| We
slipped the dock lines at 03:15 but spent the next thirty minutes in a tug of war with the
fisherman style anchor we had put out to relieve pressure on the raft. We tried it the
gentlemanly way, slowly motoring up to it and taking in chain then breaking it free as the
chain rode straight up and down. The anchor decided to play rough and did not come free.
We said, "okay, be that way", and proceeded to try to drive right over it and
yank it out. It was tougher than we were. Then once it had yanked us 180° like a skier on the end of a tow line playing crack the whip, we
tried brute force in reverse to see if it would rock on its axis and break free. No way!
Then we decided to get serious. The electric windlass kept popping the breaker when we
tried using it so we pitted our mechanical leverage against the recalcitrant piece of
steel on the bottom. We promptly broke the manual handle. Score another point to the
anchor.
At this point things were getting just a bit tense. Geoff decided to hell with it
and stationed Andy down below at the breaker switch to reset it every time it popped.
Geoff gradually winched the chain so tight that the bow of the boat was significantly low
in the water. Finally, buoyancy and a slight swell did what brainpower and muscle could
not.
With a groan and shudder the anchor finally let go of its grasp on the bottom. Inishfree’s
bow shot skyward like a three meter springboard reacting to a 500 lb. high diver. I
thought for sure that Geoff was going to be launched into orbit! With great aplomb
we brought in the rest of the chain and departed for Renard about 90 miles away.
By 08:00 the sun had overcome the clouds and begun to warm things up some. With a
following breeze and sea we were able to shut the engine down for the first time on the
trip. We were making seven knots wing on wing. The water sluicing along the hull, the sun
sparkling on the water, and no diesel banging away put grins on our faces.
Geoff didn’t have a whisker pole so keeping the jib full as the boat rose and fell
and twisted and turned on the waves kept Andy’s and my attention for the next several
hours. But hey, we were finally doing some real sailing! Of course the wind died in the
early afternoon and we were back on the engine for the rest of the trip to Riveire Renard.
The entire Cabot 500, Flotilla 97 event was being filmed by a freelancer for CBC
(Canadian Broadcast Company), who was sailing aboard the Burin Star. A few miles
out of Riveire Renard Burin Star motored up alongside of us to shoot some film.
Andy, he’s such an instigator, said that he thought it would be a great thing for the
documentary if Geoff would moon the cameraman. Geoff, being the responsible, reserved,
retired CEO of Barclays promptly dropped his drawers and presented a full moon to the
shocked enjoyment of all on board Burin Star. The crew aboard Burin Star
would be telling the story of Geoff’s pimpled butt for days to come.
Andy had the helm as we entered Riveire Renard and did the rafting maneuvers. Riveire
Renard is a fishing village that sits at the top of the Quebec peninsula just north of
Gaspe Bay. It is very exposed and the village is a group of houses spread out on a bleak
plain devoid of trees overlooking the harbor. The cliffs along the coast there are
spectacular but not a place you would want to be with any serious weather off shore.
The locals were very excited to have so many visitors all at once. We spent the evening
doing some laundry at the local club nautique and getting the self steering vane set up
for our trip out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Riveire Renard would be our jumping off point from the mainland of North America and
for a lot of the sailors in the Flotilla the first time they had ever been out of sight of
land. There was considerable talk around weather conditions and timing for the next leg of
the voyage to Iles de la Madeleine about 140 nm away. From there on weather would take a
back-seat as the main sailing consideration and ice would become the issue of concern.
Local knowledge said to take advantage of the good weather and get to Madeleine and then
take a look at what was going on with the south coast of Newfoundland. There were
conflicting reports, of course. |
