Halifax fun race 44:38N 63:36.8W

Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Sun 21 Sep 2008 01:06
But not on my boat.
I came into Armadale Yacht Club in Halifax, Nova Scotia after a night at sea.  You have to tie up somewhere.
 
There had been plenty of wind forecast for the night, so again 3 reefs were put in and the storm jib hoisted before dark.  As the wind had not arrived, I rolled out half the genoa as well.  I had come out of St Peter's after a second quiet night there and run  round Madame Island and Canso Cape.  That put us on the long SE shore of Nova Scotia. The wind was blowing off the shore so the closer in I was, the smaller the waves. 
 
Though the afternoon I tucked up into the bays and bore away round  the headlands, with smooth water in a good strong breeze.  In the dark and trying to sleep that seemed too exciting, so after reefing I headed further out to sea.  Sleep and rocks are a bad combination. 
 
 
 I got into Halifax at 4pm the following day, tied up, asked where I could moor, moved 2 berths along, paid for the night and had a shower. By this time I must have chatted to perhaps a dozen different people and felt no embarrassment in wandering into the bar for a quiet drink.  I was invited out on a boat for a race the following afternoon.  As the owner was not there, I sort of accepted but the following morning round at the local shop I was offered a lift back to the yacht club with my bag of food by an Irish doctor, the owner.  He had been told of me and repeated the invitation, so I turned up.  
 
A fun race, not serious racing and on a big competitive boat but with a very scratch crew.  The sailmaker was the "Olympic standard" helmsman and four more of the crew obviously raced regularly, but the other half dozen of us were wives and hangers on .  The wives were banished to the cabin for the start and the beat out of the long bay.  The start was nearly catastrophic as the genoa would not unroll, but we unrolled it manually, round the jammed roller and were eventually off sailing. 
 
The long beat out was all in sunshine, round the top mark and back through a narrow passage which had figured in the previous night's discussion.  If we were on line there might be enough water, off line and we would be firmly aground.  Our boat's keel might be too deep, or the channel might have silted up. 
 
The excitement when we got to the critical stretch, were the two smaller yachts we were overtaking .  With the wind astern there was no way to slow down, but the second one tucked in tight to one side to let us keep in the centre of the channel.  We all got through.  
 
 
 After that the helmsman got out his guitar and with beers and rum and the bits of food people had brought, the run back, in ever dropping winds, was much more party than yacht race.  Proper Canadian Irish yacht racing.  The helmsman was a good guitarist who has played at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.