We’ve enjoyed a series of great adventures during our 10+ years with Interlude. Here is a short summary of each one.
1. April-May 2014: From Panama City Florida to Madeira Beach, then to Cobourg on Lake Ontario
We took possession of Interlude on April 4, 2014 in Panama City Florida and immediately sailed her across the Gulf of Mexico to Madeira Beach where at the time Monica had a small condo with a dock. We were joined by Monica’s cousin Tina for this initial passage. After a week or so of preparations, we began a passage to our home town of Cobourg Ontario, joined by our friend Julian Spicer for the Florida portion of the trip. We initialled sailed south to Fort Myers, then sailed through the Okeechobee waterway across Florida to Port Sewall. Since the weather in the Atlantic was not great, we remained inside the Intracostal Waterway (ICW) as we headed north up the eastern coast of Florida. Jules headed home from Jacksonville, as Monica and I carried on to Fernandina Beach, at which point the weather was suitable for venturing out onto the Atlantic.
We sailed northeast for 48 hours off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, but as we approached Cape Hatteras we were forced by bad weather to head back inside the ICW at Beaufort. A couple of days later we arrived at Norfolk VA where we stayed for about a week, waiting for a weather window to continue north. Once a suitable window arrived, we headed back out onto the Atlantic and entered New York harbour 48 hours later in the nick of time as a spring storm arrived.
For the next few days we motored up the Hudson river, removing our masts at Riverview Marine Service Inc., at Catskill, prior to entering the Erie Canal. Our masts had to be stowed on the port side to leave the starboard side free for navigating the locks. As a result we were on a 15 degree list to port for the entire canal journey. We travelled as far as St. Johnsville, at which point we left the boat for a couple of weeks to return home for some work tasks. Upon returning to the boat we were delayed by a few days by high water in the Erie and Oswego systems, but eventually were able to resume our progress, restepping our masts once we reached Oswego. We crossed back to Canada on May 26, 2014. That night we had the coldest temperatures of the entire trip, as the water temperature in Lake Ontario was only about 4C.
2. Summer 2015: Lake Ontario, Lake Eire, Lake Huron, Georgian Bay
After participating in the annual sailpast at Cobourg Yacht Club, the big adventure in 2015 was sailing to the North Channel in Georgian Bay via Lake Ontario, the Welland Canal, Lake Erie, the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and Lake Huron. Our friend Julian Spicer joined us for the first part of the trip, helping us through the Welland Canal, and staying with us to enjoy nights spent anchored off Long Point, moored in Port Stanley and Erieau, before arriving in Windsor. After Jules took the train home, Monica and I carried on up Lake Huron, stopping in Goderich and Port Elgin before arriving at Tobermory. We then headed north-east to Killarney, and worked west along the North Channel, marvelling at the spectacular rock formations that are characteristic of this great world-class cruising ground. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we extended our cruise by a week, eventually returning to Windsor where we left the boat for a few weeks to catch up on work pbligations. We returned later for a week or so sailing east across Lake Erie, back through the Welland Canal, and direct from there to Cobourg.
3. Summer 2016: Lake Ontario, Bay of Quinte, Waupous, Kingston
In 2016 we did a lot of local sailing entertaining our friends in Cobourg, but also did a 2-week cruise to Kingston and back, exploring favourite anchorages in and around the Bay of Quinte including Belleville, Hay Bay, Picton, Prinyers Cove, and Waupous. One of the highlights was a glorious downwind run from Waupous to Kingston with the square up in 18 knots of wind, which gave us a thrilling 8 knots. Another highlight was that we engaged Andy Soper, who had tall ship sailmaking experience having built some of the sails for the Master and Commander movie. Andy evaluated Interlude’s sails, and gave us some important tips for sail trim on a schooner. He took charge of our sails over the subsequent winter and made a number of repairs and adjustments.
4. Summer 2017: Tall Ships in Kingston
The highlight of 2017 was sailing to Kingston to view the Tall Ships event in the Great Lakes. Approximately 20 tall ships, as well as hundreds of re-enactors, staged a mock battle replicating events that took place during the war of 1812. We also shadowed the parade of sail, joining our tall ship cousins even through we were not part of the official programme.
5. Summer 2018: Thousand Islands
The highlight of 2018 was a trip to the 1000 Islands sailing in company with our friends Dave and Regina, who acquired a CS40 in 2016. We helped them bring it from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario in the spring of 2017. In the summer of 2018 we sailed in company for a week, exploring charming anchorages in the 1000 islands just east of Kingston. Late in the season I installed a hard bimini designed to support both solar panels and to capture fresh rainwater, and we also acquired a higher-output alternator: these projects were anticipating our 2019 adventures.
6. Summer and fall 2019: Cobourg to Chesapeake
Leg 1: Cobourg to Gaspé
In 2019 we started what turned out to be a major Odessey, leaving from Cobourg in July 2019 with our ultimate destination being St. Vincent, where I had been teaching as a Sail Canada and ASA cruising instructor since 2018. Spring 2019 was a busy time of improvements, including a new cockpit enclosure, new sail covers sewed by Monica, a new (to us) Portland Pudgy dinghy, along with a host of minor gear enhancements. We departed in late July, and had a fantastic trip down the St. Lawrence. Friends Julian Spicer and Beth Coyne joined us in Quebec for the passage to Tadoussac, and a few days cruising the Saguenay fiord. We saw many beluga and humpback whales in the area off the Tadoussac, where the marine topography creates ideal feeding conditions for whales. There are dozens of whale-watching vessels operating out of Tadoussac. After Beth and Jules left us in Tadoussac, Monica and I carried on to Gaspé via Sainte Anne des Monts, Anse de la Riviere de la Grance Vallee, and Riviere au Renard. We left the boat for a couple of weeks in Gaspé.
Leg 2: Gaspé to Halifax
Returning to Gaspé we continued south-east, stopping for a memorable visit at Escuminac before arriving in Summerside PE. We then carried to Charlottetown where we stayed a couple of nights, enjoyed a theatre night at the Chalottetown Festival. Crossing to the Nova Scotia shore we tied up in Pictou as a front blew through. Pictou is a charming town with a lobster museum, a reconstruction of the Hector that brought one of the first batches of Scottish immigrants to Nova Scotia, a famous knife factory, and many other charming attributes. Once the storm passed, we continued east, anchoring for the night in Ballentynes Cove, then continued on through the Canso Strait between the Nova Scotia mainland and Cape Breton. We spend a pleasant night in Port Hawksbury, then headed for the St Peters Canal that is the entrance to the Bras D’Or lakes. We spend a night on the wall in the canal, then locked through to Bras D’Or, ending up in Baddeck where we found a spot on the main dock. We enjoyed a couple of days in Baddeck, including a visit to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, and a concert by by mispelled namesake, Rob MacLean.
Anticipating the arrival of Hurricane Dorion, we spend a half day motoring to a secure hurricane hole, where we spend a day prepping for the storm, another day enduring the storm, and a further day putting the boat back together before heading back to St. Peters. We were stuck there for another day until power was restored, enabling the canal to resume operations.
After passing through Canso harbour, it took us a couple of days to travel along the south coast of Nova Scotia toward Halifax, stopping for a night in Beaver Harbour. Arriving in Halifax, we saw a visiting British aircraft carrier with a ski-lift bow for launching Harrier Jets. Ee travelled up the Northwest Arm where we had a reservation at the Armdale Yacht Club. We left Interlude there for a several weeks, as we had work and family obligations back in Cobourg.
Leg 3: Halifax to Chesapeake
In late September of 2019 we headed back to Halifax and sailed west past Chester and Lunenberg. We anchored for the night in Liverpool Bay and Shelberne Harbour on the way to Cape Sable Island. Our intention was to head direct to Bar Harbour in Maine from Cape Sable, but the winds were foul so we changed our plan and turned NW toward Grand Manan. Since adverse weather was on the way, we attempted to find a spot in Grand Manan Harbour, but there was no room. Instead, we found an anchorage a few miles to the east in the shelter of Wood Island. We stayed there for two days waiting for the system to blow past. Once the weather improved, we continued on toward Maine.
The big challenge with navigating in Maine was that there was a lobster pot about every 100 metres along the channels. After checking in with the CBP Roam app, the first night we felt our way in the dark into one of the many inlets along the Maine coast. The next day after weaving our way through thousands of lobster pots, we arrived after dark at Rockland. Approaching the dock we caught a stray line on the prop and the engine stalled. Our momentum took us toward the dock, and Monica was able to jump off with a line at the last second, preventing us from crashing into the boats ahead. It turns out that we were not at the marina we were heading for, but the result was far better. Bad weather kept us in port for several days, but the marina offered excellent coffee and muffins every morning, had great washroom and laundry facilities, and even lent us a car so we could go shopping. Rockland was a real treat.
After diving on the prop to cut off the line we caught, when the weather moderated, we continued south, passing by Monhegan Island, by headed into Pemaquid Bay for fuel. We by-passing Boston but stopped for the night in spectacular Cohasset Harbor. The next day we transitted the Cape Cod Canal, and carried on through Buzzard’s Bay into Long Island Sound. We sailed on overnight. The wind rose to 25 knots by the next day. We were sailing at 8 knots with only 1/2 of the square sail deployed. As dark approached we made our way into the harbour at Stamford Connecticut, finding a dock at Harbor Point Marina. Bad weather kept us there for a couple of days, but we had a great time. The day following our arrival we found a wine store and discovered that they were having a tasting event that night, to which we were invited. Both the wine and the fellowship were spectacular.
Once the weather cleared we continued SW along the Long Island Sound, eventually passing through Hell’s Gate, and along the east river, dodging ferries, police boats, commercial craft, and many private craft. We continued on through NY harbour, under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, through Lower Bay and past Sandy Hook. We carried on overnight, arriving the next day at Cape May. We took the short cut through the Cape May canal into the Delaware River, and found a spot to anchor for some well-deserved rest near the Fortescue Creek Inlet.
The next day we continued north to the entrance of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, at which point we entered the canal heading west toward the Chesapeake. Our destination was Worton Creek, where we had an arrangement to leave the boat for a couple of months pending the next leg of the journey south. We entered Warton Creek in the pitch dark, feeling our way through the anchorages until we found an open dock where we spent the rest of the night. In the morning, we relocated the boat to her dock for the next couple of months, rented a car, and drove back to Cobourg.
7. December 2019, Warton Creek to Nassau
In December of 2019 Interlude travelled from Warton Creek in the Chesapeake to Nassau in the Bahamas. This trip had two main objectives: first, relocating Interlude to the Bahamas to position her for ongoing cruising in 2020; and second, I wished to earn my Sail Canada Offshore Cruising qualification. To this end I engaged Tony Pattison, a SC offshore cruising instructor, to come along as instructor. As Monica was not intending to come on this leg, we recruited as our friends Mike Evans and Jayne Finn, and someone who quickly became a new friend, Bob Flynn.
We all gathered in Warton Creek in early December and spend a couple of days preparing the boat for the passage. Leaving Warton Creek we noticed that the cooling water was no longer coming out the engine exhaust. We ended up anchored for a couple of hours attempting to diagnose the issue. Eventually I dived on the intake and discovered that a small fish had become wedged into the intake, effectively blocking it completely. After removing the fish, all was well.
It took us a couple of days to motor down the Chesapeake. We were originally intending to continue out the mouth of the Chesapeake, but in view of bad weather off Cape Hatteras we decided to continue down the ICW for a few days to Beaufort. This enabled us to continue making progress and helping everyone get more familiar with the boat.
After arriving in Beaufort we enjoyed a half day looking around the port. The next day we set out to sea. The weather was initially favourable, but soon the wind shifted to the south. We sailed as close to the wind as we could in a south-easterly direction. When we are about 200 miles offshore, the wind eventually reached 30-40 knots with 12 foot swells. As the wind was forecast to shift to the north, we decided to heave-to to ease the motion of the boat while waiting for the shift. Interlude behaved beautfully while hove to, only drifting about 8 miles to leeward in 24 hours.
Eventually the wind shift arrived and we were able to resume course heading directly for the Bahamas. The wind averaged 20 knots, which raised 8 foot swells. For most of the time we sailed almost directly downwind with just the staysail set. However, in these conditions Interlude tended to roll significantly, and pretty much every wave brought a lot of water on deck. At the time we didn’t realize that water was pouring down the deck vent for the holding tank, which eventually overflowed into the bilge. We ended up having to pump the bilges out regularly. In addition, some water also came down the fuel tank vents, which eventually prevented the engine from running. At the time, we didn’t realize the cause of the engine failure. When we reached Nassau, we were able to get a tow into a safe anchorage. The next day the tow boat returned and helped us get into a dock, since I needed to leave the boat in Nassau for several weeks until Monica and I could return in early 2025 to continue our passage to St. Vincent.
This passage ended up being an important learning experience for all involved, and I did succeed in earning my Sail Canada offshore cruising student-level credentials, and eventually my instructor-level offshore qualifications also.
When I returned to Nassau in January 2020 I was able to get a mechanic onboard to diagnose the engine issue, drain the water from the filters and the engine, and get the engine restarted. We also hired a company to pump out the fuel tanks, filter out the water and other contaminants, and restore the boat to an operational condition.
8. Early 2020: Nassau to Great Exuma
In late January, I went ahead to Nassau to get Interlude ready for the next stage in our adventures. About a week later, Monica joined me and we spent a few days provisioning before heading off to continue south along the chain of Cays known as the Exumas. We had a pleasant week or so day-sailing along the northern Exuma Cays, finding a sheltered anchorage each night. We were well-supplied, so didn’t head ashore as we hope to get as far as the Turks and Caicos Islands before I had to head back to St. Vincent where I was scheduled to teach three courses in March.
We stayed on the protected side of the Exumas until we reached Guillot Cay, then used the Guillot Cut to traverse to the windward side. We reached Emerald Bay that night and headed in for a night at a dock with access to showers and an opportunity to refuel. During that leg, however, I noticed a distinctly different sound from the transmission. The next day we carried on to anchor in Georgetown to resupply for the next stage of the journey.
Georgetown is a huge destination fo cruisers. There were 400+ boats anchored in the very large harbour area when we arrived. The cruising community has a daily VHF radio program announcing arrivals, departures, and daily activities. We introduced ourselves and indicated we were having transmission problems. Later that morning, a cruiser dropped off a similar Hurth transmission in case we needed it for parts.
Unfortunately, the local mechanic was off island for a few days. Eventually we realized that given our time constraints, we should reconsider our plans and decided to head back to Emerald Bay because that seemed like the safest place to leave the boat for a few weeks. Kevin Ady, the local mechanic was back on the island and was able to come by for an inspection. We left him the boat key, and caught the weekly Air Canada direct flight back to Toronto, expecting to return at the beginning of April to continue our journey.
Little did we know that the Covid pandemic would completely derail these plans. As global traval shut down, we were unable to return to the Bahamas until May of 2021, more than a year later than planned. Fortunately, in addition to working on the transmission, Kevin Ady was willing to keep an eye on the boat, and made himself available to reinforce the mooring lines, remove the enclosure, and secure the sails as Hurricane Ida approached in July 2020. The staff at the Emerald Bay marina were helpful as well. Nevertheless, we did face tens of thousands of unexpected docking costs when an expected 6 weeks at the dock turned into 15 months. However, under the circumstances we were very glad to have left Interlude in an extremely safe harbour with responsible people to keep an eye on her during this extraordinary period.
9. May-June 2021: Great Exuma to St. Vincent
In mid-May, 2021 travel restrictions were lifted sufficiently that we were able to return to Interlude with plans to complete the passage to St. Vincent. However, the trip there was going to be very different than planned. Our original intention in 2020 was to island-hop, seizing the opportunity to get to know each island along the passage. In spring of 2021, however, most islands had 7-14 day quarantine periods which made it impractical to visit. So the next plan was to travel from Great Exuma to St. Vincent in one long continuous passage that in theory could be done in a couple of weeks. In the end, it took 26 days.
To help us sail Interlude to St. Vincent we recruited two friends as crew. Martin Kerestes was a former student of mine who was interested in getting some offshore experience as he was planning to purchase his own boat in the near future. Bob Flynn, who was on the passage from the Chesapeake to Nassau, is always up for any opportunity for an adventurous sail. The four of us met at the boat in Emerald Bay and spent a few days cleaning up after 15 months of being away, provisioning, and making plans. Eventually we set off heading back to Georgetown. Approaching Georgetown, the engine started to overheat. We anchored to diagnose the issue and discovered that there was another small fish in the raw water intake. Getting the anchor back up was another adventure, as we had hook a cable on the bottom. We completed the trip to Georgetown, and after a night in the harbour, set a course to round the tip of Long Island.
Long Island is very long (60 miles). Unfortunately, as we rounded the island we discovered that that the repair to the transmission was not as effective as we hoped. At anything over 1200 revs the transmission started to overheat. Given that we were beating into 20 knots winds, limiting the engine to 1200 revs gave us a speed made good of only 3-4 knots.
We therefore decided to stop at Clarence Town, which was effectively the last place we could refuel in the Bahamas. After a pleasant night at anchor, we refilled the port tank and carried on towards the Turks and Caicos Islands.
For the next day or so, we were using fuel in the starboard tank. However, when we switched to the port tank, the engine started to fail after a few hours. I changed the fuel filter, which solved the problem, and we continued on. However, a few hours later the engine started to fail again. The only diagnosis we could reach is that we picked up a tank of bad fuel in Clarence Town. I had plenty of fuel filters, but not enough to get us to St. Vincent if we had to change a filter every few hours. We reluctantly decided that we needed to make a fuel stop at Ocean World at Puerta Plata in the Dominican Republic.
Approaching the DR at night, the engine stopped abruptly, and using flashlights we could see that there was a line in the prop. Martin volunteered to jump overboard, secured to the boat by a line, to cut the prop free. Carrying on from there, we arrived at Ocean World at first light. Fortunately, the marina was able to help us arrange to have the port tank pumped out and cleaned. That cost $400, and it took another $400 to replace the fuel. The marina was also able to help us get updated Covid tests which we would need to enter St. Vincent when we eventually arrived there. I can’t recommend this marina highly enough.
Given our slow progress, Martin realized that he needed to fly home from the DR to deal with some family issues. After saying a fond farewell to Martin, and a provisioning stop at the nearest grocery store, we carried on late the same day. For the next 24 hours we had more favourable winds, but approaching the east end of the DR the wind strengthened to 20 knots and shifted forward until it was directly in our teeth.
We decided to try a long 100 mile tack to the NE in the hopes of clearing Puerto Rico. This pretty much did the trick, although we had to do a bit of additional tacking to clear the islands at the east end of Puerto Rico. We passed into the Caribbean just west of St. Thomas in the USVI. We then spend a couple of days tacking east just south of USVI and BVI, trying to take whatever advantage we could of a lee behind the islands.
As we passed the BVI, I became concerned because the steering seemed a bit looser than normal. We decided to sneak into an anchorage behind one of the BVI islands to give us an opportunity to check the steering and grab a night of sleep at anchor. We concluded that while the steering needed service, it was unlikely to fail before we reached SVG (which was in fact the cast). Early the next morning, we snuck back out of the BVI and after another day or tacking east, finally reached a point where we could turn further south and head for St Kitts and Navis.
It was a great feeling to be in the home stretch for SVG, and Interlude responded by giving us 8 knots as we headed SE on a close reach. A few days later, we approached St. Vincent at dusk and we greeted by the smoky smell of the volcano that had erupted a couple of months earlier. We cruised slowly down the SVG coast and approached our destination of Blue Lagoon at first light the next day. Given the aftermath of Cobourg it took us a couple of days to complete the entry requirements, including yet another Covid test, before we released and could get onto one of Barefoot Yacht Charter’s moorings in Blue Lagoon. This was effectively my second home, because I have been teaching for Barefoot Offshore Sailing School, sister company of Barefoot Yacht Charters, for about 6 weeks each year since 2018. Phil Barnard, owner of Barefoot, rolled out the red carpet for us. It was a great welcome.
I must pay a great tribute to Martin, Bob and Monica. The passage from the Bahamas to SVG ended up being far more challenging than expected, due in part to consistently unfavourable winds, as well as boat issues (transmission, bad fuel) that slowed our progress and made the trip much longer than planned. Everyone showed enormous fortitude in standing their watches day after day as we made our way east.
10. 2021-2023: St. Vincent and the Grenadines
We arrived in SVG on June 11, 2021. After a few days of recovery, I had some work-work to do and Bob and Monica spent a pleasant day exploring Bequai and St. Vincent. We then started working on some of the maintenance that was required after a 26 day passage. We hauled the boat to refresh bottom paint. While the boat was out of the water, Hurricane Elsa blew by SVG, transitioning from a tropical storm to a hurricane as it passed the island. The eye passed right over Blue Lagoon where we were located at the time. Fortunately, Ottley Hall, where the boat was hauled out, was a protected location and there was no damage there.
While out of the water the transmission was replaced with a new unit. In the process of doing that it was discovered that there was sufficient corrosion in the prop shaft that that needed replacement also. We also worked on the steering system, changing the seals on the hydraulic cylinder, but eventually concluded that the helm pump needed to be rebuilt. This required sending it to Florida. Virgil, the highly skilled mechanic at Barefoot, also suggested that the fuel injection pump on the engine should also be serviced. This was done in Trinidad. We also ordered new house batteries.
All these repairs took time, and the boat was not fully ready by the time Monica and I returned before Christmas, 2021. We enjoyed unique Christmas customs in SVG in the lead-up to Christmas, including the “9 mornings” celebrations. On Dec 24 Barefoot lent us a boat so we could spend some time cruising down the Grenadines. We ended up having a lobster Christmas dinner in the Tobago Cays, hosted by my friend Captain Neil who I had gotten to know on many previous visits to the Tobago Cays while instructing students. I was happy to be able to show Monica all my favourite spots in the Grenadines.
We returned again in February for two weeks of cruising with our friends Dave and Regina. Such a pleasant time!
After I did some teaching with Barefoot Offshore Sailing School, we hauled Interlude in late April 2022, to leave her on the hard for the upcoming hurricane season.
In fall 2022, I led a transAtlantic instructional delivery, taking a catamaran along with students from Croatia to St. Vincent via Mallorca and Madeira.
As a result, we didn’t get back to St. Vincent until March 2023. We spent a few weeks working on the boat to get her ready for a passage back to Canada via Bermuda. She was relaunched on March 29. After some additional days of preparations, we departed SVG on April 4, 2023.
11. March-May 2023: SVG to Halifax via Bermuda
The passage from St. Vincent to St. Lucia proved to be quite challenging, due to the fact that we were unable to acquire spare fuel filters in St. Vincent. The boat had been on the hard for the best part of a year, and there was evidently a build-up of sludge in the fuel tanks. This was shaken up as soon as we started bouncing around in the swells as we departed St. Vincent. We eventually ran through the few filters we had. In addition, the wind was coming from further north than normal, forcing us to tack upwind. As a result, it ended up taking us a couple of days to make our way into the outer part of Rodney Bay where we anchored in the dark for the night.
In the morning, I bypassed the filters and ran the engine using some clean diesel we had in jerry cans on board. We had just enough to get into the inner harbour. Once there, we bought all the filters that were available in the marine store, serviced the engines, and pumped out as much suspect diesel from the tanks as possible.
After a night in Rodney Bay, we checked out and carried on toward St. Kitts, which was our next port of call. We motorsailed overnight and arrived on April 8. A third crew member, Gary Holmes, a former cruising student of mine, was scheduled to join us there. We greeted him with a welcome dinner when he arrived on April 8. We spent some time on the next day replacing some of the running rigging with new Spunflex, and left around noon heading for St. Martin. We did not originally intend to stop there, but were unable to purchase any additional fuel filters in St. Kitts. We arrived in Great Bay of Sint Maarten on April 11, checked in and out, then sailed around to Simpson Bay and proceeded through the cut to Island Water World where we had a slip for the night. We spent a day bussing around to various marine supply stores to secure the parts and supplies we needed, including plenty of fuel filters (which in the end were not needed).
We left the next day on April 12, skirted Anguilla to the north, then set a direct course to cover the 800 miles to Bermuda. We had good weather and southerly winds most of the way, but encountered a dramatic 180 degree wind shift as we approached the island in the early morning of April 19. It took us all day to motorsail north to find the entrance to St. Georges Harbour, which we entered after dark. We made our way to the customs dock, checked in, found a spot to anchor, the popped a cork to celebrate our safe arrival. The next day we moved to Captain Smokes marina, where we had a reservation for about 10 days.
Captain Smokes is a small marina, operated by the Godet and Yound hardware store just up the street. It proved to be a fantastic place, with fantastic people.
Monica and Gary spent a day exploring the island, while I caught up on work projects, before their flights back to Canada. A few days later I was joined by our stalward friend Bob Flynn, and a friend of his named Terry White, from Newfoundland. After provisioning the boat, we left on May 5 heading directly for Halifax once we cleared the reefs around Bermuda.
Unfortunately, we were all sufficiently busy on the passage to follow that there are no good photos of this second leg of the trip to Nova Scotia.
The conditions were challenging as we left Bermuda since a strong system in the preceding days had built up boisterous sea conditions, enabling us to average only about 3 knots almost directly into the swells. By May 7, however, the seas had moderated and we were able to make a bit more progress in 10-15 knot winds from the NW. Conditions continued to improve so that by May 8 we were making 5-6 knots directly toward our destination. However, by late on May 8 it became evident that a strong low that we thought was going to pass ahead of us was actually directly in our path. The winds rapidly increased to 35-40 knots, quickly blowing up 4-5 metre waves. We had no choice but to heave-to for the next 12 hours.
One of the great things about Interlude is that she heaves to beautifully. The boat was rocking and rolling, but as the breaking seas approached they magically dissipated when they hit the slick formed as the boat gradually slipped to leeward.
By early morning the gale had passed on, and we resumed progress, slow at first until the seas moderated. Adverse winds continued to impede our progress through May 10. By noon on May 11 we were able to motorsail at 6 knots in a 10 knot breeze, with a little help from the Gulf Stream. The winds on May 12 enabled us to make good progress under sail alone, but as they declined we resumed motorsailing. By noon on May 13, the coast of Nova Scotia was in sight, but it took us the rest of the day to make our way into Halifax Harbour. We motored up the Northwest Arm in the dark, eventually tying up on the fuel dock at Armdale Yacht Club at 2330. After phoning in to customs, we celebrated with a glass of wine and went to bed. Customs came by in the morning to complete the check-in process. We cleaned and serviced the boat, and after making arrangements with the marina to leave the boat for a couple of weeks, headed back to our respective destinations.
On arrival in Halifax we had effectively completed a great loop over 4 year down the US coast, through the Bahamas, passing by Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, USVI and BVI, down the Leeward and Windward Islands to St. Vincent, then back up the island chain, to Bermuda, and back to Halifax.
A couple of weeks later in late May I drove my truck to Halifax, picked up some gear from the boat, drove the truck to Chester, took a taxi back to Halifax, then spent a calm day motoring west to Chester. picking up a mooring just before dark on June 1. Securing the boat, I left the next day to drive back to Ontario, leaving Interlude in the care of the marina.
In September Monica and I drove back to Nova Scotia and moved the boat to the shipyard where we hauled her out and put her to bed for the winter.
13. 2024: Maintenance in Nova Scotia
In September 2024, we finally had time to drive back to Nova Scotia, check the boat, and do some maintenance in anticipation of sailing the boat back to Ontario in 2025. We were generally pleased with the condition of the boat after a year in storage, and spent a couple of days putting primer on a few spots on the hull and deck to ready the boat for additional touchups in the spring of 2025.
14. Spring 2025: Relocation Nova Scotia to Ontario
Coming in the spring!