the next day (fog was in the forecast but no shipping to worry about).
With a high tide at 0400 we departed Shelburne at 0530 and the tide gave us some help along the way about an extra knot or two of boat speed, sweet. The weather was cloudy but clear with very little wind. WE made excellent time right out to Brazil Rock clearing it at 1000 hrs and setting our new course of 270 degrees for Cape Cod. A little while later we heard some radio traffic between a Canadian Patrol Aircraft and a boat. Five minutes later we had a close encounter with the same big aircraft which did a very low fly over banking hard to the left and our radio came to life with a call to Rose Lee from the big plane. Th was a routine courtesy call where we gave our last port of departure and our heading, number of souls on board etc... They wished us a good journey and that was that, its nice knowing we have those resources available in the case of an emergency. At 1130 we had some converging shipping traffic and I decided to fire up the radar to see how they looked in the clear light of day. Oh Oh the radar was giving me an error message no data again:( Joyce was down below so I continued to mess with it unsuccessfully. An hour later with no luck at all in getting the radar back up and even if we did we didn't know how long it would last we had a meeting of next steps. We both agreed that radar was critical for a safe passage across the Gulf of Maine or AIS which we don't currently have. We checked the weather again and fog was forecast that night and the next day for the gulf of Maine so we made the decision to turn back for Shelburne. On our way back we didn't want to get tied up for several days messing with the radar so a decision was made to enjoy our own beautiful coast for the the next several weeks and we would address the radar issues after our vacation (after all the goal here is to get time on the boat and have some fun). We arrived back in Shelburne at 1900 hrs and as we entered the long harbour the radar came back to life (what the heck). Anyway the radar has proven itself unreliable until we can determine what is going on we wont count on it. We have a lot of skills to develop as we move towards our sailing retirement but one of the most important sailing skills is flexibility and we have plenty of that. We are looking forward to several more weeks on the boat and even though its not quite as planned we will have a great time I am sure:) We spent the remainder of our evening watching the parade of lights on the water. These people go all out decorating their boats, I will post a few pics when I get to a good wifi spot.
We had a pretty relaxing day in Shelburne after a nice walk on the rails to trails we checked out the town a bit and bought a few odds and ends fuses etc...With our exercise out of the way swung by the club to check out the weather over the next few days in anticipation for our next big leg to Cap Cod,. The weather looked good for a early morning departure which had the wind and the tide in our favour. The wind was forecast light and easterly for the next few days with a bit of rain and fog, Not too bad, so we made plans for an early start. W brought the boat in to top up our fuel and water and secured our tender on deck. I was amazed that we were getting such great mileage 75 liters of fuel and we motored or motor-sailed the entire trip from Dartmouth, wow less than 20 gallons. We were invited up to the deck for scallop burgers where we met some more great members and then it was back to the mooring for an early night. We did manage to stay up long enough to see the spectacular founders day fireworks, what a show! We woke to a nice clear day with a forecast of 15-20 out of the NE, which should be a great sailing breeze for Shelburne. It was a beautiful morning at 0900 as we pulled anchor and started our 40 mile treck for Shelburne. We had the main and genoa up by 1000 in 6.5 knots out of the NE hoping the wind would fill in before too long. The wind never did materialize and we carried on under motor and main sail (our new preventer was working great and kept the main in control). Th radar was also working great and whatever ghosts had plagued it the previous day seemed to have vanished (we think it may have been calibration issues). We grabbed at mooring at the Shelburne yacht club just after 1600 hrs (at $16/night its hard to deny the club that income). Shelburne was hopping with activity since this was their biggest weekend of the year where they celebrated their founding in 1783. There was a village of tents with Loyalists all dressed in period costumes and lots of activities for both kids and adults (a sailing regatta, fireworks, parade of lights, live music etc...). Shelburne YC made us feel right at home and they had a very nice club house complete with laundry, showers and a second story handicapped accessible bar and deck over looking the water. This club has about 50 boats and over 400 members. Membership is $127/year and whether you have an interest in boating or not a membership is the way to have a great time in Shelburne through-out the year. I spoke to more than a few people who had come to Shelburne for a short work project and had never left (there is something about this town that draws you in). After a great time at the club we headed next door for a bite to eat and ended the day watching the lights of Shelburne from the boat, a great ending to a great day.
Wow the fog moved in overnight and it is really thick today. We departed at 1030 with the radar on and made our way out the Lahave river with visibility in the 500ft range. A few hours later the radar came up with an error message saying no data and we were back to a non-functioning radar regardless of the trick we tried we couldn't get it up and operating and we could really use it today. A short while late we had a fishing boat emerge out the of the fog heading in the opposite direction with a safe passing distance. Well Joyce and I were hoping that that would be the l;ast boat we would see today, but sure enough less than half an hour later we had a big sailboat come out of the fog on a collision bearing and we avoided an unfortunate incident by about 800 feet, I don't think the other boat even saw us. The rest of our day was very foggy but uneventful and we made it into our anchorage next to Carters island in Port Mouton at about 1700hrs. We emerged out of the fog which stayed about a mile off shore from our anchorage and as the sun came out I tried the radar again for the 50 time and it came up right away???? We had a nice evening (the holding was fantastic in mud) but the wind came up and we slept with one eye open checking the anchor periodically. We woke to a nice clear day and enjoyed our morning coffee while watching the junior sail class have some fun. After coffee we decided to tackle the radar issue and took the radome apart to see if we could determine thew problem. after a bit of messing around we got the unit functioning momentarily only to blow the inline fuse for the chart plotter which the radar is powered through. After making a few phone calls I learned that we would need a 15 amp fuse to accommodate the extra power required by the radar, but where d you get fuses in Lahave. We put everything back together and headed to shore to meet the folks, sign in and go for a walk up to the famous Lahave river bakery about 3 miles away. After checking in at the LRYC I asked a person on the deck if he knew where I might be able to score a fuse or two and his response was "let me check my boat and I,ll see what I can find". Sure enough 15 minutes later Steve arrived back with the fuses required and we were all set ( the community spirit shared by sailor never fails to amaze me and is one of the great things about sharing the water with others. Our walk took a bit longer than expected and we were a good three hours up to the bakery and back, however we made it back to the club in time for happy hour and to watch the start of their Tuesday night races. After a cold drink and the best fish and chips in the world (no kidding and only order the one piece it could feed two) we headed back to the boat to see if we could get the radar fired up. We installed the 15 amp fuse and much to our delight we now had a working radar, sweet.Accoring to some of the club members Port Mouton was a good anchorage on the way to Shelburne so we made plans to head in that direction the next morning.
We departed Dartmouth yacht club around 1000 hrs and made our way towards the Lahave river yacht club which is about a 50 nautical mile rune. The weather conditions were calling for very light winds so we were anticipating a motor or motor sail. The conditions stayed true to the forecast and the wind filled in enough to fly the 135 along with the motor. During our trip we decided to test out the new radar installation which we had previously bench tested and found it to be operating ok.When we fired up the radar and were a bit surprised to find an error message coming up with radome not turning, oh well. We tried several thing to get the radar functioning but to no avail. We arrived at the Lahave river yacht club around 2000 hrs and grabbed one of their moorings, at $15/ night its hard to refuse and the docks are only $20/night regardless of size what a great deal. We celebrated the 1st leg of our voyage with a bbq and a glass or two of red wine ( a great ending to a great day).
Well after a busy week with a few frustrating delays due to battery problems and weather we are finally leaving this morning. Our plan is to make a straight shot for the Lahave river which is about a 40 mile run from door to door. Our forecast calls for very light wind but we are hoping for a little sea breeze to fill in, but that may be wishful thinking. Regardless we are finally leaving and for the next five weeks Roselee will be our home with a constantly changing view. We will keep you posted as we make our way along.
|
Follow Rose Lee live with the link below
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/RoseLee
|