North America (Canada) to Norway

[Thos]

Destined to sail to ancestral homeland in 2004 via Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River, Anticosti Island, Newfoundland, Iceland, Faeroes, Shetlands, Bergen.

Has anyone here done this passage or parts of it?

This will be my first crossing so any helpful comments are appreciated. I've got the books but haven't talked to anyone who has made the trip

I'm hoping to leave my boat there for the winter and sail to Denmark and on to Portugal in 2005
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[Skylark]

This site might be helpful:

http://www.wright-photo.com/GreenlandMap.htm

[CSY Man]

Hi Thos:

Yup the passage has been done before for sure.

Uh, what kind of boat do ya have, and what kind of experience and equipment do ya have?

With the right equipment, safety gear and weather window, that passage sounds like a good deal, but if something goes wrong, the price could be high....

[Thos]

thanks SKYLARK,
I had a quick look at the site, looks good. I'll check it out further.



Hey CSY MAN,
The boat is a 30 yr old Nova Scotia wooden ketch.37', 45' loa, 5'+ draft. The spars are aluminum with S.S. rigging. Good quality, I've been told. The main sail is shabby, but I've recently aquired three sails that were too heavy (15 oz.) for the previous owner. They are the tanbark color which I like too. There is some real bad rot at the bowsprit/bulwark area but the hull is good. The deck is fiberglass, the hull is 11/2'' mahogany on oak. Full keel, 85 hp Perkins, 20'' prop. Solid but not fancy. No luxuries, but this is a man's voyage anyway. We do have a hand held GPS, a good compass, a VHF, and depth sounder. We are accummulating safety equipment such as an epirb, offshore liferaft, immersion suits,jack lines and sailing clothes.
As for experience, we just got the boat in July ($12,000@EBAY) so we'll pick some up along the way.
At least we're sailing in the summer!

So much to learn, so little time. That's the challenge

[Thos]

I forgot to mention there are a few pics oin the gallery

[Niagara 35 Sailor]

I came up the river a few years ago. What is your timing like? Gulf of St Lawrence and North Shore of the river can be mighty chilly, even into June. No reason to take your time from Lake Ontario to Quebec City (the locks are no problem going downstream). I would suggest going along the south shore of the St Lawrence, going to the Magdalens and then along the south shore of Newfoundland to whatever point is your departure (probably St John's since you could provision there and get pretty much everything you need/want.

[Thos]

Well we're looking to depart Toronto in May and I'm undecided whether to take out the Dickinson heater. I'll see how the packing goes. We'll be bouncing along the north shore of Lake Ontario picking up and dropping off assorted participants until Quebec City. At this point I want to see the north side of Anticosti Island and head for L'Anse Aux Meadows. I'm sure you are aware that it is the first European settlement in North America.

Bruce, did you come upriver on a commercial or private boat? What time of the year and how long was the trip?

[Niagara 35 Sailor]

We came up the St Lawrence in early August on my Niagara 35. We had been told that the trip was anything from a piece of cake to impossible in a sailboat. Turns out it was somewhere in between. The boat had the wrong prop (now remedied) and did not have as much drive under power as it should so it was a slow trip. The tide makes a huge difference. At one point below Quebec City we were doing 10.3 knots over the bottom - going upstream. It must be a great ride going down.

Bruce