I lie here on the starboard berth, looking through the keyhole companion way at the blue sky with a few puffy clouds. What a difference a week makes to my stress level.
One week ago on Friday, our Contessa passed it’s mechanical inspection. Looked good, sounded good but had not been tested on an extended cruise.
Saturday, we met with a marine surveyor who helped us with a sea trial… The sea trial was short and I feel that the surveyor did not do a thorough job, but there it was. A passing recommendation.
Having completed the main survey, the mechanical inspection and sea trial without major problems so we decided to finalize our boat purchase and celebrate! By the time we had completed the paperwork, payment and so-on the weather had deteriorated further and the wind was at 18knots and increasing. The forecast called for thunder showers and we, prudently, decided not to set sail Saturday evening. Instead, we had a tasty dinner at the dockside restaurant and spend our first night on the boat.
The Saturday night forecast for Sunday was for an overcast day, blowing 10 knots from the southeast with no rain until very late in the afternoon or evening. This would be ideal for our first sail since we were travelling a mere 13NM north to Goderich. However, weather forecasts are not to be trusted. Sunday morning arrived with calm conditions, forecasted for 4 knots or less from the north and fog. We packed up, had breakfast at 09:00 and departed around 10:30. We initially raised the sails when we hit open water, but the wind was already lightening from 4 knots and we knew it would take us all day with the very light winds against us. Rolling up the sails, the engine took a moment to start. Strange behaviour that, it had started first time every time before. We ran the engine for about 45minutes to one hour at about 3/4 throttle making about 4.5 knots SOG until we noticed that the oil light popped on! Oh no. This was the *same* problem that was occurring from the previous owner. I must admit, I said a few “sailor words”.
So there we were, with no engine, about 1/3 of the way between Bayfield and Goderich and a few nautical miles off the coast – barely visible through the foggy/hazy conditions. Fortunately, the wind has picked up a bit so we said, “AHA! We don’t need an engine, we’re a *sail*boat.” As mother nature and Murphy intend, the wind always happens to be from the exact direction you wish to travel. We sailed for about an hour with the wind peaking around 7 knots and then falling back to zero. I think our peak spead was about 3.1 knots SOG but ost of the time was only about 1-2 knots SOG. After an hour, we were back to glassy calm waters, no wind, no engine and perhaps in trouble as we heard the coast guard send out securite warnings for squalls that were approaching from the south.
Our only choice was to use the engine; We discovered that we could use the engine for about 10 minutes if we let it rest for 15-20. We limped all the way to Goderich in 10 minute bursts. At one point, we were dead in the water right off the mouth of the commercial harbour channel, looking at a freighter that was just firing up its engines! That was a tense 20 minutes. We didn’t have enough time, in one burst, to make it up the channel to the inner marina so we called ahead to find a spot in the outer marina. They told us we could dock temporarily on G-dock and let the engine cool down. *phew* A life saver. Just as pulled into the inner marina, the engine quit again and we went from full-throttle to coasting as we entered the harbour. Yes, I docked under no sails, no power, on a new boat in a strange harbour. It was a mixture of relief, pride and happiness when I docked perfectly under the eyes of all those other boaters. An hour later, the engine had cooled and oil pressure was increased enough that we were able to move into the inner harbour. We found our dock and tied up just in time to beat the massive thunder storms moving in.
The 13NM trip, that should have taken us 2.5 hours took us over 8.
… now to settle the issue with the previous owner.
p.s. A thank you to all that helped us. Ron @ Bayfield Marine Services, Uta @ Mailtland Valley Marina and my Aunt and Uncle who helped shuttle us back to Bayfield.