Trip Summary:
Port Mouton to Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club
Trip Distance of 51.4 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 456.5 NM
Departed at 0630 hours and arrived at 1530 hours
Crew Log for August 30th, 2022
Despite what we knew was going to be a difficult day on the water, oddly enough, it is not the sailing that was the most memorable part of this leg of our adventure. On the contrary, we knew what the conditions were going to be, that’s the predictable part of life. It’s the unpredictable events, hopefully positive, that make life truly interesting. At the risk of being overly dramatic, the series of events that happened in Shelburne, were amazing to observe playing out.
But, a word about the sailing, which on any other day would be all we’d be talking about. Someday, when we are old”er” and grey”er”, we’ll look back at this day with a feeling of pride. It was a very difficult sailboat day. Nothing about it was easy. Wind, swell, challenging coastline and a 50 NM trip ahead of us.
For those of you who have been following along, you’ll know from our last post that we decided to take advantage of a beautiful late summer day, and make a stop at Port Mouton. Arguably one of the nicest beaches we’ve been on. We did this, with the full knowledge that the following days, would be a tacking nightmare.
We woke to clear skies with southwest winds of 15 – 20 knots. It would be right on the nose the entire way up the coast. A wise friend told me days later that, “this trip is really going to make you guys better sailors”. I think I am beginning to understand what he was talking about.
First of all, my Co-Captain was an absolute force, given the amount of tacking and sail trimming that we did coming up the coast. I always knew she was a brilliant sail trimmer, but she toughed it out this day and was positive the entire time. There was not one complaint. We used the “points” of land to shelter use from the worst of it and tacked out when we needed to. I think our longest run was maybe 2-3 NM. The sail into Shelburne was a dream, given we were finally in flatter water and on a beam reach. What's that old expression "...hitting your head with a hammer..."?
For some unexplainable reason, I decided we should fill the diesel and water tanks before heading back out to the mooring. It was a challenge getting to the fuel dock, but an even bigger challenge getting off the dock given the winds were hammering us into it. Fortunately, one of the crews from Quebec on sv Magali, that we ran into days before in Rogues Roost helped us off. We then made our way to mooring ball #13. Seemed appropriate.
Our boat buddies from Canning reached out and indicated that they were thinking about coming to Shelburne to camp for a couple of days. It was going to pour rain the following day and they had just got back from a trip to PEI, so the trip didn’t look promising. Fortunately, for this story, they decided to come the following day. It was a huge bonus for us, given that we thought our visiting was over.
I haven’t been to a lot of marinas and Yacht Clubs, but very few that I've have been too, have had the energy that Shelburne has. There seems to be an endless schedule of events, an active racing program, an amazing program for young sailors and of course, a beautiful full service facility overlooking Shelburne Harbour. There are a few floating docks with water and power and a number of mooring balls.
Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club is also a jumping off or arrival spot for cruisers headed to and from the US. The knowledge and experience on the dock is amazing and most people are only too happy to provide encouraging words.
Shelburne also just happens to be where we first met "Judi", a former Kiwi who moved to Ontario several years ago and is making her second trip to the Bahamas with her husband Steve, on their Hughes 40 ketch, sv ADANACO (O Canada backwards). They had planned to go last year, but when the border didn’t open they put the boat on the hard in the Gaspe, and headed back to Ontario.
We were telling our boat mates from Canning about meeting this lady from New Zealand, who used to be a seed certifier. Well, the introduction the next morning was priceless. “You're Judi so-and-so, from North such-and-such, used to be married to Lloyd and founding member of the car club in such-and-such, New Zealand”. Turns out our new friend, Judi, was mates with our boat buddy back in New Zealand, over 50 years ago. The encounter still makes my head spin.
What if we hadn’t met Judi? What if our friends decided not to make the trip from Canning? What if ADANACO left the day before or arrived the day after us?
In the same, but less mind boggling way...there is a cool tradition in Shelburne, where they put the boat names past and present, on the tables in the bar. On race night, we happened to be sitting at the sv Sou’wester table. The skipper asked if he could join us. Turns out he knows friends of ours from Brookfield and he also knew the former skipper of sv Mallory, a sailboat that is still in our marina.
And while not near as dramatic as running into a childhood friend, 50 years later, and a half a world away, I was “glad” we sat at Sou’wester’s table and got to meet Skipper Rick. While I like certainty and predictability, it is the unexpected events that make things interesting.
We must have enjoyed our time in Shelburne, we planed stay a couple of days and stayed 4. Totally unexpected and definitely not part of the original plan.
Little did we know just how unpredictable things would become.
Comments