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.
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