The Niagara
Monday, July 17, 2017
Re: Day 38 Quebec City
Welcome home, Uncle J!
On Mon, Jul 17, 2017 at 7:38 AM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:
We have arrived and are docking.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Day 37
We are creeping up stream at 3 knots trying not to arrive at our rendezvous with the pilots early.
Over night Eagle has caught up with us.
Day 38 4,000 Nautical Miles
Just finished the late dog watch, 6-8 pm. Beautiful pastel peach sunset forming. 15 C. Broken sky. 20 knots of wind and 1 ft seas.
We are now in the St Lawrence River as opposed to the Gulf of St Lawrence and both shores are clearly visible.
We passed the US Coast Guard tail ship Eagle at anchor. She had been ahead of us but has been directed by the shipping control authorities to wait. There is a schedule of when ships are to meet thier pilots and, correspondingly, when they are to arrive and, apparently, Eagle was ahead of her schedule.
We will be picking up our two pilots tomorrow at 4:00 pm. They will stay on board, working in shifts, until we are docked.
I learned from our First Mate that Eagle is actually a WWII German war prize, that she is about 90 years old, 80 meters long and has a steel hull. Nellie is about 50 meters long.
Everyone is looking forward to the completion of the voyage, seeing all of the tall ships and Quebec City. Its been a long time together on this relatively small ship with 46 other people. It will be be good to enjoy the simple pleasures of being on land, having the amenities of modern life and fresh decaf coffee. Sleeping in even a twin size bed will seem luxurious.
As posted on the travelsofjongordon@blogspot.com.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Day 36 Part Two
We've dropped anchor in a cove off one of the islands in a national park on the north shore of the St Lawrence. I will have to look up the name.
Hiked a moss floored trail about 1.5 km through conifer and fern forest to the other side. Discover a clear water, sand bottom pond, a beautiful patch of ferns and the west shore. There was a sign pointing to a campsite
Day 36 Midnight Watch
Its 1 o'clock. There is a big, fat, yellow moon, just past full, hanging above the stern bringing a silver shine to our wake. The sky is dark, clear and full of stars. As I look up I see an occasional shooting star arc down towards the water.
The wind and waves are calm as Nellie knifes her way through the dark St Lawrence water at almost 8 knots under bare poles, a bone in her teeth from our two Cummins engines. As I look down at our bow wake I see sparkles of bio luminescence scattered in the foam like white chocolate drops in a dark chocolate batter. The faint scent of pine greeted me when I came on deck.
We chat excitedly about this magic night after so many cold cloudy watches in the watery desert of the sea.
Its 3 am and dawn is cracking the northeast horizon behind the Canadian shore.
Its great to be me.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Day 35 Part Two
Winds continued to blow at a steady 40 knots with higher gusts.
Towards the end of the evening we mustered on deck to set the forejib. We got it hoisted, but before we could get it sheeted a gust of some 50 knots shook it and it tor into shreds. Also broke a very large wooden cleat. I happened to get it on video.
Day 35
Motorsailing up the St Lawrence River. Gale force winds, then rain and fog, then less wind and some sun. Its so wide we can't see either shore.
An orca sighting, but I missed it.
Of course, the wind is on the nose from the southwest once again and we are also fighting the current. Because there is a relatively narrow west bound shipping lane that we are confined to we are tacking back and forth within the lane to get a bit of angle on the wind and thereby gain a little speed. Currently, we are doing only 2-4 knots. This should improve when we reach a turn in the river and have the wind in a more favorable direction.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Day 33
I had the privilege of being the helmsman as we left port under sail.
Then a spin around a very large berg that has run aground.
We're now going to round the north end of New Foundland and enter the St Lawrence.
Monday, July 10, 2017
Re: Day 32 Part Two
Looks like you are really taking to the seaman's life! I'm concerned you may never come home. your new look reminds me a bit of the Travelocity gnome. ;)
On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 10:34 AM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:
Please note Lord Nelson on the left side of the photo and the iceberg passing the entrance to the inlet in the upper right hand corner.Taken from an overlook on a trail from the Grendel House to the American Base (former cold war radar base).
Day 32 Part Two
Please note Lord Nelson on the left side of the photo and the iceberg passing the entrance to the inlet in the upper right hand corner.
Taken from an overlook on a trail from the Grendel House to the American Base (former cold war radar base).
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Day 32 Part Two
After a tasty meal of tofu and vegetables, a stop at Tim Hortons for a bagel and decaf coffee and a final stop at Jungle Jim's for fries and a beer I'm back on board for a nap before harbor watch at 2:00 AM.
Below is sunset and moonrise taken 15 minutes apart.
The watchman says they have wolves coyotes bear and moose here too,
Day 32 - 20 Miles Out of St Anthony
This morning we were welcomed to Canadian waters by a trio of icebergs, as shown on the radar below.
Its bright sunshine, calm winds and fog.
Day 23 Part Three
Well, as I always say, its better to be lucky than smart.
So far the weather has been mild. While it is 6 degrees C the wind is only a few knots out of the south southwest, so the wind chill is not significant and the 6 layers of clothing feels a bit too warm.
There is a low ceiling of gray heavy clouds over a gray sea. The sunlight filtering through the clouds is gray too. It's a nondescript gray desert of water with the swells lifting and pitching the ship. Even our constant seagull escort has disappeared. No, as I look up there they are, swooping just above the wave tops looking for prey.
Who knows, we're off watch at midnight and when we wake up at 7:30 for breakfast the wind shift from the northeast may have set in, or not.
Meanwhile, the Murder Game continues.
Day 26 - Ice?
We have been motor sailing south for several days now and are east of the coast of Labrador, the home of the North Atlantic low pressure systems that move east to the UK. Luckily for us, we are in a high and yesterday, for the first time in a week, we had blue skies! Meanwhile, we have continued to have numerous fin whale spottings as they migrate north.
This is great for moral. People are coming on deck to experience this novel weather and we actually had visitors on the bridge during our 4 pm to 6 pm early dog watch. The 25 knot winds and 8.5 degree C temperatures seeming warm.
Our big problem now is how the ice along the Labrador coast will effect our course. We'd love to be able to slip between Labrador and New Brunswick and save several days thereby having the time to visit either St. Johns or one of the small French Islands just to the east of New Brunswick, but the current ice report in this year of record ice shows one iceberg per square mile for 250 miles southeast of New Brunswick, just where we would like to sail. If this holds we will have to sail south of New Brunswick, about an extra 500 nautical miles, which could take 3 to 4 days.
The murder game continues. I was knocked off by Tom, a bosun's mate and a friend of mine when he asked me to hold a bucket while we were standing at the port foremast sheet.
While we are motor sailing night watches have been reduced to 3 or 4 crew members and last night was my turn to sleep. Yes!
I've been asked by several British crew members what I plan to do for the 4th tomorrow. I've told them that, short of getting ahold of the flare gun for an hour, not very much. They have suggested playing Jimmy Hendrix's version of the Star Spangled Banner, but I'm leaning towards the US Blues by the Grateful Dead.
Day 21 Good Bye Iceland
We are presently motor sailing west with Iceland astern. The wind is from the west and the forecast has us motor sailing most of the way to New Foundland.
All told, we spent 6 nights either docked or anchored here, plus an afternoon anchored at the hot springs. Add to that the 4 nights that Ann and I spent prior to the voyage and that adds up to a whole lot of fjords, hot springs, museums, restaurants and Icelanders. We traveled above the Artic Circle and visited places most tourists never see.
For a relatively small island country it has an amazing variety of subclimates, people and local culture. One could, for example, spend a month wandering around the western fjords and still not see it all. This is, in large part due to the terrain and road buildiplng. The Central Plateau, I'm told, is a complete wilderness area, only accessible in the summer months like much of the east, north and northwest coasts, linked together by air or the ring road which follows the irregular, finger like fjords and intervening mountains effectively, it seems, doubling the driving distance. Boats are still often the easiest way to get from one place to another as most towns are on the coast or in a fjord.
Now the ship board routine returns. We have left the Icelandic time zone and will over the coming days cross 2 more time zones.
The captain, permanent crew and voyage crew have all proven to be great people who are very adept at getting along in a small confining space and moral is high.
Day 31 Part Two
No, that's not my belly button in the pocket of my hoodie and I am not just glad to have some sun and no wind!
We will be entering the St Anthony harbor in 2 hours. I've been assigned linesman duty which means that I and a few others will go ashore by rubber boat to take the docking lines when Nellie docks. In Akureyri with gale force winds the was quite tricky. Today, so far, it is calm and it should be a straight forward task.
We are all very excited to be finally reaching Canada after weeks at sea
Our course from Iceland took us to seldom traveled waters where we saw no other ship traffic, aircraft or any other signs of either land or man. It will be be hard to be patient going up river for several days covering the final miles to Quebec City.
The St Lawrence estuary will be our second major estuary, the first having been the Thames. We will be going up stream against the current under power and will have 2 pilots on board to guide us during the busiest stretch. They will take shifts during the 26 hours that they are on board, eating and sleeping on board as well.
To give you an idea of how large this river that drains 20 % of the world's fresh water is, I'm told that there are places where the shipping channel narrows to only 1 mile and, should a larger ship meet us coming down stream, we will have to move aside to yield the right of way.
Day 31 Part Two
Posted on thetravelsofjongordon.blogspot.com
Tonight's 8 to 12 watch was quite a change.
The rain had stopped. The wind remained clam the sea was pretty flat, but the fog was still there. Although the temperature was about 6 C, with the calm wind it felt warmer.
A burgie bit had been spotted earlier in the day, so the lookouts were on high alert.
Early into the watch the captain announced that he expected that we would arrive at St Anthony by 10 am tomorrow, unless we had to reduce speed due to icebergs.
About 9:30, while the sun was still setting what looked like a full moon began to rise in the east. It was obscured by the fog until was about 30 degrees above the horizon, at which point it became clear. The setting sun was a dull glow behind the fog while the moon added a soft defused light that painted the fog in a pallet of pastels; soft rose /peach running to shades of light gray to gunmetal. As the sky above the fog began to clear we saw stars for the first time in weeks. Unfortunately, this wonderful weather phenomenon did not last very long long and the fog and clouds finally won out. At the end of the watch everything was as if the midnight sun never occurred
Day 29 Part Two
Well, like I always say, it's better to be lucky than smart. We reached our 50 degrees north latitude turning point and tacked to the west headed for 50 west longitude, the sky is mostly clear, the temperature is up to 10 degrees C and the big wind storm has missed us. Better still, the reports say the ice field is smaller and we've see no ice, so the water tight doors and special lookouts are postponed for tonight.
I've attached a photo of tonight's sunset, the first we've seen since leaving the UK north coast about a month ago due to a combination of midnight sun and constant cloud cover. Yahooo!
Day 31 Its St Anthony not St Johns
I have been laboring under a misconception! We're headed for the north end of New Brunswick and the port at the north end is St Anthony. All of my references to St Johns should have been St Anthony.
I had the morning watch today, 8 to 12.30 pm. Coming on to the bridge we discovered that the fierce southwesterly winds of yesterday had abated taking the seemingly warm 11 C temperatures with it and leaving us with a very dense fog and moderate, but cold 6 C instead. The night watch had reported a low of 4.5 C, a bit colder than the Artic Circle was. This means that we are on the famous Grand Banks and in the Labrador Current, which runs right down from Greenland bringing ice with it.
We implemented the ice procedures I've previously outlined except for hoving to over night. Instead, we've been motoring through the fog, eyes glued to the radar and extra lookouts vigilantly scanning ahead. So far, so good.
It looks like we will make land fall at St Anthony tomorrow and all of these emails sitting in my outbox with arrive. We plan to clear Customs there. Oh Canada, how nice it will be to see you!
Day 30
This morning we passed the 3000 nautical miles mark. About 1000 to go.
We've been sailing due west and tonight we are about 280 miles away from St Johns and should make port on Sunday.
Our dash south spared us the worst of the wind storm, however, we have gale force winds and 12 to 15 seas. Its been a bumpy ride. Everyone has a bruise somewhere from being suddenly thrown into a fitting or a bulkhead or a bench.
The 8 to 12.30pm watch tomorrow.
Day 23 Part Three
Well, as I always say, its better to be lucky than smart.
So far the weather has been mild. While it is 6 degrees C the wind is only a few knots out of the south southwest, so the wind chill is not significant and the 6 layers of clothing feels a bit too warm.
There is a low ceiling of gray heavy clouds over a gray sea. The sunlight filtering through the clouds is gray too. It's a nondescript gray desert of water with the swells lifting and pitching the ship. Even our constant seagull escort has disappeared. No, as I look up there they are, swooping just above the wave tops looking for prey.
Who knows, we're off watch at midnight and when we wake up at 7:30 for breakfast the wind shift from the northeast may have set in, or not.
Meanwhile, the Murder Game continues.
Day 29 Ice Reported Ahead
We had a meeting of the entire ship's complement to hear the captain explain what would be happening during the balance of the voyage and how we will be dealing with possible iceberg conditions.
We're motor sailing for a way point of 50 degrees north and 50 degrees west which will place us about 120 nautical miles east of New Brunswick as the wind is still against us and expected to increase . However, to get there we will have to sail west through the area where icebergs and bergy bites are now being spotted by the Canadian authorities. The captain is expecting that there will be an alley of no ice that we can slip through, but the reports are not certain and are subject to change.
He has set the following preventive measures beginning midnight tonight; the watertight doors to the foc'sle will be closed, in addition to the regular lookouts there will be two lookouts on the cross trees (platform) on the foremast, if we find that we are seeing ice we will hove to (stop sailing) at night, the engines will be ready to go full reverse at all times and, when we get closer to shore we may anchor overnight if it is too dangerous to proceed.
He now feels that we will be be able to stop at St John's, New Foundland, but we may or may not have enough time to to go ashore depending on how long it takes to get through the ice.
The icebergs show up on radar, so they are the least dangerous. The bergy bits, small pieces of icebergs are more dangerous as they float at the water's surface, but the greatest danger comes from the growlers, pieces of bergy bits about the size of a shipping container that float below the surface. Hitting anyone of these would be the same as colliding with a fishing trawler. Not good. The amount of reported ice is diminishing each day and we have no other option but to move forward with the proper precautions.
Obviously, if you are reading this we have made it to New Brunswick.
Stay tuned.
Day 27 - July 4th - Ice!
Today started with the usual breakfast. Since we had the morning watch 8-12:30 we were called to breakfast early. It is also the captain's 32 birthday. I received many "happy Independence Day" wishes and joked about it being a legal holiday and free parking.
Its been very foggy, about 9 degrees C with a southwest wind of 25 to 30 knots from the southwest, so we've been motor sailing and tacking from a southerly to westerly course. There has been drizzle and frozen rain.
As we were getting ready for lunch the captain came on the pa to announce that our radar is showing several small targets that could be ice and, as a precaution, we would be closing the water tight doors between the foc'sle, where I and 19 others have their bunks. This means that we now need to climb a stairway up and into the upper mess to exit the foc'sle.
While taking this precaution makes sense, it was a bit disconcerting to watch the doors being pumped shut by a hydraulic system as a klaxon sounded.
We have posted additional lookouts, but with a speed of 5 to 6 knots and visibility reduced to about a half mile, l am not sure how well we can avoid a collision. This is a particular concern as there could well be smaller bergy bites and growlers that float at or below the surface that do not show up on the radar. Should we strike one and have a leak we would have to to evacuate the foc'sle promptly before it floods leaving behind all our gear and possessions.
Its now 5:00 PM and the alert has passed. The artifacts on the radar turned out to be a weather front and not ice, the water tight doors are open and we are back to normal.
Just enough time to listen to the US Blues by the Dead to celebrate the 4th!
Day 26 Part Two
We've finally got enough wind from the right direction to sail!
We're on a course of 240 degrees about 640 nautical miles east of the Labrador coast from Goose Bay. The captain estimates about 5 days sailing before we have to make a decision regarding the ice at the north entrance to the St. Lawrence River between Labrador and New Brunswick.
The temperature at 8 pm was 7.5 C with winds of 25 knots.
Day 23 Part Two - Weather and Progress Report
Posted on thetravelsofjongordon.blogspot.com
It's now 6:48 ship's time. We've been adjusting our clocks as we progress across the Atlantic having gained an hour so far from the time in Iceland.
We are now about 75 nautical miles off the coast of Greenland, just outside the Polar Zone, which we are not allowed to enter as the ship does not meet the new requirements created about 5 years ago for safety (think icebergs) and are approaching Cape Farewell, the southern most tip of that still frozen land.
The wind is backing around (counterclockwise) to the southeast from the southwest and is forecasted to become northeast around midnight, when my watch will end. This is good news for making headway and, if strong enough, for turning off our two Cummings diesel engines and setting sail again. We will also be picking up the south bound Greenland Current.
However, in terms of staying warm, this likely means cold Artic winds and a cold water current. The Captain points out that we will be turning south and be moving into more southerly latitudes as we make for New Foundland. The coldest air temperatures we've experienced so far was 5 degrees C when crossing the Artic Circle off the northeast tip of Iceland. We've crossed the Artic Circle twice, not counting hiking to the top of Grimsey Island, when passing the northeast and northwest tips of Iceland.
We have not seen another ship in these seldom traveled waters in days.
To date, I've worn 5 layers of warm clothing under my foul weather gear and have only one more layer to add. With all of that on I feel like the Michelin Man, but its the only thing to do to fight the wind chill. I'm very glad I brought additional long underwear and warm mittens in Iceland. We were never told that our route would take us so far north.
You may recall that on our passage off northeast Iceland not only was it cold, but we had steady winds of 25 to 30 knots with the occasional gusts of 40 knots (gale force) giving us a boat speed of up to 9 knots versus the 5 to 6 knots that we've been doing motor sailing has.
The forecast is for more mild wind speeds for the next day or so, but could change at any time. We may even see icebergs or flow ice.
To keep warm we do have a wind break around the bridge and take turns going into the adjacent enclosed chart house along with warm drinks. When off watch the upper mess and below deck are reasonably warm and Nellie does have hot and cold running water (most of the time for the hot).
Day 23 150 Miles Southwest of Greenland
Whales and whales and whales.
We are still motor sailing at about 5 to 6 knots with a south southwesterly wind of about 10 knots, relatively flat seas and continued cloudy skies.
I was asked to be Temporary Watch Leader today while Sherwood was on mess duty.
My 8 to noon watch was refreshing in its serenity. Smooth seas, a warmer wind and visibility of 10 miles made for a reduced wind chill and pleasant conditions. The moisture in the clouds even briefly produced a double rainbow!
Our course is roughly parallel and in between two major currents, the warm Denmark Current flowing north to the east of us and the cold East Greenland Current flowing south to our west. This, apparently is the sweet spot for whales. We have regularly been spotting Fin Whales in pods of about 6 spouting and swimming parallel to the ship, surfacing off either side and even have seen one swimming across our bow about 300 yards in front of us.
Talk on Nellie has been focused on two main subjects; the plan to make port at St. Johns, New Foundland and "The Murder Game".
The Tall Ship regatta that we will be attending to celebrate the 150 anniversary of the founding of Canada will start with a parade of ships as they enter Quebec City on the 18th of July. This will require that we arrive only at that time and in a particular order. This means that we will have to be precise about our arrival and we now are a bit ahead of schedule presuming that we will not have to change course due to ice. In order to make our schedule we may have to make our official entry into Canada at St. Johns and stay there for a night or two.
The Murder Game started today. This is essentially the game of Clue played out in real time. We all drew three pieces of paper from three different pots; one with a name, one with a location and one with a weapon. The object of the game is to get your victim to freely accept the weapon from you in the specified location. When this happens, you receive thier draws and proceed to the next victim.
Unfortunately for me, I've drawn the First Mate with a spoon in the toilet. Since he has a private toilet this will be very difficult. I can, however, enlist an assassin from the ranks of the people already dispatched. I'm hoping that I will last long enough to be able to use the Engineer or his assistant.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Day 20 Off to Canada
Had a wonderful soak at a rustic hot springs and now we're off to Canada steering a course of 254, 1,300 miles!
Monday, June 26, 2017
Day 19 Pingeyri
Yesterday we made our way out of the unsettled fjord we had anchored in and proceeded to Pingeyri, a town of 230 souls nestled on the shore of beautiful fjord, part of the western fjords along the north portion of the west coast of Iceland.
This begins the south bound part of our voyage and will be our last port of call until we reach Canada. The sailing yesterday was in glorious sunshine, which has continued today. We were told by a local that there have been 3 sunny days in June as far.
We started the day with a bus tour to a magnificent 300 meter high waterfall. The bus took us out of the fjord valley and over a pass to the adjoining fjord valley to the south, where the waterfall is at the head of that fjord. The trip brought into focus how this part of Iceland and, for that matter, most of the Icelandic coast is likely a series of mountainous fingers separated by long, deep flooded valleys. The mountains are very steep, made of soft volcanic stone and gravel and quite prone to avalanches in the winter and rock falls in the spring and summer months. The roads are narrow and twisty and look like pieces of string that were tossed down randomly across the barron or grass covered black slopes with the occasional white patch of snow.
Our tour guide told us several very interesting things including how important elves , yes elves , are in Iceland. For example, when building a road there is an elf consultant, paid for by the government, who's job it is to advise the road builders if they are going to build the road in a place that is important to the elves. If there is a conflict the course of the road is changed to go around that place. This, we were told, is why one occasionally will see odd turns in an otherwise fairly straight road.
Tonight, we are hosting a BBQ for the entire town and have opened the ship for tours.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Day 16 Part Two
Nellie is rock'n and roll'n, heeling 30 degrees or more alternately from port to starboard with the occasional crash of pans and cookware from the gallery as they swing through their pendulum like arc with the movement of the ship.
If this wasn't obvious you could tell the sea conditions by the poor turn out at dinner and the Cookie's offer of seconds including the vanilla ice cream that is desert. Regrettably, there is no sorbet.
The Captain was just on the horn to announce that we are sailing along at 8 to 9 knots under winds of 35 to 40 knots and, if these conditions continue, we will be able to change course 12 hours, having reached the most northerly point of the voyage at the northwest tip of Iceland.
The bad news here for me is that we are on watch again from midnight to 4 am and that will be a cold wind.
Having finished my double serving of vegetable and rice stir fry I'm tucked into my berth with the lee board in place, literally a piece of wood now placed along the outside of my berth to prevent me from rolling out of it.
Time for a nap before watch.
Day 16 Leaving Akureyri and Whales
We left Akureyri this morning a bit late.
As you may recall, we had a very challenging arrival with gale force winds that were trying to push us onto the quayside, a very narrow harbor entrance and the harbor itself being a bit tight. The harbor is layed out with motorized fishing trawlers in mind that have bow and stern thrusters that can move either the bow or stern sideways.
Lacking these and sporting a 25 ft long bow sprint that projects forward of the actual front of the hull (stem) like a spear, maneuvering Nellie in close quarters is tricky. Add to that all of the masts, yardarms and furled sail (windage) in a 40 knot blow; well there's a lot to think about. To help, Nellie deploys its rubber boat with an outboard motor to push the bow or stern perpendicularly to achieve tight maneuvers. This typically works very well.
Coming into the harbor I was assigned to the fordeck to help with the docking lines (muscle), so I had a intimate view of what was happening.
Nellie's bow wouldn't move in the right direction, locked by the balance opposing forces of the wind versus the boat. For a few precarious and tense minutes it wasn't clear who was going to win. If the wind had won, she would have gone careening across the harbor and, as an emergency tactic, we would have had to drop our starboard anchor, leaving us (at best) stuck in the middle of the harbor and embarrassingly in need of a tow. Not what a captain want to have on his record! Fortunately, the boat won and our arrival went well.
Apparently, this did not escape the eye of the harbor master for, when our rubber boat bow thruster was struggling this morning to align Nellie's bow with the harbor mouth a tugboat magically appeared to provide a courtesy push to our bow and thereby assured our uneventful departure. When I looked up the harbor master was standing on the end of the quay, taking a photo and waving. Very nice!
We motored back north up the 30 fjord and back on to the open ocean on the north coast of Iceland, set our sails and are now sailing for the western fjords at about 8 knots. A very good pace. All of the sail handling fell on my watch so, with the rest of the crew we pulled and hoisted and trimmed sail in 40 degree weather with about 25 knots of wind. Upon completion we returned to our job of steering, lookout and log keeping while the rest of the crew rested.
They say that hard work is its own reward, but we got a big bonus by sighting whales 4 times. 3 were just spouts,, but the first one broke the surface just next to the ship as it spouted a then dove. Lucky for me, as it all happened right in front of me!
The consensus is that it was either a humpback or right whale. It had a small dorsal fin and dark skin.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Thar She Blows!
As we're motoring up the 30 mile long fjord a pilot whale began spouting and porpoising along our starboard side.
Weighing Anchor
The anchor chain (cable) is measured in shackles, which are 27 meters long. The scope of the anchor cable is payed out at a ratio or scope of (in this case) 3 to 1 based on the depth of the water, the ability of the ground to hold the anchor and the strength of the wind. In this case, about the length of a football field.
To sail off the anchor the Captain has to arrange the setting of the sails so that the ship is moving forward and away from the direction of the land.
Today, this required a combination of sails drawing wind and sails backed to the wind so that the ship rotated and moved forward correctly. You can imagine all of the hoisting and heaving that takes on a vessel with only a winch to raise the anchor.
Meanwhile, the anchor winch is busy pulling up the anchor cable. The cable is fed by gravity down a 6 inch pipe to the anchor chain locker where it piles up.
On Nellie, the locker is located in the bow, under the foc'sle. In this case the starboard side where the men sleep.
The deck hatches are removed and a large iron hook about 3 ft long, which is attached to a line is used to "flake out" or arrange the chain in neat even rows so that when we next drop anchor it will run free without jambing. You can imagine the damage that a suddenly jambed anchor chain would make as the enormous anchor is let go.
To achieve a proper flaking the iron hook is placed at the top of the pile by someone, who is laying on the deck reaching into the hold, hooking the link at the top of the pile and then 4 of us pulling the chain to the aft end of the hold while a 5th person guides the direction of the chain to achieve a proper flaking. The hooking and guiding is done by bosun mates, part of the permanent crew, while the pulling is done by we members of the voyage crew. There is a mirrored arrangement on the port side for the port anchor.
All went smoothly and we are now sailing to the mainland and then up a 30 mile long fjord to make port a Akureyri, Iceland's second city where we will spend 2 nights before proceeding to the western fjords.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Monday, June 19, 2017
Re: The Slaughter of the Pilot Whales (sensitive readers beware of the shocking images to follow)
Thanks UJ will check it out when I can. Happy Father's day
On Jun 19, 2017 3:50 PM, wrote:
You go girl! Delighted to hear this. Very proud of you. I broke a nail today too!On Jun 19, 2017 4:00 AM, "Sarah Gordon" <sarah.gordon7@gmail.com> wrote:Happy Father's Day to the best dad and uncle! :)Dad - you'd be proud...I was doing some aggressive sailing on a 50 footer today. I even ruined mymanicure to trim the jib. Saw a huge wale tail and seals. So while far apart, I'm channeling you today :).On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 7:16 PM John Van Zanten <john.b.vanzanten@gmail.com> wrote:Loving your pics and blog. Did you get to ask the Faroe Islanders about their "why" of pilot whale killing?On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:On our bus ride to Kirkjuburuirn we spotted a group of boats spread out in an arc across the mouth of a bay. A woman on the bus explained that we were seeing a pilot whale hunt. The boats were herding the whale to the beach where they would be stranded. The hunters then go shore and cut the whale's throats. She then smiled and said, "free meat tonight".She also explained the unexpected driver change our bus made an on our ride out, saying that he was going to participate in the hunt.We were appropriately shocked by this, but it quickly left our thoughts when we arrived at Kirkjuburuirn.Our return ride brought us back to our berth in the commercial section of the harbor only to discover that we were in the midst of the place were the whale corpses were being landed, inventoried and the butchering was started.There were rows and rows of dead pilot whales layed out on the pavement with more being pulled out of the water in twos and threes as we stared in horror. Whale blood was all over the ground and soaking into our docking lines. The air smelled of blood and death.Juxtapositioned against this were families in a festive mood, children rolling around and over the whale corpse while the corpses were having numbers cut into their skin and rectangular openings being cut into their bellies with their guts spilling on to the ground.We stopped counting at 200 whales. An entire whale community.
Re: The Slaughter of the Pilot Whales (sensitive readers beware of the shocking images to follow)
You go girl! Delighted to hear this. Very proud of you. I broke a nail today too!
On Jun 19, 2017 4:00 AM, "Sarah Gordon" <sarah.gordon7@gmail.com> wrote:
Happy Father's Day to the best dad and uncle! :)Dad - you'd be proud...I was doing some aggressive sailing on a 50 footer today. I even ruined mymanicure to trim the jib. Saw a huge wale tail and seals. So while far apart, I'm channeling you today :).On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 7:16 PM John Van Zanten <john.b.vanzanten@gmail.com> wrote:Loving your pics and blog. Did you get to ask the Faroe Islanders about their "why" of pilot whale killing?On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:On our bus ride to Kirkjuburuirn we spotted a group of boats spread out in an arc across the mouth of a bay. A woman on the bus explained that we were seeing a pilot whale hunt. The boats were herding the whale to the beach where they would be stranded. The hunters then go shore and cut the whale's throats. She then smiled and said, "free meat tonight".She also explained the unexpected driver change our bus made an on our ride out, saying that he was going to participate in the hunt.We were appropriately shocked by this, but it quickly left our thoughts when we arrived at Kirkjuburuirn.Our return ride brought us back to our berth in the commercial section of the harbor only to discover that we were in the midst of the place were the whale corpses were being landed, inventoried and the butchering was started.There were rows and rows of dead pilot whales layed out on the pavement with more being pulled out of the water in twos and threes as we stared in horror. Whale blood was all over the ground and soaking into our docking lines. The air smelled of blood and death.Juxtapositioned against this were families in a festive mood, children rolling around and over the whale corpse while the corpses were having numbers cut into their skin and rectangular openings being cut into their bellies with their guts spilling on to the ground.We stopped counting at 200 whales. An entire whale community.
Day 11 Mess Duty
Mess Duty starts with supper and ends with lunch. It's a lot of cleaning, cleaning and then cleaning. There is also food preparation, serving and then more cleaning.
You will recall that we were sailing along in rolling seas last night and making great progress. Well, today the seas have grown, sometimes as high as 15 ft and they are on the beam (coming from the side). This means that the ship rises and rolls as each wave passes under her. Depending on whether she catches the wave at the bottom, halfway up or at the top the motion of the ship varies. Our greatest heeling angle has been 38 degrees.
Now picture carrying out galley duties on a floor that is moving randomly in two directions at the same time. I've played hockey games that were less exhausting. Not only are we doing this, but we are also going from the main deck or weather deck where the gallery is to the lower deck where the Voyage Crew's mess is, up and down 14 very steep stairs holding on to the railing with one hand and carrying something up or down with the other hand while holding on with the other hand and swinging with the ship's roll. I am now convinced that this is how Popeye got his famous forearms!
Once the dishes, plates, cups, bowels, cooking trays, flatware etc. are soaked in soapy water they are placed in a large plastic tray and put in an Electrolux dishwasher washer, which is on gimbals, for sterilization. The cycle goes quickly and when the dishwasher door is opened a cloud of steam is released adding to the heat and humidity in the galley. We then hand dry them and put them away.
Today is Sunday, so Sunday Dinner (lunch) was chicken, roasted potatoes, a mix of steamed carrots, spinach and cauliflower. Desert was icecream. Vegans had a very tasty nut roast and soy yogurt.
I'm in my bunk now resting up for my next watch, which is 8 to midnight. From what I've heard, the temperature has dropped a bit and the wind is still blowing about 20 to 25 knots.
Day 12 The East Coast of Iceland
First a little housekeeping. I got the date and the voyage day confused. We left London on the 8th of June and today is 19th, it is Day 12.
We are about 7 miles off of the east coast of Iceland. The snow capped mountains we spotted last night from 40 miles away are now off our port as we motor northwest. The wind is against us. The closest Nellie can sail is 60 off the wind.
The temperature at 8:30 am is 5 degrees C. It is cloudy and cold. Last night for my 8 to midnight watch I had long underwear and polyester pants on with 3 layers of tops and foul weather gear on top of that for wind protection and I was warm, but given that we are still in the embrace of the Gulf Stream I can only forecast colder weather as we round the north coast and proceed to the Labrador Current, which runs south from Greenland and carries the icebergs into the North Atlantic.
Day 11 Part Two Land Ho!
The Mate, Steve has just announced (6:45 pm) that we've spotted Iceland some 48 miles distant. Our plan is to sail along its northerneast, north and then west coasts making port at Akureyri, Iceland's second city along the way.
There is talk making a beach landing at a national park on the west coast too.
Meanwhile, the wind has let up a bit, the motion of the ship is much less dramatic and everyone is feeling better. To date thier have only been a few isolated and minor cases of sea sickness.
Day 17 Part 2 (revised Day 10)
Nellie is going like a bat out of hell. We are finally on the open North Atlantic with nothing between us and land, with the exception of Iceland and the Faroe Islands for thousands of miles. Our route up the east side of Britain had really been a coastal voyage.
The sky is clear. We've got strong winds of 20 to 30 knots from the southwest, white caps or, as the British call them, white horses, and rolling waves of 5 to 7 feet.
At an average of 7 knots Nellie rolls along, heeling well to port and back while she glides down one wave and then is raised up by another. If this holds we expect reach the northeast coast of Iceland in a little over 2 days of sailing from Thorshvan, a distance of approximately 300 nautical miles. We started the day under full sail, but have now reduced sail a bit to allow an easier motion without losing significant speed.
Imagine the energy required to move this 180 ft vessel with 50 people, all of their belongings, food, water and fuel for the engines and generator at this speed with only the wind!
Of course, today would be my turn on mess duty. I would have started a dinner last night but as we were in port, I began with lunch.
First we cleaned the the upper mess, which is on the top or weather deck, wiping down all surfaces including the ceiling. Next we layed out the place settings for the Voyage Crew, then had lunch with the people who were about to go on watch, served the Voyage Crew while the Cook's Assistant, Nate, served the Permanent Crew. Finally, we cleaned up, had some time off (I took a nap as I had also been on Harbor Watch from 4 to 6 am) and repeated the process for dinner. With the movement of the ship it was quite a workout servings the food as the deck tilted first one way and then another in an almost regular rhythm.
I'm now relaxing in the upper mess before watching a video on my tablet and going to sleep. I report for breakfast at 6:45 am.
PS
As I made my way to my bunk the on duty watch is handing the main t'gallant (taking in the second sail from the top on the main mast). We're flying!
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Re: The Slaughter of the Pilot Whales (sensitive readers beware of the shocking images to follow)
Happy Father's Day to the best dad and uncle! :)
Dad - you'd be proud...I was doing some aggressive sailing on a 50 footer today. I even ruined my
manicure to trim the jib. Saw a huge wale tail and seals. So while far apart, I'm channeling you today :).
On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 7:16 PM John Van Zanten <john.b.vanzanten@gmail.com> wrote:
Loving your pics and blog. Did you get to ask the Faroe Islanders about their "why" of pilot whale killing?On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:On our bus ride to Kirkjuburuirn we spotted a group of boats spread out in an arc across the mouth of a bay. A woman on the bus explained that we were seeing a pilot whale hunt. The boats were herding the whale to the beach where they would be stranded. The hunters then go shore and cut the whale's throats. She then smiled and said, "free meat tonight".She also explained the unexpected driver change our bus made an on our ride out, saying that he was going to participate in the hunt.We were appropriately shocked by this, but it quickly left our thoughts when we arrived at Kirkjuburuirn.Our return ride brought us back to our berth in the commercial section of the harbor only to discover that we were in the midst of the place were the whale corpses were being landed, inventoried and the butchering was started.There were rows and rows of dead pilot whales layed out on the pavement with more being pulled out of the water in twos and threes as we stared in horror. Whale blood was all over the ground and soaking into our docking lines. The air smelled of blood and death.Juxtapositioned against this were families in a festive mood, children rolling around and over the whale corpse while the corpses were having numbers cut into their skin and rectangular openings being cut into their bellies with their guts spilling on to the ground.We stopped counting at 200 whales. An entire whale community.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Re: The Slaughter of the Pilot Whales (sensitive readers beware of the shocking images to follow)
To elaborate, I was told that the whale hunt is something that happens only once or twice a year an is a tradition that goes back over a thousand years. Everyone (what ever that means) gets a share. Therefore, the festive mood.
When I awoke for harbor watch this morning almost all of the whales had been butchered and a few stragglers were still carting off wheelbarrows heaped with great chucks of red meat leaving the carcass for (I presume) removal and rendering.
I was also informed that the Faroe Islands is experiencing an economic boom due to high demand and market prices for North Atlantic fish. They have plenty of food and prosperity. We saw a significant amount of new construction and remodeling taking place.
On Jun 17, 2017 4:16 AM, "John Van Zanten" <john.b.vanzanten@gmail.com> wrote:
Loving your pics and blog. Did you get to ask the Faroe Islanders about their "why" of pilot whale killing?On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:On our bus ride to Kirkjuburuirn we spotted a group of boats spread out in an arc across the mouth of a bay. A woman on the bus explained that we were seeing a pilot whale hunt. The boats were herding the whale to the beach where they would be stranded. The hunters then go shore and cut the whale's throats. She then smiled and said, "free meat tonight".She also explained the unexpected driver change our bus made an on our ride out, saying that he was going to participate in the hunt.We were appropriately shocked by this, but it quickly left our thoughts when we arrived at Kirkjuburuirn.Our return ride brought us back to our berth in the commercial section of the harbor only to discover that we were in the midst of the place were the whale corpses were being landed, inventoried and the butchering was started.There were rows and rows of dead pilot whales layed out on the pavement with more being pulled out of the water in twos and threes as we stared in horror. Whale blood was all over the ground and soaking into our docking lines. The air smelled of blood and death.Juxtapositioned against this were families in a festive mood, children rolling around and over the whale corpse while the corpses were having numbers cut into their skin and rectangular openings being cut into their bellies with their guts spilling on to the ground.We stopped counting at 200 whales. An entire whale community.
Day 17 Leaving Thorshvan
Anchor watch from 4 to 6 am.
Foredeck duty at 6:45 to cast off lines after gangway is brought on board.
25 to 30 knot wind. Mist and sun. A rainbow. 14 degrees C.
On to Iceland!
Friday, June 16, 2017
Re: The Slaughter of the Pilot Whales (sensitive readers beware of the shocking images to follow)
Loving your pics and blog. Did you get to ask the Faroe Islanders about their "why" of pilot whale killing?
On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Jonathan Gordon <jon.j.gordon@gmail.com> wrote:
On our bus ride to Kirkjuburuirn we spotted a group of boats spread out in an arc across the mouth of a bay. A woman on the bus explained that we were seeing a pilot whale hunt. The boats were herding the whale to the beach where they would be stranded. The hunters then go shore and cut the whale's throats. She then smiled and said, "free meat tonight".She also explained the unexpected driver change our bus made an on our ride out, saying that he was going to participate in the hunt.We were appropriately shocked by this, but it quickly left our thoughts when we arrived at Kirkjuburuirn.Our return ride brought us back to our berth in the commercial section of the harbor only to discover that we were in the midst of the place were the whale corpses were being landed, inventoried and the butchering was started.There were rows and rows of dead pilot whales layed out on the pavement with more being pulled out of the water in twos and threes as we stared in horror. Whale blood was all over the ground and soaking into our docking lines. The air smelled of blood and death.Juxtapositioned against this were families in a festive mood, children rolling around and over the whale corpse while the corpses were having numbers cut into their skin and rectangular openings being cut into their bellies with their guts spilling on to the ground.We stopped counting at 200 whales. An entire whale community.
The Slaughter of the Pilot Whales (sensitive readers beware of the shocking images to follow)
On our bus ride to Kirkjuburuirn we spotted a group of boats spread out in an arc across the mouth of a bay. A woman on the bus explained that we were seeing a pilot whale hunt. The boats were herding the whale to the beach where they would be stranded. The hunters then go shore and cut the whale's throats. She then smiled and said, "free meat tonight".
She also explained the unexpected driver change our bus made an on our ride out, saying that he was going to participate in the hunt.
We were appropriately shocked by this, but it quickly left our thoughts when we arrived at Kirkjuburuirn.
Our return ride brought us back to our berth in the commercial section of the harbor only to discover that we were in the midst of the place were the whale corpses were being landed, inventoried and the butchering was started.
There were rows and rows of dead pilot whales layed out on the pavement with more being pulled out of the water in twos and threes as we stared in horror. Whale blood was all over the ground and soaking into our docking lines. The air smelled of blood and death.
Juxtapositioned against this were families in a festive mood, children rolling around and over the whale corpse while the corpses were having numbers cut into their skin and rectangular openings being cut into their bellies with their guts spilling on to the ground.
We stopped counting at 200 whales. An entire whale community.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)