44:22.0N 52:21.1W
Sula Sula III
Mark
Wed 28 Jun 2023 16:56
So with some trepidation I asked if there was anywhere I could anchor....apparently not🤔 Hmm.... What would you suggest Sarah.... I need to make landfall to procure emergency supplies to complete my journey to Falmouth in the UK? "Oh, I would go to the public dock at St John's harbour.... They will have room and have some floating dock space." Apparently I call them on channel 11 and they will tell me when I can cross the overfalls.
I did try to download the copious pdfs that Will kindly sent me but I quickly exceeded my daily allowance (5mb) and Skylink cut off my data access. So this morning was spent trying to get the limit lifted as I still have 13mb available of my monthly 50.
The pilot info (comes through in some cunning Newfoundland coded form) clearly states "not for navigation" and the helpful phone numbers have critical bits missing.
So as I approach an unknown harbour (busy enough to have a traffic separation zone, according to the very helpful coastguard person the other day) in visibility down to less than 200 meters with only the North Atlantic passage chart to help me, I can't help feeling a little vulnerable..... I suspect I will just loiter around outside until a passing vessel hailed on chanel 16 heading to the public dock lets me follow them in. Oh.... And to really piss off the Newfies I have no local or indeed Canadian courtesy flag. Hey Ho..... Looking on the bright side at least it will not be blowing a hooley?
We are currently making 4 knots under poled out headsails with apparent wind of 6 to 7 knots.... So with just 200 miles to go will hopefully arrive about this time on Friday. The data jam has prevented me being able to update the weather Gribs but it has been pretty consistently light so I am not banking on an increase. As always, loath to use the engine; this is a sailing boat after all. I hope Ian (previous owner and master mariner) isn't following the blog..... He will be saying to himself " what the hell did I let my beautiful boat go to such a bungling idiot for?"
The last 24 hrs will be inside the Iceberg zone so I am going to get as much rest as possible before then.... The good news is that at this speed and with such a calm sea, I should be able to hear the rollers breaking on anything close, in time to avoid contact.
