So Far Away
February 2025
In considering whether sailing to St. Pierre was a reasonable exception to my commitment to coastal cruising, I’d forgotten how far away St. Pierre actually is. According to Google Earth, it’s 623 nautical miles (717 Statute miles) from Rockport Harbor to St. Pierre. That’s about the same distance as from Rockport to Bermuda. According to Lillian’s history of averaging 100 nm per day, that was equivalent to 6 days and nights of bluewater sailing … give or take a day.
Just getting to St Pierre would require about a week, followed by at least a few days enjoying France, then on to the south of Newfoundland for another week to visits the fiords, and then more than a week fighting the prevailing winds getting home. This was beginning to sound like the makings for a divorce. Although, in truth, my wife Kay has always been more than supportive of my extended voyages as she stays home to take care of our two dogs and homeland security. Kay has joined for selected crossings, such as from Panama to the Galapagos or up the Caribbean chain of island, but she mostly enjoys flying in to a destination once I’ve arrived. Kay would have been supportive of a month-long trip, but the fact is, I didn’t want to be gone for over a month. The challenge became how to finesse the time demands of covering that much ground.
One solution was to divide the trip into two parts by leaving the boat in Newfoundland over the Winter and coming back for her in the Summer of 2026. That set off a series of Googling, e-mails, and phone calls to determine which marinas in Cananda could accommodate hauling, winterizing, and storing a 40 sail boat. Several marinas responded saying whether they could or couldn’t haul the boat, but the one that caught my attention was the Bay of Island Yacht Club, P.O.Box 473 Corner Brook, NL. The Bay of Island Yacht Club is not far from Lark Harbor and the thought of a return to there, had sentimental value. Back in 2014, Pete Fasoldt, Eli Simon, and I had sought shelter in neighboring Lark Harbour on our way back from the Arctic. Struck by the friendliness of the town, in particular Tim and Allison (Friendly “Eh?” – Lillian B Sailing), coupled with the striking beauty of the harbor, I’d promised myself that I would return someday. I contacted the Yacht Club and the manager Laurie Snooks responded the next day by text with
“Good morning,
We certainly can accommodate you for winter storage. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you. – Laurie.
Beyond this warm invitation, Laurie helped locate a club member who could provide boat stands. Everything was falling in place. And, just in case, the Baddeck Marina in Nova Scotia said they could serve as a back-up. The tentative plan was to sail straight to St. Pierre, enjoy several days there, check into Newfoundland, explore the fiords along the south coast, sail up the west coast and into the Bay of Islands, and then put the boat to bed.
