Maiden (multi day) Voyage for Shady Lady & Crew

[Greenman]

I guess this will be a bit of a trip report for my first multi night trip. I have a bunch more photo's I will add when I get a chance.

Aug 11

Laura and I had arranged with our travelling companions to depart the Shearwater Yacht Club at 0830 hrs, and hoped for a 0930 actual departure time, it was great to see our buddy boat crew all ready to go when we arrived and even nicer to get the boats out of the Marina right on time.

Buddy Boat


Unfortunately the fog was in and it threatened rain with very light winds, it looked like a poor start to our trip. I had the Admiral/Cabin Girl get me my Sou'wester while I tried to get the Chart plotter to pick up a signal. Not a great start. 20 minutes of "acquiring" later, the chart popped up and we were good to go. Still, we had to motor and/or motor sail most of the 6 hour trip to "Rogues Roost". This is a fantastic little hurricane hole (yes we have them way up north too). Fortunately the fog lifted late in the morning and we managed to at least get the sails up for the last hour or so of the trip.

The Rogues Roost - I am the speck on the shoreline


We did see what I thought was a drunken seal and my wife thought was a couple sharks messing about, but when we told our companions we were informed that it was an Ocean Sunfish, and that they grow to be around 400 lbs and tend to float around the surface acting goofy. We did see 3 more throughout the trip, and when I got home to google them, I was shocked to learn they average around 1000 lbs and have grown to 3500 lbs (Wikipedia info for what it's worth).

We dropped anchor in "The Roost" where I snorkelled for mussels and proceeded to have a grand evening of refreshments/bbq and steamed Coconut Curry mussels. I did also learn that mussels from near the bottom tend to have annoying little tooth crunching pearls.

Fun in the setting sun - Rogues Roost


12 Aug

Anchor up at 0900 hrs after a great bacon and egg, beans & hash browns breakfast, and headed back out of the Roost to do the second leg of our trip to raft up with other boats from our Club for an evening of fun during Chester Race Week. We had an awesome trip, close hauled all the way with the wind coming off the land mass. It was perfect, very little waves, no swell and 15 knots of wind. With an amateur at the helm and 35 year old sails I was able to average 6 and max out at 6.7 knots over a 3 hour trip. Shady Lady never heeled past 10 degrees and it was an amazing experience. Unfortunately Laura decided to have a nap. So she missed all the fun.

Just getting going




Beating at 6+ Knots


Me


The Cabin Girl - Laura sleeping below



We pulled into Mahone Bay around noon and the wind absolutely died; so after an hour of messing about trying to catch puffs, both boats cranked up the engines and motored the last couple miles for the party. We did also see some very small harbour porpoises but I was too slow with the camera.

Once we had all 5 boats rafted up we rowed into Chester to see the "Jumping Penguins" band perform. They are a group of sailors who are actually outstanding. Several Black Rums later we rowed back to the boats and crashed for the night.

13 Aug

Up and back to town to replenish the ice (and to work on my retirement plan "Lotto Max"), back to the boats and off again around 1300 hrs. Headed back north with no real plan.  Leaving Mahone Bay was exactly the opposite of coming in, the wing blew and gusted like crazy until we left the bay, then dies completely, another few hours of motor sailing.

Around 1830 we arrived in Prospect Bay to a place where our buddy boats Captain had grown up. 4 Old wooden fishing boats had been run aground along with a huge barge that for some reason had been retrofit with pavement and rail tracks. The interesting thing is that the rail tracks had a "switch" in them. Made me wonder if it was used as a bridge or something at one point. The wooden wrecks looked for the most part like side draggers, but it was hard to tell s the RCMP had supposedly burnt them down back in the 70's to stop people from growing weed in them. Too bad.

Wrecks




14 Aug

Up around 0900 for another Bacon and Egg breakfast. This was an awesome day because my 27 foot hunter was turning into a Mackerel fishing machine. It turns out the little 8 horse Yanmar can troll at a perfect 2 knots for hours and hours on nothing more than a sip of fuel.

Mackerel


A bunch of Mackerel and a few Pollack later, we rafted up again for a feed of fish for the boys and some other non descript food for the ladies.........their loss I am sure.

15 Aug

Left Prospect around 0900 hrs, very little wind and I did manage to sail wing on wing at 3.4 knots for a short time (average sail speed was closer to 1.2), but as it was the last day of our vacation, the Cabin Girl put on her Admiral Tricorn Hat and ordered I spark up the engine. She didn't have to ask twice, at the speed we were averaging it would have taken 10 or more hours to get home & 4 or less with the motor. It was a good call, and kept my ego in check too.

It was a fantastic trip and Laura and my first out of the harbour experience on Shady Lady alone. It was very difficult to go back to work, and I am certain next years trip will be for a full week or more.
Smiles from Laura



What we look forwards to



It sure makes those 900 days of work seem long..............

[Oldrig]

Greenman,

What a great way to ease into the cruising life. Keep posting!

--Joe

[Greenman]

Thanks Joe, I should have a bunch more pics but my buddy boats photographer is on island time apparently.

[Jim_ME]

Congrats Greenman. Enjoyed reading about your maiden cruise and seeing photos from your area of the coast. Looking forward to getting up to your area.

-Jim 

[Captain Smollett]

Great story; thanks for posting.

Here's a grog to help you wait out the next trip.

[SV Wind Dancer]

Three cheers from another '77 CH 27' owner!