The Summerside Yacht Club is a very nice port of call. Summerside has most of the modern services that one may want. Maybe my comfort with the place is tainted by my pleasure to be back in the Maritimes again.
There has been lovely areas which this passage has had me travelling through; yet the journey has been long and it will be nice to be back in Halifax with my Daughter and Son-In-Common-Law again.
Yesterday when on a walk to the local Canadian Tire store, a house which was for sale happened to catch my eye. It is a lovely old home which, likely, dates back to the 1800s. It has legal permits to be used as a four room B&B with a two bedroom apartment with its own entrance and civic address in another part of the building.
My thought was that it would make a great income property situated conveniently nearby the lovely Summerside Yacht Club.
The asking price is $399,000. With my warm and fuzzy feelings about Summerside oozing through the THC chocolate edible buzz it seemed sensible to send some pics of the place to my Daughter to see what they think about it. Their silence to my texts said volumes. Even contemplating such a thing was breaking our agreed new property priority list. At the top of that list is that the new property is to be located on peninsula Halifax. It was a pleasant fantasy for the rest of my walk at least. 🤪
It seems that my stay in Summerside has found me going a bit native. Giving myself a symbolic kick in the proverbial pants, it seemed that preparations for departure must be put underway asap; before getting too comfortable and cozy here in Summerside. For as they have been known to say in Westernos, "Winter is coming."
Upon my return to the Yacht Club work began on setting a course using the Navionics software. It surprised me how little of the passage remained. Regular readers will remember the first overnight passage made by Pierre and myself, along the coast to Gaspe, had been 122NM. The passage from Summerside, PEI to the Canso Straight Yacht Club would cover 139NM; which would be 17NM longer. Using the 5Knot/Hr. average, which has been used in most of my course calculations, that would mean about 3 additional hours than our first overnight passage. Very do-able.
Once complete the next stage to Halifax would be Nova Scotia's east coast. Doing a rough measurement of the distance it totaled 150-ish NM. Such a distance would take approximately 30 hours. The passage down the east coast to Halifax would be slightly less than the passage from Gaspe to Summerside.
There will be potential for fog and other inclement weather, so more delays may need to be enforced. Good weather seems a prerequisite at this stage in the passage as well as the coast, known for its fog, which we will be passing along. Government wharves should be expected along the way if gnarly weather has us seeking shelter. More research needs doing to identify such Plan B ports.
The engine hours were checked yesterday when moving to a proper slip from the transient dock and it was at 170 hours. The breaking-in maintenance was due at 150, so that will have to be done before departure.
When checking the amount of diesel in the tank, by using a wooden dowel for this purpose, the dowel was unintentionally broken. So off to the building supply store for a replacement dowel and an additional stop at the gas station to pick up a 5L container of diesel 15W-40 oil for the oil change and all the items are now on hand for engine maintenance.
To my surprise the diesel tank was nearly full. It surprised me that my calculations were so close having added about 80L over the course of my travels down from the Gaspe. The calculation used is 3L/hour. It seems that is a very reliable amount to use to estimate consumption. A gauge will be nice to get installed instead of my stick method, but hey it works. 🤓
With all that in place thoughts turned to the more mundane matters of beefing up the boat kitty. First my favored coin shop was called to set up an appointment for my Daughter to take in a troy ounce gold bar to the shop. The price of gold has done almost a 2x since purchasing it from them. My feeling is that Bitcoin is a lot more likely to break out than gold at this point.
My Daughter graciously agreed to take it to the shop for me and she will then send the funds to the boat kitty account. This should have me ready to get Yacht Club Membership and the cost of getting Makina on the hard while awaiting the closing date of my property's sale on Nov 15th and those funds to be released.
Well it has been put off long enough. Time to put on my grease monkey hat and get that engine ready for its next stage of the passage.
May the wind be at your back!
A chronological listing of my sailing posts:
https://hive.blog/sailing/@novacadian/novacadian-s-blog-index-sailing
So exciting! Hoping the engine maintenance went well. You're on the last leg of your journey! That house looks nice! Depending on what maintenance it might need of course. Good price too! But, you'll find something better in your preferred area! Lol. Let's not get too distracted.
The plan has been set for two hours before high tide Monday morning. My guess is that the time will be sometime in the early morning hours. Hoping to be at the Straight of Canso Yacht Club early the following morning.
Settled for eating, resting, laundry and navigation today. Generally non-grease monkey activities. Some may call it avoidance my take is pacing myself. Going for the engine maintenance and filling the diesel jugs tomorrow in preparation of the next morning's departure.
I look forward to the next installment of your recount of the journey!
Appreciate your interest! 🏴☠️
Man I wish you'd do YouTube. My hubs would enjoy it. And is THAT YOUR FACE!!! WHY HELLLOOOO!
Hoping to expand to some video using @sircork's HiveStreams.live, once he adds a save feature which is on his roadmap.
Yeppers that's my old piece of coal. Hellooooo! 😁
I imagined you like Ernest Hemingway 🤣 the old man and the sea...🤣
This trip has been soo awesome as to the variety of seas that were totally new to me. The great lakes are just mind boggling. Had to keep reminding myself that they were not an ocean and had no tides.
The St. Lawrence River was amazing. Can't even guess the amount of times driving along and by it yet it is a totally different beast when upon it. Tides that give the Bay of Fundy a run for its money. Currents and wind, which when coupled with the tides make you feel like you are in a washer spin cycle.
Then she finally gives way to the salt of the ocean and the swell that is its characteristic. The second night from Gaspe, pitch as black and not daring to go off angle to them after two broke over the gunnels and into the cockpit leaving me knee deep in water and soaked to the bone.
The same H2O but how different they manifest in their own unique ways.
Yeah the poor fisherman. My feeling was that he got ripped off but there are higher principles at stake my High School English Teacher lead me to believe.
Put a YouTube short together for a friend Ann who is always interested in my galley gourmet, but it made me laugh out loud so hopefully you will get a chuckle too. It will be in the post about the crossing from Summerside, PEI to Canso Canal, Nova Scotia.
Gorgeous yacht. That has to be a really fun way to travel. Hope the maintenance went well. Safe travels.
Thanks. She has proven her seaworthiness to me as well while sailing through the wind warning alert from Environment Canada from Gaspe, PQ to Summerside, PEI.
Wow - what a journey. Kudos to you for doing this - the hard way and motoring on. I just spent about an hour reading through your sailing posts since the end of August to now. Maybe you should make this into a book. What an interesting read.
Nice to meet you!
Thank you for your interest. That much of a follow warrants you a digital crew member! ✌️😎
So glad you enjoyed the read!
Ahoi, cap'n!
Raise it crewmate! 🏴☠️😉