| We spent June 6th
doing some boat stuff and general tourist wandering before getting underway at 1800 for a
run to Trepassy, a small fishing village between Cape Pine and Cape Race on the southeast
corner of Newfoundland. We had given some thought to trying to head straight to St.
John’s, about 36 hours away, but we couldn’t see any way of doing it without
having to transit the east coast of Newfoundland at night. Icebergs and growlers or
‘bergie bits’, would be a real problem in the dark. Our plan was to stop in
Trepassy only long enough to get a few hours sleep and depart around 0300 on the 8th
for our final leg to St. John’s. Just after clearing the harbor mouth while
motoring through some very large, close swells Geoff went below and found water all over
the deck in the main cabin. My first question to him was; "fresh or salt?" When
he tasted it and pronounced it fresh I said; "no problem we will just drink beer
until we get to Trepassy or St. John’s at the worst". A hose had come off the
water pump draining the tanks. But hey, it was water that was already in the boat so
instead of being a real problem it was just a big mess that had to be cleaned up.
The sea continued to be very lumpy after the winds of the past couple of days with the
wind on the nose as usual. Inishfree was having a tough go of things as we would
climb to the top of a wave then crash down the backside often burying the bow in the next
wave. She would fight free and the bow would shoot skyward flinging the water off the deck
like a catapult to land all the way back to the dodger. We were wet and cold all night
long while motoring most of the time with maybe two hours of sailing time.
By morning we had crossed Placentia Bay, which had lived up to its reputation as a
nasty crossing, and we were totally thrashed and beat but finally had some friendly wind
and were able to power through the seas pretty well under jib and staysail. Even though
there was still a lot of spray flying Inishfree was sailing well, was a much
happier boat and the crew could smile every now and then.
I was down below on my off-watch trying to get some sleep when Andy called me on deck
to see my first real live iceberg. As icebergs go it was nothing spectacular but at least
I was no longer an iceberg virgin. About 40 minutes later he called me out again. This
time for whales. I think they were Humpbacks. I wasn’t doing too well in the sleep
department with all the visual excitement going on in the ocean around the boat!
I gave up on the sleep gig and spent most of the rest of the day driving the boat. We
were tied up at the dock in Trepassy at 2040. We had people waiting for us on the dock. We
were sort of a highlight for the people there. The approach into Trepassy is very long and
wide open with high cliffs on the port side and open water to starboard until you pass a
point to starboard. The harbor is a deep inlet with a single dock and plenty of room to
anchor around the bay. There was a fairly large fishing boat alongside the dock but there
was room out at the end where I brought the boat alongside.
The locals on the dock gave us the tide range and we set our lines accordingly. Geoff
was offered a ride into Trepassy to fill our jerry cans with diesel. The gas station
wasn’t really open but the owner had seen us come in and was there waiting when Geoff
arrived. He was back 20 minutes later with a full load of diesel. While he was gone I made
sure our lines were set right and Andy played cook down below. Dinner was canned salmon,
canned peas and boiled potatoes smothered in butter and washed down with beer. Sleep was
our only other agenda in Trepassy. |
