The forecasted winds were perfect 10 – 15knots from the south and even at 5am there was a light and very warm breeze in the harbor. Once out to sea however the winds turned light and so we motored for 1 ½ hours. Then the winds arrived and we set sail with the forecasted perfect winds for today’s passage. Once again they died after about 2 hours as we approached the shipping lanes and St. Pauls Island, 47 11.85N 060 08.96W, and the engines went on again.
AIS (Automated Identification System) is a very nice aid
that has been available to ships for many years and has recently become
affordable for pleasure craft. Essentially,
it transmits a small digital packet of data on VHF radio containing information
such as vessel position, course, speed, name, etc. Any vessel with a receiver is then notified
of the precise position, course, etc. of nearby vessels, and this information
is typically shown on a chartplotter. A
very nice feature in fog, rain or at night.
For the past few years, we had an AIS receiver, but this year we
upgraded to a transmitter/receiver so that other ships can “see” us. Approaching the shipping lanes our AIS
notified us of a large ship on a near collision course. We first saw the other vessel
at a distance of 11nm so we both had plenty of time to take avoiding
action. We kept an eye on her, and
passed by astern of her. I called her on
VHF, explained that we had recently installed as AIS transmitter and asked her
to confirm that she could see our AIS signal.
The response was, “Please wait a minute while I check”! In other words for the past 11 miles while we
had been constantly watching them on AIS, they hadn’t even looked at their AIS
receiver!! After a few minutes, they
came back on VHF and reported that yes we were transmitting correctly. In their defense, it was a clear, sunny day
and we didn’t need AIS to see each other, but still …
We passed close to St. Pauls hoping to see colonies of seals
but no luck. Teresa did however get some
shots of the island including a house built in the 1880s and still standing despite the fact that it's no longer being maintained. Some very light wind did return but they weren’t strong enough to get us to Port aux Basque before nightfall, so we motored or motor-sailed the rest of the way. The weather turned cold and drizzly, and on approaching Newfoundland, we noticed there was still some snow on the hills.
We entered Port aux Basque, 47 34.44N, 059 08.32W, at 18:50 local time
(which is ½ hour ahead of Nova Scotia) and tied up to what we thought was a
public dock. The dock shifted a little
after we tied up to it, so we made a temporary repair to the dock for the
night. Tomorrow we’ll seek out the
harbor master and hopefully find a more secure dock for our stay here. Welcome to Newfoundland!
Ships
Log: 3741.9, Todays Log: 64, Seasons Total: 153.9
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