27 July 2014 | McNabbs, NS, Canada 44’37.29N 63’31.45W - Northwest Arm, Halifax, NS, Canada 44’38.25N 63’36.83W
‘The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’ We’ve been guilty of a heinous crime. We’ve been telling only half truths and painting a picture so rosy we could have taken it into Photoshop and had the rosy picture functionality deployed on it to the max.
Since entering Nova Scotia we feel like we’d just been wandering around the oceans and sailing about without much of a purpose. The realisation of covering the same grounds, having similar experiences and not having new cultures in which to immerse ourselves had reduced the love we have for our floating life.
The excitement ‘Amideau’ had for sailing across their second ocean, the northern North Atlantic, couldn’t have failed to rub off on us. With them crossing the pond in the coming days a cunning plan started to form in our minds; we’d cross behind them and be back in UK waters before then end of the summer.
There were some pretty significant hurdles to overcome. We had to get Ruffian ready, rejig insurance, employ a weather router, understand the route and finally get a weather window. The wheels were set in motion and we felt like we had a purpose once again.
Jimmy Cornell of ‘World Cruising Routes’ fame, describes the sail from Halifax to Ireland as ‘a cold, foggy and wet route at the best of times.’ We are hardy northern Europeans and we thought we could easily take this in our stride. As Ruffian was getting readier and readier and our understanding of the current conditions became better and better we got more and more scared.
In normal years you just sail downwind around the north of the Azores high and south of the ice. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. This year however it’s all a bit more difficult.
Between us and Ireland are 2 huge features that are not normally there. The Azores high is 1000 miles north of where it should be and icebergs are floating down the Labrador Current 250 miles south of where they should be. This means that to sail with fair winds across the Atlantic now you have to brave sailing though the icebergs.
On boats that have radar and can see in the dark this isn’t too much of a problem, on Ruffian we don’t have that luxury and therefore can’t go through the ice. The thought of hurtling along at 6 knots, at night and ploughing into an iceberg filled us with fear. We had no intension of turning Ruffian into a 21st century version of ‘The Titanic.’
We had call after call with the weather router and with each day they became more and more despondent about our chances of crossing. The final conversation with the router contained some phrases that made us question the whole plan. They said ‘The ice is more extensive than we’ve ever seen it at this time of year.’, ‘Hmm. You can’t motor 1000 miles through the middle of the high.’, ‘The high is pretty well established.’ and, worst of all, ‘Give us a call in a week and we’ll see what has developed.’
With all this knowledge we waved goodbye to ‘Amideau’. They were happy to sail upwind and more importantly they could see the ice through the fog and the dark. We were left all alone feeling deflated with no window to head east on the horizon. It was the end of a great plan.
With the door firmly shut to the Atlantic we opened another to the alternative lifestyles of the LGBQT community in Halifax. Our deflation coincided with the annual gay pride march. Larry was firmly left at home as we couldn’t deal with the consequences of him seeing the march and we sat in awe as every creed colour and persuasion of individual danced through the streets of Halifax.
Brilliantly enough in the parade we finally saw our first proper Canadian Mounty and so we now feel that we’ve ‘done’ Nova Scotia. We’re now on our way back west where we hope to get out of the fog, out of the cold and back into the US of A where the amazing delights of Maine await us.
Etchell sailing in the sunshine. The hero just before the zero, another broken halyard puts paid to our race.
The locals launched fireworks to say a final farewell to ‘Amideau’.
Skyping and downloading in the early morning.
Ohhh the north Atlantic looks cold with a capitol Brrrrrrr.
That ice goes further south than anyone has seen in a long time.
Brilliant. The Azores high is not above the Azores. Upwind for 1000 miles or sailing through the ice. What a decision?
Even the Mounties horses turn a bit ‘gay’ during Gay Pride.
Pumping tunes and naked bodies.
Gay pride is all very, errrr, gay.
Iain very much gets ‘into it’.
Larry ‘gets into’ it more than anybody else.