8 days across the Atlantic, some notes

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

Thanks for the post. We are debating jumping from Halifax to Ireland or St. John's to Ireland, favouring the southerly route due to ice and a probable circa June 1 leave date, so this is good information, even if we'll be half the speed!

Hi,

In June, I'm guessing that St. John's won't be viable, unless you're ok with sailing in the ice zone. We had to dip down to about Cape Race's latitude to get out of the zone even in August. It probably wasn't necessary, but one growler can ruin your whole day, so we went ahead and routed around. We recently installed a new radar, and have found it to be pretty much a piece of garbage, so that factored in. (we went with a broadband unit this time, and have found that compared to the old 4kw, it falls short on pretty much all fronts)

Regarding timing for the crossing, we chose August mostly so that we could leave from St. John's. The distance is short enough that we felt that we would stand a good chance of getting across without getting thrashed too bad. We sat in port for a week waiting for just the right weather picture to materialize and did manage to do just that. Some luck was involved here too, we know that.

Granted, we're arriving here at the end of the season, but that's ok. We'll be here next year too.

In any case, good luck with the trip, should you do it next year.

TJ

[Symphony]

sounds like a wonderful journey.
from what you saw there - would you return to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland simply for cruising?

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by Symphony

sounds like a wonderful journey.
from what you saw there - would you return to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland simply for cruising?

Oh, yes, absolutely! We were in NS and NFLD last year before migrating back south for the winter. NS is quite nice, but NFLD was, for us, one of the most spectacular places imaginable. Remote, rugged, basically empty of cruising boats (we saw maybe 5 in a month), and populated by the friendliest folks around. Really a special place. Bring a heater and all the spares you'll need.

TJ

[alansmith]

TJ, thanks for the posts. What an awesome time in your life. Is there even a remote chance you could post a pic of your sled?

[TJ D]

Alan, I can't get this marina's wifi to work well enough to do an attachment, but svrocketscience,com has a ton of pics and info about the boat.

TJ