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woke up at 04:00 with the sun blasting in through the port in the forepeak. The days get
very long this time of year when you are at 48° N. By about
07:00 several boats had made the decision to leave. Since we were on the outside of the
raft it was time we made up our minds to stay or go. We all looked at each other and then
looked around at the cloudless day then said, "What the hell, we’ve got food,
clean clothes, we’re showered and shaved and most importantly we have beer!
Let’s do it." Andy said it best, "I’d prefer to spend a great day like
this at sea rather than waste it in port! You just don’t get that many days like this
around here." We spent the day doing some sailing but mostly motoring as the
mainland slowly sank into the sea on our stern. The sky tried to cloud up in the early
evening but by the time I came on for my 22:00 to 02:00 watch the sky was crystal clear,
the sea glassy smooth and the stars shone like diamonds in the black velvet sky. Around
01:00 I was at the helm when I saw a white light off our port bow reflecting off the
water. I did not see a contact on the radar, but then that is not unusual. I kept my eye
on it and it seemed as if we were closing on it since it was slowly rising above the
horizon and casting a line of sparkle on the calm sea.
I noticed a red light off to the left of the white. Now I had two contacts not on the
radar. The red light started to get larger and the white appeared to climb higher into the
night. I thought we must be really gaining on that boat fast! The red light began to
spread out and look real strange. I thought for sure that I was getting close to a
collision course so I began to change course to the right. The red light split in two and
things suddenly became clear as I noticed a low cloud on the horizon caused the split.
Geoff was on deck too but I had not said anything to him until I figured out what was
going on. I said, "Hey Geoff, want to see an incredible moon rise?" The moon
slid out of the sea as a brick red half orb whose reflection on the shimmering water
looked like molten puddles of lava. Geoff told me the white light was the star Alderberan.
We feasted on the sight for the next hour or so as the waning moon rose in the night and
gradually, chameleon-like, turned from red to silver changing the molten puddles of lava
into pools of pewter. When Andy came on deck at 02:00 to relieve me he was really sorry he
had missed the moonrise.
Iles de la Madeleine was in sight when I came back on deck two hours later as the sun
was sneaking over the horizon. We were able to set the jib and main and do some
respectable sailing until just before 11:00 when we brought them down and fired up the
diesel as we tried to figure out the channel entrance.
Iles de la Madeleine is actually several islands that are connected by sandspits. The
islands boast a population of 15,000 and something around 80% of them are descended from
shipwreck survivors. While the cod fishing industry in this part of the world has suffered
greatly for the last several years the lobster and crab fishery in this area is doing very
well and all the boats we saw were freshly painted and very well maintained.
We were tied up at the docks in Cap aux Mueles Harbor by just after noon. We had a late
lunch at le Bistro - cheeseburgers! After we got back Geoff and Andy took a nap and I
wandered off with my camera. I got some funny looks but shooting pictures and cruising
around the island barefoot felt great! No one there seemed to understand the concept.
That evening after loading on more diesel, Geoff broke out the rum and did some
strumming on his small banjo in sort of accompaniment to some Newfie music on the boom
box. Andy pretended to play along on his harmonica. I video taped the spectacle - not a
pretty sight.
We had been moving along at a pretty steady rate from May 22nd up to this
point May 30th and a few things needed attending too. We decided to spend a
couple of days doing maintenance and relaxing some. We had a short in the compass light, a
fuel vent problem, the mainsheet traveler lines needed to be lengthened, the self steering
controls had to be rebuilt, but our biggest problem was that the starboard spreader was
very loose on its mounting. It had a lateral movement of about a foot. We first noticed it
when Andy was getting off the boat and grabbed the upper shroud for balance and got a real
surprise when it felt like a lose line in his hand.
By the end of the day we had finished most of the jobs with the exception of getting up
the mast to deal with the shroud. Andy and I spent most of the day working on the
self-steering vane. What a kludge! Everything took longer because we were solving a series
of problems that only became apparent as another was one was fixed.
We made at least four trips to the marine supply store. It didn’t help that I lost
a setscrew over the side and had to go buy a tap to re-thread the hole since we did not
have a replacement screw. Oh yeah, I had to go to three different places on foot to find
the tap and explain my problem to people who only spoke French.
Dinner salvaged the day. We all got on board a bus and had a great lobster dinner at a
local cafeteria. It was a "bring your own liquid refreshment" sort of affair.
Geoff somehow managed to get the bus driver to take him to a liquor store and bought a
couple of bottles of wine for the crew of Inishfree. Andy and I thoroughly enjoyed
the lobster and wine and bragging about our skipper who seemed to be able get anyone to do
whatever he wanted.
The next morning the wind was howling and rain pounded the deck till just after noon
when the rain let up but the wind got even stronger. The spreader needed fixing so I
decided to ‘just do it’, wind and rain be damned.
Andy and Geoff hauled me up to the spreader where I found a small crack on the trailing
edge. I put a large hose clamp around the spreader to help contain the crack but it did
nothing to help the lateral movement. During one of my many trips to the marine store I
had bought a 2" 5/16 bolt just in case. I spent the next 20 minutes or so drilling
out the spreader and mount and setting the bolt while flapping away in the 35-knot winds.
Better there than out at sea!
There was a skipper’s meeting early in the evening and there was quite a bit of
discussion about the weather. A local Coast Guardsman said that according to the weather
reports a morning departure was not a good idea. So far the flotilla had been able to
maintain its schedule and this was the first time that the weather did not seem to want to
cooperate. A lot of the skippers seemed to want to press on just to maintain the schedule.
The local Coastie tried to explain the vagaries of weather in this part of the world but
was not having a lot of success. It seemed as if the schedule was becoming more important
than common sense.
About this time Geoff had become weary of the arguments and saw the futility of
continuing the discussion. He gained everyone’s attention and said in his best
British accent, "You know, heavy weather tends to bruise my wine so I think I’ll
stay until the weather clears". It took everyone back a bit but had a thread of
common sense to it. The meeting broke up with about half the flotilla agreeing that if the
weather did not improve they were not going to risk their boats to keep a schedule.
There was a concert that night to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of one of the
local bars. They had gathered several of the bands that had played there over the years
and were putting on a show at the local auditorium. Since the plan was to stay in Iles de
la Madeleine several crews decided to go.
We stayed on Inishfree and a party developed all by itself. Geoff was down below
playing his banjo to Newfie music while one of the crew from another boat did a jig. Andy
and I were on deck talking to a guy from another boat when we saw silhouetted in the
waning twilight what appeared to be some people getting naked on a very large rock that
overlooked the harbor. I got out my video camera with its 16X zoom to try to verify the
situation.
 At full magnification I was able to make
out two people shedding their clothes on top of the rock. As one of them turned in profile
it was very obvious that I was looking at a woman. Andy was begging for a look, but it was
too much fun watching the silhouettes to hand over the camera. Besides, I was in the
record mode. When they were totally nude the guy did a sort of ‘Rocky’ kind of
pirouette with raised arms and fists. Then the two of them re-robed and disappeared off
the backside of the rock. We continued drinking, talking and singing into the night.
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