Yesterday morning at 10:00 we left Harve-Aubert to head out across the Cabot Straights and up the west side of Newfoundland.  “They” called for 10-12kt breezes and slight chop; Mother Nature failed to get the memo.  By 2:00 in the afternoon we were in 30kt southerlies blowing steadily against the tides pouring out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The nasty combination of wind against tide lead to four to six foot “chop” with steep waves running up in excess of ten feet.  At 3:05 p.m., “Bagan” performed the balancing act of her lifetime as she sat atop one of the larger, steeper waves, trying to make her mind up whether she was going to tumble onto her beam ends off the back of the wave or stay put and ride the crest back down again.  A collective sigh of great relief was let out as she chose the later.

It continued to be a nasty night but as we powered into the lee on the southwest side of Newfoundland the unexpected weather slowly released its grip and by 7:00 this morning we were  finally moving through the forecasted “chop”.  How Dominique managed to produce a full dinner for us last night is still a complete mystery. Two hours ago we entered the Bay of Islands and are now sitting on the hook in a stunning and very secluded North Arm Harbour, more a mini-fjord than actual harbour.  The gentle waterfalls that run down the steep green hills which face either side of this cut are a soothing and welcome relief to the thrashing we took yesterday at this time.  Clinton’s keeping an eye on a southerly system which promises 35+ kts out in the straight, but for the next few days anyway we’ll be day-hopping up the west side of Newfoundland protected by her lee with hopes of arriving in St. Anthony’s in three more days.

Posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009
Filed under: Bagan by Sprague
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Yesterday, at of 3:00 p.m. local time, we locked through the Canso Causeway, left the foggy Atlantic behind and sailed into the sunny Gulf of St. Lawrence.  70 degree air temps & 65 degree water temps were far from what any of us expected as we took this next measured step toward the arctic.  The causeway itself is a fairly straightforward lock-in/ lock-out canal configuration but its role and purpose anything but.  It was originally constructed to help control the six to seven knot current which races through the cut, impeding all but the largest traffic. In conjunction with this was the adjacent building of Point Tupper, one of the deepest commercial ports on the east coast of America.  The port hosts facilities to some of the largest oceangoing oil super tankers known, two of which were currently in.  Trying to make up some of the time we lost while in Halifax we powered through the night and as the familiar fog once again rolled in we dropped the hook at 5:00 a.m., just off the beach at Harve-Aubert on the Iles de La Madeleine.

After some needed sleep we took advantage of a quick break in the fog and powered Bagan around to a face dock of a small marina in La Grave where dock lines were caught by more than eager and willing hands.  The small town, relaxed atmosphere, maritime museum and welcoming inhabitants were just what the crew needed after the frenetic pressures of the last week. Tomorrow we head up the inside, west coast of Newfoundland where we’ll start to encounter ice, a navigation impediment which we’ll be dealing with for sometime to come.

Posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Filed under: Greenland by Sprague
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I write these words with extreme caution, but today just very well might be “the” day.  As of late last night the computer had been beaten into submission and Windows was accepting whatever we threw at it, in my case literally.  We left it cooking all night and as of 7:00 this morning all seemed well.  So, if indeed this is the case, we leave Halifax today; a wonderful place but it’s beyond time to get going.

We’ve planned the next stop (note cautious words, carefully chosen) to be at the Isle de la Madeleine in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a few days from here.  Getting there will be a mater of  running NE up the coast and turning in (N) at Canso where further on we’ll have to lock through to the Gulf. One of the decisions we’re facing concerns the relentless fog.  For the past four or five days the viz has been no more than 100 yds.  We’re hoping that if we loop out into the Atlantic rather than do a straight run we may avoid most of the coastal fog, “hope” being the operative word.

It’s at Isle de la Madeleine where the trip takes a more serious note in that this is where we need to start watching for icebergs.  One web site which we’ll be glued to is: http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/Icebergs/IcebergFinder/IcebergFinder.aspx which gives the projected ice coverage for the immediate area.  It’s all of our fervent wishes that all things electrical and mechanical have had their moment of fun as now it’s getting serious.

Posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Filed under: Newport to Halifax by Sprague
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I’ll keep this short and not so sweet; there‘s a reason five out of five crew members aboard Bagan have MacBooks…. The new computer arrived last night, the one we waited five days for, the one we paid a fortune to get up here and through Customs, the one that’s IBM based and state of the art, the one that runs Vista, not even XP… The very same one that last night crashed and locked us out the 2^nd time we went to use it. Clinton has been up around the clock talking with Sandy (on my cell… don’t ask) trying to figure out what file or driver in what program Vista doesn’t like.  Once found they then have to try to get on line and find a better or more reliable driver, usually a third party’s.  Meanwhile I’ll finish writing this on my trusty three year old MacBook, attach a jpeg and upload it to the blog with absolutely no issues.  Five out of five.  No bets as to when we leave the dock.

Posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Filed under: Bagan, Newport to Halifax by Sprague
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Still in Halifax, which was more or less expected.  When we left Newport we knew that there were still some jobs that needed to be attended to but also knew life would be a bit easier if not less expensive up here.  We’ve been sitting under a very persistent low pressure system which started off as a n’or easter so that gives us more motivation to stay at the dock.  As with Newport it’s rained most everyday since our arrival. What we didn’t expect was that our new computer which we had sent “over night” has taken five days to get here and that another package which we had sent has also been stuck in Customs Turn-Around, not really gaining any traction on getting to us. The silver lining in these clouds are that the folks here at The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron have been beyond welcoming and incredibly supportive in helping us cut through the bureaucratic Red Tape. 

To add to this, despite my calling Master Card and American Express two weeks prior to departure to advise them of my travels out of the country, due to security reasons, both cards have been shut down, mid purchase… Master Card twice. In the meantime Ullie has been able to shoot the much needed “controlled” crew interviews for the documentary,  Sefton has been working as his audio engineer and Dominique has been using this extra time to spend most of her days on the road getting needed provisions. Clinton’s been keeping his eye on the weather system and by all accounts the wind will swing into the north this morning which should help flatten the seas out and allow us to perhaps leave this evening… yet that would all depend on whether the computer gets here or not.  Ironic situation; finding Mother Nature more dependable than an “Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Over Night” shipping service.

Posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Filed under: Findings from the Field, Newport to Halifax by Sprague
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Still in Halifax and most probably will be here for the next few days.  We’ve been watching a system develop off-shore and last night it came ashore as a pretty fair n’or easter; driving rain, gusts 35 – 40 kts and all in all a good time to be out of harm’s way.  Thursday night Ulli and Sefton flew in on two separate carriers and both airlines managed to lose their bags.  The bags arrived just yesterday and none were more relived than Ulli (and me) as his was the bag that held all the audio gear.  From what Clinton’s been pulling up on the weather charts it seems this low will be lurking for the next few days with the strongest part of the system coming in this afternoon. We’re going to move Bagan to an inside wall here at the marina, button up and hunker down. This will give me a good and uninterrupted chance to final organize and assemble my edit gear, something I haven’t been able to get to for the last month.  Or… seeing as it’s Father’s Day I just may head back to my bunk, hang a sign on the door that reads “Gone Fishin’” and settle in with a good book.

OK, so no one paid any attention to the sign on my cabin door which read “Gone Fishin’ ”.  In fact, Dominique, Sefton and Clinton cooked me an amazing steak dinner and then then took me out to see “The Taking of Pelham 123”. Far better than fishin’ any day!  Hands down one of the best Father’s Day I’ve ever had!

Posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Filed under: Findings from the Field, Newport to Halifax, The Arctic by Sprague
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Four hours outside of Halifax and the weather holds; long, fat swells from the SSE, winds light & variable and not a cloud in the sky. Yesterday, as we made our way past the Bay of Fundy, we felt the influence of its legendary tides. We were approximately 80 miles to the south of the bay and found that the set was so strong it knocked us about five degrees off course. This leg to Halifax was basically a shake-down leg to, as Gerry Driscol used to say on “Intrepid”, “See what we can break.”

Nothing truly broke but we did have two problems. The first being the computer… again. It’s a Dell tower, a few years old and just doesn’t seem to be up to the task of running several high demand programs simultaneously. We have the electronic Nobeltec charts, an Airmar program which via an outside sensor gives us not only wind speed and direction but temp, a barometer, wind chill, apparent wind and satellite availability (Airmar is one of the more amazing marine innovations of the last five years). We’re also running two engine room cameras off of the computer as well as the three internet (land based, wireless card and satellite) access programs. Last night the computer showed us the Blue Screen of Death twice and had to be shut down and rebooted. After the total temper tantrum it threw the day before departure and last’s night TT, we’ve lost all confidence in it. Ted Croy is aboard and has been building computers since he was 12. Alas, the spending isn’t quite over as when we get in Ted is going computer shopping. Personally I’d like to give this Dell the float test but have been talked into keeping it as a backup for the Nobeltec program only.

The other small problem occurred at 5:00 this morning and was operator error. In the three years I’ve owned Bagan I never quite realized that the fuel pickup lines are a few inches off the bottom of the tanks, which only makes sense. These pickup lines think that the tank is empty when there’s actually about 15 gallons showing in the sight gauge. You can guess the outcome. Our immediate fear was that we picked up something in the prop (water temps were 45 degrees at this point and going over the side a real possibility) but quickly realized how we’d miscalculated and simply sucked the tank dry. We’ve three other fuel tanks aboard and 20 minutes later we were underway having been soberly being reminded that complacency is always lurking.

Posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Filed under: Bagan, Findings from the Field, Newport to Halifax by Sprague
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I’ve been looking forward to writing this first sentence for 18 months… “0800, slight swells from the south, winds light and variable and on our way to the Northwest Passage.”  Damn. We’re currently 22 hours out of Newport, exited the Cape Cod Canal around 5:00 yesterday evening and Bagan has been performing flawlessly.  The land based pressures and anxieties have been slowly dissipating and while none of us know what lays ahead, the excitement of the project is starting to build again. 

We dropped our dock lines at 10:20 yesterday morning and, taking photographs and video, Billy Black escorted us out past Castle Hill.  (Apart from being a brilliant marine photographer, Billy and his wife Joyce, are two of the best people going; very, very proud to call them friends). The gravity of Billy’s departure wasn’t wasted on any of us. Watching his boat turn and head back to Newport was about as poignant as it gets (little did we know that we’d see him 20 minutes later as he raced out to get shots of  transatlantic competitors ending their race from England to Newport, but it was poignant nonetheless). 

I write this last sentence with fingers crossed; today is going to be a day for doing absolutely nothing but sitting back and enjoying the passing scenery; miles and miles of open, blue and empty Atlantic ocean.  Halifax tomorrow. (Actually… truth be told there is one more point of anxiety; this blog entry will be the first one we upload via satellite. Because the computer crashed a day before departure I’ve never had a chance to test the connection. So, if you’re reading this now… )

Posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Filed under: Bagan, Newport to Halifax by Sprague
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Destination: Halifax, Nova Scotia. After last-minute provisioning and system tweaks Bagan and crew departed Newport, RI, mid-day on June 16. Current crew on-board are Sprague, Clinton, Dominique and Ted. Going full steam through the day, they passed through the Cape Cod Canal and Cape Cod Bay in afternoon. Bagan presses on at around 8-10knts and is reports fine weather, calm seas, and complete disregard for the cares and chaos the left behind in Newport. This morning the team is midway between Provincetown and Halifax. Stay tuned for more daily map and blog updates.

Posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Filed under: Bagan, Findings from the Field by Matt
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With all good hopes of leaving at 12:00 p.m., the last minute work that was being done on the watermaker had us slide right past that noon hour and they didn’t finish until 4:00 p.m..  But that frustration paled by comparison to what the ship’s computer had waiting for us… which was exactly nothing. 

When I went to get on the internet yesterday morning there was no internet, not much of anything else either.  All the software programs icons were on the screen but when I tried to access anyone of them the computer either would or wouldn’t open them.  Seeing as internet access is 75% of this trip and apart from posting blogs and pics we need access to the ice charts, we were in it and in it deep!  A frantic call to Sandy and he was up here from CT by 9:00 a.m.  A very long (he didn’t finish working on the computer until 11:00 p.m.) and extremely tedious story made short, we had a massive computer crash on our hands. Sandy had to do three day’s work in one and completely rebuild the computer. By the end of the day we were all so stressed by this news as well as trying to find room aboard for literally a ton of last minute items, we called off the departure for 12 hours.  We’ve a five month trip ahead of us and starting off with a sleep deficit for the sake of 12 hours seemed pretty insane. 

So, here we are, still packing and a projected 10:00 a.m departure seems very doable… Oh yeah, forgot to mention the part about Newport’s finest arresting my son for driving a 49cc moped without a license.  Granted, by the book he was totally in the wrong, but as he’s from Denver where it seems a person doesn’t need a license for a moped  he wasn’t aware of the law here.  According to a witness he admitted his wrong and was every bit the gentleman, according to the same witness the arresting offers were anything but.  After going down to the police station  (they did find it necessary to place this hardened criminal in a cell) we came back to the boat and collapsed.  He has to come back to stand trial June 25^th but according to our itinerary he’ll be in Greenland with us. More phone calls needed this morning. A very sad send-off gesture nonetheless… Perhaps we should have invited Newport’s finest to the party?

Posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Filed under: Preparing for the Northwest Passage by Sprague
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