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We hauled today at Gold River Marina.  Snow mixed with rain. It’s time.  They’re winding down for the season here.

I dithered for a couple of days, then decided to go ahead with pulling the boat.  I’ll spend a couple of days here winterizing and tidying up, then I’m leaving until April.  I’ll have the boat shrink wrapped.

This weekend I’m heading for Vancouver to do a road trip with Miles through the Rockies.  It’s time for some non-boating adventures.

I like this yard.  Power is available close by, and I can stay aboard while ashore.  Pricing is reasonable, and they have been supportive and flexible.  All good.

There is a little less urgency on this one, but I’ll lay it out.

Some readers may not know, but I have another boat that deserves my attention.  It’s been sitting on its trailer in Guelph since 2019 in the field of shame at my local sailing club.

I’ve really enjoyed my travels in Escapade.  First world problems.  But my issue with the multiple boat program is the cost of having a ready-to-go boat sitting for occasional use.  Getting the sailboat sailing again requires a significant amount of time and effort, and a summer slip costs thousands of dollars.  And I haven’t been thrilled with racing opportunities outside of Toronto, where all costs double and I can’t visit with Escapade. 

My time aboard Narwhal reminded me again of how much I enjoy sailboat racing.  The racing around here is good, and Tin Lizzie would fit in nicely.  I’d be happy to upgrade my membership at BBYC and make it my home club.  My uncle’s farm is not far away for off-season storage.  I’ve made a tentative plan to bring the boat to the farm over the winter.

In the spring, I have two major choices:

  A) harden up Escapade a bit and head for Newfoundland and Labrador

  B) stay in NS with Escapade and do lots of sailing with Tin Lizzie. 

This decision is made harder by the fact that my experience this summer was pretty optimal, from my point of view.  Show up for an event, meet the boat and crew, and go racing.  Being the boat owner is the hard part.  For me the obvious solution is some sort of syndicate or partnership.

Whatever happens, I need to do something with Tin Lizzie.  Use it or let it go.

The furnace is fixed.  Yay!  That was causing me a lot of angst.  I found a chafed hose way out of sight that was draining into the bilge.

I had a visit with the yard folks yesterday.  The more time I spend there the more I like the place.

I have option A, which is to haul Monday, winterize and shrink wrap the boat, and come back in late April and launch.  The yard doesn’t operate outside that range.  The boat doesn’t need to be hauled for maintenance. 

Option B is getting back to what I had in mind a month ago.  Keeping the boat in the water and heated through the winter.  There are varying degrees of hardening vs using (home vs boat), but those are details.

My biggest concern with option B is that I want the ability to disappear for weeks at a time.  But my brief chat with the Alderney Marina guy made me think that maybe that could be possible.  I’ve put out a request for another discussion.

I’m really not anxious to abandon the boat for 5 months.  A bit of bad weather shouldn’t force me off.  That’s part of my use case requirements.

I just dropped anchor in Gold River.  It’s 5 am and below freezing.  Slippery on deck, but comfy inside.

I did a driving tour of the yards I was thinking of for hauling Escapade.  Gold River Marina was the clear favourite.  I’ve never been there. 

They have a hard stop date of the end of November, so I started to look for a weather window to get down there from Bedford.  Thursday and Friday looked fine.  I booked the haul for Monday.

My furnace has been losing fluid for a while.  I fixed one known leak in August, and thought I was done.  But the leak has accelerated as I’ve been using the furnace.  I’ve been through all the obvious possibilities, and have been feeding it with fresh water regularly.  My plan is to remove it for detailed inspection and service when I haul.

Wednesday afternoon I headed in to Armdale with the intent of meeting a friend.  I ran out of water at anchor, and couldn’t feed the furnace so slept in the cold. 

Thursday I filled up with water at RNSYS, tried unsuccessfully to get the furnace to restart, and retreated to downtown Halifax for a meal out and some pondering.  By evening I had the furnace running by bypassing the low water alarm switch.

Feeling like maybe I’m on borrowed time with heat, I high tailed it here.  Maybe I’ll get hauled today.

I did get a call from Alderney Marina in Dartmouth on Wednesday.  I had identified that place as pretty much what I was looking for originally and called a while ago.  I might have considered it with more time to prepare.  Maybe next year.

Nothing in the photo album, and dark outside.  I will take some photos of the boat yard and haul out. It’s a delightful place.  They use a marine railroad with adjustable straps.  Quite ingenious.

I realize that it’s been a month since my last post.  I  didn’t mean for it to be that long, but not much has changed.

Escapade hasn’t moved much.  I raced on Narwhal for the Danginn Cup.  Lots of excitement, with a most enjoyable rum-fueled afterparty.  Tradition has the winner filling the trophy with rum and sharing amongst the competitors.  There was some initial confusion over the winner. Not us. In any case the trophy was topped up numerous times.

I put the boat on a mooring and took off for Ontario for a couple of weeks.  I’m back now pretty much where I left off, with winter coming.

So, winter plans?  I have a couple of weeks booked in March to tour the Norwegian coast.  December with family in Ontario.  January and February are open.

I gave some thought to actively cruising over the winter, but the only nearby place I’m excited to go is Newfoundland, and that’s in the wrong direction in January. 

So far the default is to haul and store Escapade in a few weeks and go ashore for a few months.  Sensible, but a little painful.  I’m putting it off.

Recent pics. I’m surprised RoRo vessels don’t capsize more often.   The last pic is of five cruise ships in Halifax.  I think some of them were there for storm avoidance.

The headline photo is my friend Andrew stopping by to say hello on his way back from the office.  He and I worked together here as tender operators almost 50 years ago.  Time flies.  He’s got a fully restored 20′ Boston Whaler.  A classic.

I arrived in Bedford yesterday.  Spent a few days in Lunenburg and Mahone Bay then came around in more brilliant weather.

I had made tentative plans to keep Escapade at AYC for the winter, but popped in and was told they have very few live aboard slips, and none are available.  So much for that plan.  I’d like to keep the boat safe afloat and operational, and come and go over the winter, staying aboard when here.  That may be harder than I thought it would be.

In the meantime, I have few immediate plans.  Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, getting my car from Saint John, and racing here next weekend.  That’s enough for now.

It’s hard to believe it’s October.  I’m a few miles offshore, beelining down the coast with a following breeze and current.  Sunny and warm.  It doesn’t get much better.

I’ve covered this shoreline pretty thoroughly during other trips.  Today I’ll get into the LaHave Islands, or maybe go on to Lunenburg.

Yesterday I left Yarmouth in sunny calm and had favourable currents out to Cape Sable, then rounded at slack tide.  I stopped in Port Latour for the night, and came out about 1000 today to catch the tide change.  Smooth sailing.

I’m anchored in Yarmouth.  It’s been something like five weeks since I was last here.  That was a fun and memorable loop.

Yesterday I got ashore for lunch in St Andrews, then meandered around Campobello and Deer Islands.  Very picturesque.  I anchored here last night just after dusk,

I seem to have a fair weather bubble around me. Today’s trip here from Grand Manan Island was pleasant and uneventful.  That’s the best it gets when traversing Fundy. 

I thought I was doing a radio piece until the crew arrived.  Should have hauled the fender in.  Nonetheless, I like it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/ontario-boater-us-trip-maritimes-1.7649635

I should add a brief welcome to the many folks arriving here as a result of this fame.  This is my travelogue, and goes back a long time.  Enjoy, and if you want to keep up please subscribe.

Jeff

Beautiful day, calm and sunny.  I made it out of the river without incident, and had a pleasant run down here with a following current all the way.  Tomorrow looks a bit rough to cross over to NS, but I’ll explore the Canadian Islands between here and there tomorrow and head over on the weekend.

I forgot to mention fuel yesterday.  560 litres since Yarmouth.  902 miles/124 hours.  That’s very good for me.  I was travelling slow, and using the tides to advantage.