With all the snow and ice that came with wintering in Newfoundland, I thought it was a good opportunity to show how different types of nonskid worked in these conditions. That is what this video is about.

Light winds caused the docklines to droop into the water overnight.

The surface of the water froze.

Wind in the morning pushed the boat away from the dock and pulled the lines out of the water, taking some ice with them. I liked the pattern of the ice on the docklines.

It's been chilly lately.

After a storm


we had strong, cold NW winds for three days, and now the snow on the ground mostly stays.

That's mostly salt water that waves pushed onto the side of the boat, which then dripped slowly enough where one plate overlaps another that it froze, and then kept growing into an ice beard.

I have a new video about sailing the coast of Newfoundland late in October. It is about a daysail of about 50 miles down the coast with a full crew.

We left in darkness following a gale, had a drone film us, and sailed in strong winds at first, that steadily lightened, bringing us to our scenic destination in the afternoon.

Beyond the entrance of Little Bay is Mortier Bay, which is a much bigger bay, about 3 miles in each direction.

The bridge is about half-way down Little Bay. Issuma is much too tall to get under the bridge, but speedboats can easily pass underneath.

This is the view from the dock Issuma is tied to in Little Bay (Marystown), Newfoundland, in the early morning sun.

Little Bay, as you can see, is well-named. It's longer than it is wide, and it is protected or well-protected from all wind directions.

A closer view of the other side of the bay is here,

Check out the new video about putting Issuma onto a beach and drying out with the tides in Patagonia on the
Schooner Issuma youtube channel.

I have a new video about sailing onto anchor on the Schooner Issuma YouTube Channel. It describes how to sail onto anchor, and then shows my crew and I doing it.

Most of the video was shot several years ago at the end of the Northwest Passage, when we sailed onto anchor in a large bay to wait out a gale that was coming.

My last sail of the year in Marystown, Newfoundland, Canada, on New Years Eve.

The forecast was for light winds in the morning, steadily building to a southerly gale in the late afternoon.

We got off the dock just after 0800, and started setting sails immediately in a very light tailwind. The picture was taken in Little Bay, where Issuma is now docked, by Francis Farrell.


Several ropes were frozen, so getting the sails set was slow. We weren't able to set the jib at all because the sheets were too swollen to get through a turning block.

With a reefed main (not shown) for balance and two staysails, we pleasantly sailed Mortier Bay (where Marystown and Little Bay are) for almost three hours. Then the cold wind picked up and encouraged dousing the sails and motoring back to the dock for a celebratory drink below in the warm cabin.