2022 Newfoundland cruise wrap up
Our cruise to Newfoundland was a great trip. We traveled a total of 3510nm, consuming 2707 gallons of diesel in 477 operating hours on the John Deere’s. The generators combined for 200hours and another 300 gallons of fuel. The trip covered 153 days and we average 7.4 knots overall
Visiting Newfoundland on my own boat has been a long time dream and we enjoyed every minute of the trip. However cruising Newfoundland takes some effort. Weather is more unpredictable than most of the east coast, and fog is a certainty especially early in the summer. Facilities are not geared towards visitors so you don’t make reservations and be greeted by dockhands catching your lines. Most harbours are remote but welcoming to visitors. In return for the effort you will meet the best people on the planet, welcoming and friendly. The landscape is rugged and beautiful and sparsely populated. Those that make the effort will be much rewarded. Our next adventure to Newfoundland will explore more of the east coast up to Notre Dame Bay and perhaps further.
August 31 to – Gloucester south to Chesapeake Bay
From Gloucester we made our normal trek south to Chesapeake Bay, traveling on good weather days and staying put when not.
8/31 – Gloucester through the Cape Cod Canal to Pope’s marina in New Bedford. As usual exiting the Cape Cod Canal into Buzzards Bay is a wahing machine and we saw 27 knots following an Nordhavn 68 into New Bedford.
9/3 – New Bedford to Fishers Island on Long Island Sound.
9/4 – Fishers Island to mooring ball at Port Jefferson. Bad weather coming so we stayed in Port Jeff for a few days.
9/8 – Port Jeff to mooring at Port Washington. Decent weather window for travel further south so we stayed only one night.
9/9 – Port Washington to Sandy Hook anchorage. As usual you must time the currents in east river so we arrived at the anchorage early at 1220pm.
9/10 – Sandy Hook to Cape May. No space available in Atlantic City so an early start and 12 hour run to Cape May. 0430 anchor up and immediately an alarm on port engine related to fuel pump timing issues. After consulting with Scotty decided to continue on. Disconnected the audible alarm. All fine until 0800 when some chatter evident in port engine. Alarms still on. Arrived Cape May 1800h.
9/12 – Cape May to C&D canal. After some effort to have someone look at the fuel injection problem with no success I decided to carry on to C&D canal. Alarm returned while docking in C&D canal.
9/13 – C&D Canal to anchorage at Rhode River. Fuel Injection noise getting worse.
9/15 – Rhode River to Solomons. FI alarm on all day. Solomons is our destination for a few weeks for the KK rendezvous. New FI pump installed by Drum Point Marine.
We rented a car and returned to New Bern for a visit home before returning to Solomons for the Kadey Krogen Rendez Vous.
10/10 – Solomons to Deltaville marina. New FI pump working perfectly
10/11 – Deltaville to Norfolk Tidewater marina.
10/12 – Norfolk to Coinjock
10/13 – Coinjock to Dowry Creek marina. Topped up fuel and pumped out.
10/14 – Dowry Creek to New Bern.
August 28-29 – Nova Scotia to USA
Another long run from Lunenburg, NS to Gloucester, MA. Just over 300nm and 41 hours this was the longest leg of the summer journey. We left Lunenburg in the dark at 0250h and followed our previously laid tracks out. After our initial hydraulic system problems during our first week of this summer cruise, we have had trouble free cruising. I guess we were due. At 0400h the throttle controls alarmed, likely due to high voltage. No action required for now. At 0800h the port stabilizer fin alarmed. Fin position showed full turned, however the boat was performing normally so this seemed unlikely. Restarted the system with only starboard fin activated and confirmed that the locking pin was engaged on the port fin. Still showing port fin fully turned. Decided to carry on with one fin which is sufficient in most conditions.
We arrived in Gloucester at the Ocean Alliance dock at 1800h on 8/29. Ocean Alliance is a whale research facility and very interesting to visit and talk to the folks working there. They fly a snotbot drone through the blow of whales and collect samples for analysis. It’s our second visit to this dock and likely we will be back.
Don and Tony replaced the port stabilizer fin position sensor with a new one from the spares stock. This solved the issue with the stabilizers.
It was planned that Janette would leave Long Point in Gloucester and return to Newfoundland as their daughter Samantha was due to give birth to their first grandchild soon. After some discussion of next logical point of departure we all decided that both Tony and Janette would fly home out of Boston. All the heavy lifting was done for this trip, with three long overnight runs and we could not have done that without Tony and Janette to share the workload. After a couple of days enjoying the sights in Gloucester they departed on a train to Boston and Don and Mary Ann headed out for New Bedford, MA.
August 21-24, 2022 – To Nova Scotia
After three months and a bit, and 1900 nm, it was time to head back to our permanent home port in New Bern, NC. We were joined by Don’s brother Tony, and his wife Janette for the first leg of this trip. WIth a nice weather window of 5-10 kts NE to E to S winds for 24 hours, increasing to 10-15 kts near Nova Scotia, we decided on a 35 hour run from Placentia Newfoundland to Baddeck NS which is located in the Bras d’Or Lakes. We set out at 0550h on the 21nd, setting our speed for arrival at the inlet to Bras d’Or Lakes to coincide with an ingoing tide at 1600h on the 22nd.
By 1700h we were south of St. Pierre, entering the northern end of St. Pierre banks by 1930. No fishing gear in the water to be seen, and other than one boat out fishing there was little traffic. By morning winds had increased to 20 to 25kts, well above forecast but not unusual. We arrived at the Bras d’Or Lake entrance at 1630h in time for the ingoing tide and rode it in, arriving at the dock in Baddeck at 1930h with plenty of daylight remaining.
The trip was uneventful as we like it. A small hydraulic leak in a failed gauge on the thruster block was identified before we left but it was only an issue when using the thruster so not critical. We had a mechanic from Baddeck Marine help us with a repair.
After two nights in Baddeck we headed towards the south end of the lakes and anchored near St. Peter’s in preparation for heading down the Nova Scotia coast.
The following day (25th) we raised anchor at 0810h and left Bras d’Or Lakes through the St. Peter’s lock for a 180nm overnight run to Lunenburg, arriving there at 0840 the following day. As we had visited Lunenburg on the trip up we had a relaxing couple of days while Tony and Janette did the full tour, enjoying all the things Lunenburg has to offer. We also ran into Jim and Sylvia Crain on Rincon Feliz, a Kadey Krogen 48. They were on the return leg of a trip around the eastern loop up the Hudson River and down the St. Lawrence seaway.
After two nights in Lunenburg we were ready to head back to the USA.
August 4 – 6 – Trip around the bay
We made a short trip around Placentia Bay over three days. On board Don, Mary Ann, Diane, Brendan. We left Placentia at 0740h on the 4th, destination Woody Island. We headed across the bay again toward Merasheen but making a course north of Red Island and then northward in the channel between Long Island and Merasheen Island. We saw a lot of activity as Newfoundland is getting into the salmon farming business in a big way and new pounds were being installed for this new industry. At the northern tip of Merasheen I. around 1130h, we poked our nose into Great Brule, then around the head to Little Brule. There is little evidence of prior occupation in Brule except for a single cabin and remnants of an old wharf. Mary Ann’s great grandmother on her father’s side was from Brule. We left Brule and headed across to Spencer’s Cove. None of us had ever been there but we could see through the binoculars that there were some cabins there and it was a short trip so we decided to check it out. As we got closer two small outboard skiffs came out to greet us and invited us in as they had a space for our 60 foot boat to tie up. Of course we said yes and tied up in Spencer’s Cover at 1215h. Spencer’s Cove is another of many resettled communities whose inhabitants have maintained a connection and visit during the summers. There were several families there working on their cabins or relaxing outside on the beautiful day. We visited the community center and signed the visitor register.
After a nice visit for a couple of hours we headed toward Woody Island, another hour or so north. Don’s cousin own’s the Woody Island Resort there and as we approached we saw some small boats being rearranged to make space for Long Point at the dock. A night at Woody Island Resort is a Newfoundland Experience and a treat not to be missed. Gary Pomroy runs the resort and after our walk around Woody Island we joined Gary as his guests for an evening at the resort. A home cooked Newfoundland dinner, followed by some local music and dancing that is highly influenced by the Irish. A great time was had by all.
The next day’s destination was Isle Valen, the birthplace of Don’t grandmother Wilson. We left Woody Island at 0820h in light winds and clear skies heading southwest, arriving at Bar Haven, another resettled community in less than an hour. Bar Haven also has many cabins and former residents and their decendents visit regularly. As we approached the local dock another boat moved his dinghy off the dock to make space for us and we tied up with help from the local residents. Several families were visiting and we walked around town for an hour or so before departing for Isle Valen, arriving there at 1325h. Isle Valen is a resettled community with a few cabins. It has a government wharf that fits one “Long Point” and we were happy to see it was unoccupied when we arrived. We tied up and dropped the dinghy for a trip around town.
We left Isle Valen the next morning heading for St. Kyran’s and due to some bad weather in the forecast we decided to shorten our trip and carry on back to our home port in Placentia the same day. But first St. Kyran’s. Another resettled community that today has no cabins or evidence of occupation other than a still standing church built in 1922 or thereabouts. Today the structure is in a bad state of repair and the lower walls are gone, the bell tower is gone, but the upper structure and roof are still standing. Inside the curved wooden ceiling is intact and in amazingly good condition. We arrived in St. Kyran’s at 1015h and dropped anchor in 30 feet of water, and before heading to shore cooked up a breakfast of eggs and bacon. With everyone fed, we dropped our dinghy “Taak” and headed to the beach.
Don’s mother remembers going to church in St. Kyran’s from her home in Merasheen. They went by skiff to St. Leonards, and walked a mile on a path through the woods to the church in St. Kyran’s. In those days going to mass on Sunday was a priority and some significant effort was expended to make sure you got to mass.
We left St. Kyran’s at 1350h heading back to our home port in Placentia. It was a great trip around the bay. We tied up at our dock at 1730h. This was our last excursion in Newfoundland before preparing to head back south to the US.
July 28 to August 1 – Mom goes out home
The trip Don has been looking forward to since we bought Long Point was to return to Newfoundland and take his Mom to Merasheen. Mom spent her childhood in Merasheen, leaving when she married to raise her family in Dunville (Placentia). We built a cabin on the island in 1980 and Dad bought the Bluefin, a 25 foot wooden boat with a Volvo diesel. Over the years many trips were made to Merasheen as Mom and her two sisters, Mary, and Julie (who visited us in Halifax) would spend the summer in the cabin in Merasheen. Today Mom joined us on Long Point for a visit to her home.
July 8 – 11 – Family trip to Merasheen
Back to Merasheen for a visit. On board with Don and Mary Ann and daughter Corinne, with Brendan and Diane, and their daughters Heather and Cherilyn, and Cherilyn’s children Violet and Gwen. Everybody had a turn at the wheel to help out the captain.
We worked hard on the cabin for a couple of days in Merasheen putting up new wall board, installing a propane hot water system and doing some regular maintenance. Of course there was time for happy hour and socializing and we met a family from Switzerland that arrived in the harbour on their sailboat.
On July 11 we returned to Placentia. A few of Don’s cousins were needing a ride back to Placentia so we welcomed Marge, Bo, Sheila, Luke and Liam for the trip back.
June 30, 2022 – Placentia – 47°15.26′ – 53°57.64′
On June 30 we arrived at our final destination, the town of Placentia where Don and Mary Ann grew up and Don’s mom still calls home. We left Merasheen at 0640h, passing under the drawbridge to the Jerseyside wharf at 0920h and docked at the town wharf at 0930h. We have travelled 1727 nm since leaving New Bern, NC on May 15. For the next five weeks we will tour Placentia Bay from our temporary home port.
June 28 – 29 – Merasheen
Merasheen Island in Placentia Bay is the home of the Pomroy family for many years with many of the Pomroy clan making their living from the sea. Like many communities it was resettled under a government program in the 1960’s and today is home to cabins where people return to their ancestral home in the summer for short or long visits.
Upon arrival we got to work on dealing with the lobsters we got in Petite Forte.
The day after arrival we invited Ray and Gail for a run down to Port Royal, a couple of hours away on Long Island. Once again the fog was thick and we couldn’t remember exactly which cover the settlement was located in. We eased into the first cove we thought was Port Royal, but when we could see land this was Bobby’s cove. Back out and retrace our track to the cove we had passed and this was Port Royal. There is no government dock in Port Royal so we anchored in the harbour and as luck would have it Father Jerome was in Port Royal for a visit and picked us up in his Boston Whaler so we didn’t have to drop the dinghy.
June 28 – St. Lawrence – Petit Forte – Merasheen
Off the dock at 0500h heading for Merasheen Island. Conditions were a little better than arrival but we still haven’t really seen much of the entrance to St. Lawrence. We headed down the western side of Placentia Bay arriving in Petite Forte at 1040h, the home town of Brendan (Don’s brother in law) who has been on board since Portland Maine. We visited with the Barry family and secured some lobster for a boil up later. Back to sea at 1345h, passing Long Point (the origin of KK Long Point’s name) at the entrance to Merasheen Harbout at 1530 docking at the government wharf in Merasheen at 1600h. Don’s cousin Ray Hann was on the hill watching for us when we arrived and at the wharf with his wife Gail to catch our lines.. Merasheen is the home of the Pomroy family and it was fantastic to be able to arrive there in our own boat.
June 27 – Francois to St. Lawrence
At 0650 we departed Francois in the fog, but with signs of clearing a bit. We headed towards the Burin peninsula, and transited the channel between Newfoundland and France (St. Pierre) headed for the town of St. Lawrence in Placentia Bay. The entrance was by radar and sound with basically zero visibility. We tied up with the local fishing boats for the night.
June 25- 26, 2022 – Bras d’Or Lakes to Newfoundland
For many cruisers Nova Scotia is the endpoint of a Canadian cruise, but for this crew we were anxious to get moving towards our “home” in Newfoundland. Anchor up at 0920h on June 25 to time the current at the exit of Bras d’Or Lakes and we were on our way on an overnight to Newfoundland’s south coast. By 1130h we were exiting the lakes at 12.6 knots and pointing our bow towards Ramea on Newfoundland’s south coast. The overnight crossing was uneventful with very little traffic but by 1900h thick fog had settled in. Little did we know that it would not lift for the next five days. By 0500h on the 26th, we went through the channel in Ramea with limited visibility but at least as slight view of the boats and land on either side. Exiting Ramea we headed for the town of Grey River, arriving at the inlet at 0850h. The entrance looked like several we would see in the coming days. Thick fog outside, hardly able to see the inlet with it’s crashing waves, but once inside the fog lifted and it was a beautiful morning as we entered the fjord and motored past the settlement of less than 100 people. The fjord extends inland to a fork to port and starboard for several miles. It could be a great anchorage but we weren’t stopping here and after putting up the drone for some video we returned to sea headed for Francois.
We arrived in the community of Francois at 1200h, and entered the inlet that we couldn’t see, but once again it was relatively clear inside with a beautiful view. Where to dock? We floated around for a short while before seeing someone moving towards the ferry dock on a quad. We motored over and the young man was working with the Harbour Authority for the summer and directed us to a dock for visitors. We tied up and spent a lovely day in Francois. Francois is another community of around 50 people, that is not accessible by road and relies on the ferry to Burgeo for connection to the mainland.
June 22-25, 2022 – Halifax to Bras d’Or Lakes
Our stay in Halifax was short as we decided to leave a day early due to a nice weather window to make an overnight run to Bras d’Or Lakes, which are not really lakes, but an “inland sea”. It was a leisurely run at 7 knots to arrive at St. Peter’s lock at opening time of 0900h. St. Peter’s lock is unique in North America and controls the movement of traffic into the southern end of Bras d’Or Lakes. The exit from Bras d’Or Lakes is on the northern end of Cape Breton Island where there is no lock, but a swift current that must be timed correctly. We stayed at St. Peter’s marina for a couple of nights and topped up our fuel tanks with fine Canadian $$$ diesel. Then onward to a beautiful anchorage at Maskells Harbour before heading for Newfoundland on June 25.
June 21, 2022 – Halifax
Next up, an uneventful six hour run to Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia. THe highlight of this stop was a visit from Don’s Aunt Julie, his Mom’s older sister. At the age of 92 she took a taxi to the waterfront to visit Long Point and had a facetime call with Mom from the boat. She was so glad to be able to visit and we were glad to welcome our first real VIP visitor.
June 18, 2022 – Crossing to Lunenburg, Canada
We waited for two days for a weather window for crossing to Canada from Maine. On June 18, the forecast was good enough for northern waters. For the first five hours we would have winds 20-30 knots, 5 to 8 foot seas on the starboard beam and clear skies. Good enough, we set out at 0420 on 18th for the overnight crossing to Lunenburg Nova Scotia. By 1430h the weather had improved as forecast and the overnight crossing was comfortable and uneventful. Other than a few fishing boats, traffic was minimal.
Around 1400h local time, approaching Lunenburg the AIS showed the historic vessel Bluenose coming out of the harbor on one of it’s daily tours.
Under sail she looked magnificent and we were to learn much more at the Lunenburg Museum during our stay. At 1505h Atlantic time (1405h EDT) we tied up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Of course Canada is a foreign country for this vessel even if all aboard are Canadian citizens. So we flew our quarantine flag, and after a visit by the local customs agents we were authorized to be in Canada and proudly flew our Canadian flag. Often there is not visit to the boat by officials but it seems they needed to convey in person that the 48 bottles of wine on board could only be consumed on the boat, and our carrot peels needed to be disposed of at sea.
Lunenburg is a beautiful town that has transitioned from a fishing history. The waterfront is mostly under the managment of Development Nova Scotia and it has working commercial marine industries, a wooden boat building and repair facility and the not to be missed Fisheries museum which is awesome and needs more than a day to do it justice.
to June 17, 2022
From Cape May we made the short 45nm hop to Atlantic City, and on to Liberty Landing Marina in New York. A broken drive belt on the Port engine at 1300h turned the leisurely run into a short term panic. I love twin engines and replaced the broken belt with a spare while carrying on at good speed on one engine. Arriving in New York Harbor was an experience, busy busy waterway with ferries criss crossing all over the place, past the statue of Liberty and on to our slip at Liberty Landing where we spent a few days for a family reunion. Our daughters Charlene from Colorado and Corinne from Newfoundland Canada flew in for a weekend in New York City. A Broadway show (Beetlejuice), walk around Time Square, and a few other highlights and we said goodbye to Charlene who had to return home, and we moved on with Corinne on board for a couple of weeks.
Copius research and reading of cruising guides and we survived Hell Gate and managed the currents of the East River to Port Jefferson on Long Island Sound. For the first time ever we took a mooring ball. Prior to this, the thought of catching a ball from a 10 foot high bow was daunting but Corinne hooked it first try and made it look easy. Good Job Corinne.
On to an anchorage behind Fisher’s Island, where we stumbled upon an available mooring ball at Pirate Cove marina. With our newly acquired mooring ball expertise this was a piece of cake. We have been running with the backup sensors bypassed on the stabilizers since all the hydraulic issues back at the start of the trip. I put them both back on and soon had a reversing alarm, confirming a faulty backup sensor on the port side.
Next stop was a marina at Onset Bay, where Don replaced the backup sensor with one from the spares inventory. WIth appropriate planning to catch the right current we transited the Cape Cod Canal enroute to another mooring ball in Gloucester, MA. It’s starting to feel like home. 20 to 25 kts wind, thick fog, lumpy seas. Good preparation for Newfoundland. We had a new water filter for the potable water delivered to Gloucester. Corinne took care of replacing it. Good crew.
Onward to Portland, ME or more specifically a mooring ball at Handy Boat Moorings in Falmouth. We will stay here for several days for crew change as Corinne leaves for a flight home and we are joined by Don’s sister Diane and her husband Brendan. Brendan is a commercial fisherman in Newfoundland so his arrival is a welcome event for the captain.
May, 2022
After early hydraulic issues, the trip has been mostly troublefree. We made the usual northerly commute up the intracoastal waterway to Norfolk, then up Chesapeake Bay, across the C&D canal and down Delaware Bay, arriving in Cape May, NJ on May 31.
May 21, 2022
May 21, 2022. We left North Carolina on May 15. We are now at Deltaville boatyard. We dropped by here to have Long Point quick hauled for a bottom cleaning and check out a port shaft vibration. Lots of barnacles on the props, especially the port prop was worse. It’s been a troublesome start to the trip to Canada. Stabilizers not performing well, blown rod seal on port fin locking cylinder, shaft sheared off the hydraulic oil cooling pump, and we are getting backing/reversing error on the stabilizer panel. The stabilizers have the gremlins and we are working to sort this out. So that’s boating, constant work to keep all systems functioning. Onward to Canada soon we hope.
Winter 2021
The winter of 2021 was busy for Long Point. At the home dock in New Bern the following projects were completed:
- Changed engine exhaust fan to 24V from the 240V to elmininate need for generator to run fans.
- Replaced electric clutch on PTO of 20kw generator due to bearing worn out.
- Item 2 revealed a worn shaft on the hydraulic pump so the pump was overhauled.
- Replaced torsional drive couplings on both engines. Rubber fragments spitting out for last year. This was the biggest job of the winter and I had to get some help to reinstall the heavy transmissions.
- Installed new internet using Pepwave components for wifi and cellular internet access.
- Installed KVH TV6 dome for DISH satellite TV.
- Repaired and/or replaced various galley essentials, fridge temperature control damper, new icemaker, new sink disposer, new instant hot water faucet,
- Replaced Coolant (water) pump on port engine. Rough bearing detected when doing annual check of belts and pulleys.
- Flushed both engine RW system with Barnacle Buster. Worked great.
- The normal seasonal maintenance including oil change on all four engines, coolant flush on two mains and one generator, new fuel filters in racors and on the four engines. 30 gallons of fluids and 18 filters changed out.
- Hot water tank anode changed and new relief valve installed, water tank opened up and cleaned out.
- Several other small jobs were done, it was a busy winter at the home dock.