Peter J MacWilliam

Today Delaney and I toured the Petpeswick inlet. The wind was relatively light and it was from a southerly direction as normal. It was a fun sail but the boat was not responding very well and I suspect it was, again, due to a build up of animal life on the hull, as was the case on Sept. 30th, which was, incidentally, the last time I was out. I will see how much sea life has collected on the hull since I last cleaned it off when I take her out of the water. The conditions in October have been terrible with very high winds so we were lucky to get out at all. The deadline for outhaul is October 26th this year. Tuesday is the only good day left for out hauling so that is when I’ll be doing it.

The wind was opposite from what it usually is on this trip, so we sailed quite a bit on the way out but did use the motor a fair bit due to low winds (on the way out). We travelled out the furthest I have ever been. We went right out to the Bell Buoy. There were some big but gentle swells. It was exhilarating. We turned back right after we reached the bell buoy. We were a bit cocky to have gone out that far in the first place. We had a similar problem to what we had last time, finding the handling was compromised for some reason when headed in one direction - west. The wind was still north westerly-ish. But when headed east (wind abeam on the port side) it handled perfectly normally. When heading west, for some reason, the bow kept being pushed or turned outward towards open ocean and we were losing ground on our way back in, so we kept having to tack and head east. Unfortunately, we could only do that for so long before we would run into the shore. So we decided to use the motor to head back in. On the trip back in, we were going with the tide, but the wind was directly against us and getting stronger all the time. Unfortunately, the second battery died just before we reached the inlet, which is the most difficult part to sail into the wind because you have to go between the nautical beacons or channel markers right at the opening of the inlet. We made multiple attempts, perhaps up to 10 or so with no success. We were getting increasingly frustrated. We would soon have to call for help, something I desperately did not want to do. Right at about this point a couple of the guys from the yacht club showed up to help us, bless their hearts. They gave us a tow back to my mooring.

Took Delaney for a sail out to the mouth of the inlet. It was a very successful sail. We did run aground once near the government wharf. You need to keep to the left of the green channel marker at that spot or you will run aground on the sandy shoal. It was no problem to get off the shoal and back on track. Once we arrived at the spot parallel to Martinique beach we sailed for a while. There were great big swells. It was exhilarating. The wind seemed a bit light, though and control of the boat was somewhat compromised by the swell and low winds (I think).

With hull and rudder scraped free of sea life, she handled just like she should - lesson learned.

As you can see, we did not go very far. I should not say we because it was just me on a solo trip. The wind was not very strong. I immediately found that I did not have very good control with the rudder. I had actually noticed a bit of this behavior several days earlier, but the wind picked up and then she handled more like she should after the wind picked up. Today the wind did not pick up and I noticed I could push the rudder all the way over as if for a tack, but she would keep going basically straight forward. So, since I could not even tack, I just fired up the motor and went back to the mooring. Sailing finished for the day. I came back later in the evening to the club and brought the boat into shore and then pulled it over on its side by attaching the main halyard to my car (hoping I can post a pic of that). There was a shit-ton of life attached to both the hull and the rudder: mussels, barnacles, plant-life, etc. so I scraped off all the animal life from my hull and my rudder. I subsequently went for a test sale and everything is back the way it should be. So I learned from this experience (by the way this is season three for me as a sailor). The area where I moor my boat in Musquodoboit Harbour, Petpeswick Inlet, apparently has excellent conditions for these types of life to flourish. I'd rather not use anti-fouling paint so I'll just do the hull cleaning a couple of times a season. The method I use makes it easy as you'll see in the pic.

Got to about the same point as last time. This time I was solo. I used the 86lb thrust trolling motor on the way out. It lasted until about 3/4 of the way out. I had to exchange motors. I had the fully charged electric outboard at the waiting so I put that one on. We travelled out to the same point and then i tired to sail around but there was absolutely no wind so I headed back in.

I hooked up the 86lb thrust trolling motor as a back up. Just testing that out today. Successful test.

We set out shortly after low tide so that we could go out with the tide. The tidal current is very strong in the channel and I found out during the last attempt that my electric outboard battery will not take me far enough against the tide. When we set out, the wind was blowing north out of the inlet. This is unusual. The wind is usually coming from the south blowing into the inlet. So, we sailed while we could, going with the wind and the tide. Eventually the wind abruptly shifted to blowing into the inlet as normal so we took down the sails and used the electric outboard to head out of the inlet. The channel is very narrow and you have to pay close attention to the channel markers as you go, or you will run aground. We arrived at the mouth of the inlet. There was lots of swell. The North Atlantic was not far off. At this point, we had almost completely drained the battery so we turned around and headed back with the wind. Now we had to rely on the wind to get us back against the tide. Unfortunately, the moment we turned around, the wind dropped dramatically and it was slow going. We were almost immobile though the sails were full just not enough to against the tide. After an hour of being basically motionless, I called for assistance. While I was texting we failed to pay attention to the channel markers and ran into a sand bar. I pulled up the Centre board and was able to get us back on track. Bizarrely, just after this, the wind picked up and we were underway and not really in need of assistance any more. Alas, by this time assistance was already on the way. He did tow us little ways but the wind was quite adequate so that he was able to let us go on our own and we got back into the inlet with no problem. One complicating factor was that when I pulled up the centre board it became stuck in the "up" position due the barnacles that had collected on it and on the inside of the slot in the half keel that it recedes into. We were going with the wind most of the way back and we also found that when the wind was abeam for a short time it did not slide very much on account of the half keel. You can see from the pictures I posted that I cleaned the barnacles off the hull and the centre board quite effectively. We travelled quite far up the inlet and you see from the pics I posted that we were pretty much abreast of Martinique beach. It was a great success in all.

- this is a manual log and the times and distance are way off - wind was brisk - incoming tide - electric 2.5 HP equivalent outboard for propulsion - heading into the wind on the way out - had to create this log manually because my iPhone went into the drink during a panicky moment - lost the SailTies record on the phone so the track and times and distance are not very accurate - fortunately it was a 7 year old phone that I intended to replace within days - did not manage to get all the way out because the wind and tide were against me and the electric outboard ran out of power. I had to turn back - I lost the phone while raising the sails in a panic - I was solo and had to keep heading into the wind while raising the sails so used the rudder clutch - the channel is very narrow so not a lot of room for error - got it done and survived (sans phone - I have a shiny new iPhone 15 now) - on my next attempt I will motor out with the tide and sail back in - note: you cannot sail out because the wind is almost always blowing into the inlet and the channel is very narrow so you cannot tack