Category Archives: Sailing in the Northumberland Strait

The “shakedown” cruise of 2015 actually went fairly well. Compared to most years, this one was quite low key. I remember last year when we left Souris and rounded the corner at Cape Bear, everything went crazy – lots of wind from several directions and big waves. This year was much better.

We intended to leave at 5:00 but by the time we got organized and the fog has dissipated, it was 6:30. We left in the rain but there was very little wind. That was good because we had to keep our eyes peeled the entire day! We were on the lookout for lobster traps and knew that if one wrapped around the prop, it would be very bad news. We managed to miss them all but our track was probably not a very impressive straight line. At one point, when Dennis was having a nap and I was in charge, I spotted a whole bunch of lobster pot markers and veered off course. The markers suddenly flew up into sky. Humph!

The weather was a typical Maritime day – rain, fog, wind, sun, more rain and then more sun. Most of our time on the water today was rainy but it did clear up at around 1:00 and became a beautiful day.

The highlight of the day was when a little porpoise came alongside the boat and started swimming beside us. He then went in front of the boat and swam right in front of the bow for a good five minutes. It was really interesting to watch him dive and come right back up in front of the boat.

Once we arrived at Wood Islands, we immediately went over to Crabby’s and learned that it was NOT open and that it had changed hands. The new owners will open up in July so we will see if they were able to get the lobster roll recipe from Crabby as it was awesome!

Not much else happened today. All is good – we will be heading to Summerside tomorrow but it will be a long day on the water. North wind so it should be good for sailing. We will have to keep our eye on the lobster pots again.

Here is an older post of the 2012 Shakedown Cruise.

This is a picture of our boat taken by Donna McCarthy in Summerside.

We finally, finally got to leave Summerside on Monday. The wind warning had disappeared so we were happy to get going! We left early – around 6:30 and the sea was calm for most of the day. Of course, the fog rolled in for a few hours but we always had some visibility. Dennis turned on the radar, just to be on the safe side, and discovered that it didn’t work. He had crossed some wires (or something) when he had been working on the light for the top of the mast a few weeks ago. Luckily, he managed to fix the radar quite quickly.

There were quite a few lobster or (crab pots – we’re not sure) along the way, so we had to keep our eyes peeled. Unfortunately, we caught a line and dragged a trap for a bit. We went around in a circle, trying to lose it – hopefully it had only caught the keel and not the propellor! It fell off when we went in reverse. Whew! Dennis was not looking forward to diving down on the prop and cutting the line.

We carried on and made it in to Wood Islands at around 4:00 – just in time to meet up with David and Joy who were very nice to us and bought us dinner at Crabby’s. The lobster rolls and chowder were both excellent!

We left early again this morning and had some fog but also had some visibility so it wasn’t very worrisome. The weather forecast was not in our favour though and the entire area had another wind warning but we were ok. At around 9:30, Dennis just left his post to go make some coffee and I looked over on my port side and spotted a HUGE whale! It was very close and was about the length of our boat and travelling at the same speed. It surfaced twice, just long enough for me to see and then it was gone. Pretty cool though!

We got into Souris at 1:00 and enjoyed talking to Debbie. We felt like we were home! The marina had a couple of adventures over the summer and it was good to get caught up on the news. We also saw Dale (from Tranquilium) and had him over for supper.

The boat is coming out of the water tomorrow at 1:00 so if you want to see it, just watch on the harbour cam.

Here are a few pictures. The one on the left is of our view in the fog. The top right picture is of the information building at Wood Islands and the bottom picture is the Dutch Runner, seriously leaning in the Souris Harbour.

So, we had a lot of fun this summer and would like to finish off our adventure with a little video that we made this morning. Enjoy! Stay tuned though for another new adventure!

Here are a few pictures of the goings on in Summerside this week. The yacht club had their 50th anniversary and had all sorts of activities including the Parade of Lights. Boaters were encouraged to dress up their boats with lights and do a sail past when it became dark. I got to be a judge and it was lots of fun! Boats were extremely well decorated. The sailboats, especially, with their masts, were able to really make things look spectacular! One of the powerboats, some people from New Brunswick, really put a lot of effort into the festivities as they had a small band (fiddle, guitar and banjo) on board – they could really play! Everyone also dressed up as pirates and as they went by for the sail past (several times), we could hear them belting out another round the Drunken Sailor! They got a prize for best participation! Anyway, here are some pictures of the Parade of Lights.

The other pictures are of Summerside and surrounding area. The fields are a beautiful colour, getting ready for harvest. The picture of the dogs was taken along the boardwalk – everyone likes to walk their dogs there. The final picture is of the skateboard park – it is pretty big – almost the same size as the skateboard park in Barrie.

We will hopefully leave for Souris tomorrow – we will only get as far as Wood Islands but the winds are in our favour so it should be a fun ride! Monday, not so much as the winds are supposed to switch. Of course, the forecast may change – who knows? Tomorrow, we should be able to see the Tall Ships leaving Charlottetown and coming into Summerside  and hopefully I will be able to get a few good pictures!

That’s all the news for now…

On Thursday, we woke up early because the weather warning had been lifted the night before and we hoped to leave. Of course, a new weather warning appeared so we spent an hour weighing the pros and cons of leaving. The wind was coming from the west (which would mean it would be right on our nose) but it was supposed to switch to the north east (which would be perfect for sailing to Woods Island). We decided to leave and take our chances!

We spotted Dale from Tranquilium heading towards the Canso Locks and tried to radio him but he wasn’t answering. I managed to get some pictures of his boat in the rainbow. Here are some pictures of the beautiful rainbow that we saw as we headed into the lock.

Once we cleared the lock, the waves picked up but it wasn’t too bad. We could have gone to Ballantyne’s Cove but decided to continue on to Woods Island. It was a long day! We got in to Wood Islands just after Crabby’s had closed so we didn’t get any lobster rolls! Hmph! (We have one more chance to get them on our way back to Souris).

The next day, we headed out early again so that we could get to Summerside. We actually were able to sail most of the way. Here’s a video of us sailing under the bridge.

So, here we are back in Summerside at our slip. Not much is new but we will be here for a week – probably until after Labour Day and then we will head up to Souris, put the boat up for the winter and come home.

Here are a few pictures of some kids getting ready to jump in the St. Peter’s Canal and the Parks Canada lady at St. Peter’s. She’s the one that had to open the bridge and then race over to the lock to let us through as well as another picture of the rainbow, the ospreys (all grown up)  and the lighthouse at Woods Island.

So, we are here for another day. The wind warning ended last night and we thought that we would be able to leave but a new wind warning was posted this morning, so here we are. We may be staying tomorrow too!

I will explain the pictures below. In the top picture, the coast guard, which is right beside the marina, spent quite a bit of time on a safety/rescue drill. We watched them for a while and got to talking to some other people on the dock. Then, I noticed that something was burning and when we looked at our stove, the eggs had been left on and they boiled dry. That was a bit of a mess!

The bottom picture is of John. He is on the boat in front of us and has been here for eight days. His wife left to go to Newfoundland so that she could look after her ailing mother and he has had a variety of other crew members who have also left. One lasted nine days and the other lasted eleven. So, now he is kind of stuck. He’s waiting for his wife to return and just bought a membership to the yacht club! His original plan was to sail south but it looks like he might be putting the boat up here in Port Hawkesbury.

John bought his boat in Louisiana, near New Orleans, shortly before Hurricane Katrina hit. He and his wife were at home in Belleville and after a lengthy delay, finally got to go down to down to assess the damage. His boat was in a marina all tangled up with all the other boats, docks and debris. He said that the water level went up 22 feet. There was (is?) a condominium at the marina and the first two floors were underwater. It took him two days to get the boat secured and he left it tied up to the remnants of a dock. He said the smell of everything rotting in the humidity and heat was terrible. He went back home to start straightening out the insurance and found out that the salvage company came along and took all the boats away – just hauled them to a variety of fields. He then went back down to New Orleans and spent a good long time looking for the boat and finally found it in a field with hundreds of other boats. In addition to the damaged boat, somebody had taken everything they could off the boat – cutlery, binoculars – anything that was of some value.

He managed to get it trucked up to Belleville and then fixed it up and is sailing it now. Here are some pictures that he took of the damage. Yikes!

So, that is all the news for today. We are keeping our eye out for the weather and hopefully be able to leave soon.