Piffka-The still cold aIRS THAT BREED THE MALEVOLENT FOGS OF THE Straits of Northumberland are heavy with the memories of long dead pirates, Indians, wrecks caused by ineptitude and a few other occurences Ive just forgotten. It can be a cold cruel stretch of water. The shores around Nova Scotia arent a walk on the sand either.
Ms Farmerperson is actually a better sailor than I. She doesnt resort to the little panicky attacks I get when a large blip shows up on the radar with no radio contacts. The fog can get that thick that you actually start hallucinating over the instruments.
Winds and storms far out at sea are able to generate waves of sufficient height that our entire boat was deep in a wave trough then , just as quickly, were on top of a wave crest. Our boat has an (above water line) elevation over 20 feet, counting the radar and antenna masts/
This stuff wasnt the bulk of the trip, in fact, we had mostly lovely weather and great visibility. However, on the E side of Nova Scotia, the seas can be 10 feet or more on a normal sunny day.
Would we do it again?? in a heartbeat. In fact, were looking fo some pathfinder groups that can sail as a small convoy to somewhere accessible, yet neat. The having another boat nearby is tremendously reassuring, otherwise I would be valium titered.
Some of the scows that people who engage in "pathfinding" sails are magnificent. The mini trawler market and "picnic boat" market is booming.
McTag, Im gonna start looking up any Tillman Books.
While on the trip I was reading a new text on chemical adsorption and surface chemistry reactions in environmental media. That was better than a dose of morphine.
Mrs , was reading a bunch of Tony Hillerman books and charting knitting patterns on the laptoip. She did more watches than me because she can chart, knit, watch for freighters, check the GPS, talk on the radio at the same time. I get too focused on any one thing , like
"why is there a big blip heading toward us and I caint see **** ahead?"
Farmerman, I have a brother who works for the shipping divisions of one of the major oil conglomerates. He has stories to tell about supper tankers pulling into port and finding rigging and masts entangled in their bow anchors. You don't want to play with those "blips", they don't even know they've run over you.
farmerman wrote:
McTag, Im gonna start looking up any Tillman Books.
Forgive me for banging on the same drum, but I looked up H W Tilman on the BBC website search thingy, and it was quite fruitful. There are books still in print, and recollected and reprinted. Old Bill was quite a man.
Check this:
http://www.comlay.net/tilman/bill_tilman.html
McT
I just found this topic, didn't know where you were, farmerman. Sounds like a fabulous and horrific trip all at the same time (says chicken-little here). Your writing has me at the edge of my chair, making sure you're okeydokey.
nothing horrific, save all the forms that the canadians make you fill out and hold so every time your boarded you can prove that you didnt just beam your boat down from some starship.
The Canadians9bless em) are nuts for paperwork. (A LOVE OF PAPERWOrk preceeds a fall)
THEY even had forms that attetsed that weve removed all plants attached to our boat that were not native to the bAY OF Fundy.
Osso-Id rather be out in the gulf of ST Lawrence than on I-5 going through sTockton California.Out on the water, Everybody and his brother are keeping an eye out for you, so even if your a few minutes off schedule (pronounced sshhedewal), we would have some person on the radio checking in from east west Cottsemenobuctoo. Hell, We were
g etting radioed from yatch clubs welcoming us to an area and inviting us to berth for a few days (Tourism was really in the tank in the Maritimes this year).
we found many skeletons of sunken or burned ships in coves and bays. This was apparently the preffered way of disposing of old and unused ships in the early 20th century. We even found the skeleton and keel of the uSS minnesota, which became the object of the fight between the ironclads in the uS Civil War. Its sitting in a cove in Maine being used as a perch for seagulls and mussels.
I did one sketch of a herring sein dock. these were docks that seiners and netters would unload their catch to the smokehouses and packers. Most of these are long legged docks (high tideal ranges) and they had like 2 distinct levels in which chutes could be layed out. most of these types of docks are all rotting and unused now except for emergency tie-ups . So I had plenty of time to do this conte crayon sketch and , that was about the only art work i got done . We were really busy every minute and my wife could knit and do knit plans on the laptop, I need a stable platform to draw and if I stare at one place too long while in a moving rolling boat, I tend to get nauseous
Farmerman, I meant the horror comment about the fog and radar blip.... but really, I think the trip made for something really fine, useful, adventurous, beautiful, and connected in a way to 'everybody and his brother'.
Hah, agree about I-5.
This was a good thread, thanks to contributors esp farmerman.
Any updates? Was anyone interested in Bill Tilman?
One of my heroes.
McT
Wonderful story farmerman. I'd love to do a trip like that but unfortunately I've never been able to find me sea legs. I'm glad you missed hurricane season. I'd love to see some pictures if you took some.
Ceili
I did, however, most of them are kind of lame (pulling in an out of fog bound ports) The really scary, high seas times, pictures were the last thing on our minds. We had a few storms that, out as far as we were, generated some high enough seas to get our complete attention.
the pix should take a week or so because of the Isabele interlude, I havent gotten them to the town for developing into CDs so I can share.
The maritime coast and the chilly waters of the Northumberland , are fantastic, we did not, however , see any beluga whales. I dont know whether we missed them because their pet name"the Ice whales" implies that they actually head ionto the cold seas, and the St LAwrence Gulf was empty of them and we were on the radio asking about and no reports. My wife, who speaks French was handling the radio and in her comely voice, she got lots of rude proposals, but no whale reports. Some of those fishermen must be lonely dudes up there
farmerman, Just caught McTag's note in the Travel Forum on your sea adventure. Always enjoy reading your posts. I hope you share a commentary with us about your trip, and please encourage farmerboy to do likewise. I did a commentary on our recent trip to Canada as did my wife, and they seem like completely two different trips. LOL
BOY didnt accompany us he flew home in mid August and took care of the farm and got ready for return to school. He didnt trash the house too badly but I did find evidence of a party . I cant get angry at the same stuff I pulled.
We did telephone him since , on the trip, we only had radio and cell phone. No fancy iriidium or e-mail lines. We were able to send an e-mail from Sydney NS and we found that internet cafes are a big waste of time and money. My commentaries are pretty much summarized in this thread.
Boredom and malaise punctuated by terror. However, the boredom is one of dragging time but we always had a destination, a port we were heading for. Canada is very concerned about its boat traffic, compared to US. when we pulled back into US waters and came around East Quoddy light, we notified everyone on every frequency, besides, we filed a plan with US and Canadian Coast Guards, since we were going almost 3000 mi. When we docked it was like a big surprise, and uS customs wouldnt let us off our own boat till they did a complete take down, the pleasure of which, we had to wait on board for an additional hour till the office had spare people.US customs has an attitude, and Im sure we didnt fit any profiles, maybe my old tatoos were too "biker". I dont know, and I was not being snotty or rude with the staff.
When the give mailmen guns and a mission, Im all respect.
