HR and Malolo

[StevenBauer]

Hey all you Nova Scotia types - keep an eye out for Howard and Donna aboard Malolo with their Portugese Water Dogs, Storm and Zephyr. They have left Maine and are heading your way!

Here she is:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid172/pccedc9ac1ede9ac440dc72bf14410f2e/f3c015d5.jpg

Hughman went up the mast to fix a little sailtrack problem:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid172/pabdd215ef4986e2e3ff68808f7ac795c/f3c015d0.jpg

I didn't get a good shot of the dogs, here's what I have:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid172/p45e3098e540631d42b79586809b88216/f3c01597.jpg

And I'll just throw one in of my dog with Mary and Holly:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid172/peda1cee5fd0c10b7aa5c944c52f4be2c/f3c0159e.jpg

[mmd]

From Environment Canada's marine weather forecast"

"Winds southwest 10 to 15 knots increasing to southwest 15 to 20 Near noon Sunday. Fog banks. Occasional showers. Visibility poor In fog and fair in showers. Little temperature change.
Outlook for Monday...Moderate westerlies"

In other words, nice sailing breezes in the proper direction, but crappy visibility. I hope the fog blows off before they try creeping into Tanner Cove half blind! Their house is shown by the red arrow on the chart below. As you can see, it is a nasty spot to make a wrong turn.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid172/p62b22b8f50129d76a64f940a741b2ab2/f3bf54ad.jpg

[StevenBauer]

They have to clear customs first. I can't remember where he said he would go to do that. He was going to sail from Boothbay to Matinicus Island, then jump over when the conditions were right. I think they left Boothbay on Wednesday so they might be home by now. Their big problem is that their car is still in Boothbay and, as you know, they kind of need it to get around once they get home. I guess their place is kind of remote. :D
I hope to meet you at the festival Michael. Are you giving a talk this year?

Steven

[mmd]

Hi, Steven;

If they want to do it the old-fashioned way, they can clear customs in Lunenburg. The new-fangled way for US or Canuck yachties entering Canada by yacht is to call a 1-800 number and do your declarations over the 'phone. (I bet that'll get the security-mad on the forum all in a tizzy! :D ) Details at CANPASS. (http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel/canpass/canpassprivateboat-e.html) As for their place being remote; well, yes and no. As you can see by the chart it is somewhat back-of-beyond, and the landscape is more lunar than terrestrial, but it is only about a 12-15 minute drive from downtown Lunenburg - a $10 taxi ride.

Yes, I am going to run my mouth off again at this year's Mahone Bay Festival. The topic this year is vibration and noise reduction in inboard powerboats. I haven't been assigned a day and date yet. Hope to see you there - contact me off-forum and I'll pass on my phone number so we can arrange a meet.

Edit to add a link (http://www.woodenboatfestival.org/) to the Festival homepage.

[ 06-11-2005, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: mmd ]

[HR]

Since you were talking about me behind my back, I thought that I better update the story!

We arrived home safely yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. The trip was good, but certainly not uneventful (they never are, it seems).

We left Boothbay Harbor Wed. morning with the intent to sail 30 miles to Manticus Island, spend the night, then head across to Nova Scotia. After motoring about 2 hours (no wind), the transmission overheated and we had no forward gear. We set sail and decided that we would just head straight for NS. After the engine cooled, we fired it up again and found that if we ran at idle in forward, with the engine hatches open, the transmission would not overheat. That let us keep going at about 3 knots, picking up to 4 or 5 if the wind picked up a bit to assist.

Here's the crew, hard at work...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid173/p91634587c4ccf9b8bff6bfc66e6334fa/f3bc09fc.jpg

And the wild conditions out on the Bay of Fundy...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid173/p41410cd3a14b8b01e15b7bbe06feccb4/f3bc0a01.jpg

The wind stayed light for the most part, so we basically motorsailed across the Bay of Fundy at 3 knots, with a little bit of sailing thrown in. We arrived at Blonde Rock at the SE corner of NS (a distance of about 160nm) Thursday overnight, in the middle of a fog bank. We then motorsailed/sailed up the coast in fog (were we ever glad that we decided to put radar on the boat!) towards Lunenburg (about 110nm). We were about 10 miles from Lunenburg when the oil pressure on the engine dropped to 0. There was absolutely no wind, so we just floated around while I did an oil change to see if that would help (there was no other sign of trouble). That bought us another hour or so of engine, at which point we were not far from Lunenburg, but had no wind or engine to get there. It could be that the oil pressure sender fried itself, but I couldn't take the chance of running the engine with no pressure.

Fortunately, our neighbour (who is a fisherman) had jokingly said before we left that he would come as far as Shelburne (about 50 miles from Lunenburg) to get us if we needed him. Well, I called him up and out he came and towed us the last 5 miles or so to home. What a way to end the trip! I told him that he owes us a favor since he only had to go 5 miles to get us - he still owes us another 45 miles, I figure!

I called Canada customs from the boat and they agreed that because of our engine troubles I could skip going to Lunenburg to report and that instead they would send agents to our mooring and meet us there. That saved us a lot of trouble. All went well and Malolo is now settled on her new home mooring.

The dogs were terrific on the trip, especially considering how active they normally are. They slept most of the time and sort of learned to use the head, but need some more "practice". The really telling part is that now that we're home and we get in the dinghy to go back out to the boat, Storm and Zephyr are the first ones to jump in. I guess it wasn't too hard on them!

Many thanks to Steven Bauer and family for their visits (which gave us a much needed social break) and for introducing us to Hugh(man) and Ginger.

Malolo on her new home mooring...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid173/pbd20ce10104d61bf69a2e6e8a77227b0/f3bc0a03.jpg

We're looking forward to continuing to fix up Malolo and cruising around Nova Scotia this summer.

[Thad]

Excellent!