St John’s

Forecast for Monday 23rd was looking good the evening before (& confirmed in the morning) for a long days sail - more Falmouth than Fowey trip aiming to get to Petty harbour which sits 8 miles South of St John and has come recommended. We know there’s wind coming through on night of 24th so will be good to be tucked up for then.

Austen casts off whilst I’m tidying up inside - as it’s calm! He spots a shoal of capelin at the entrance and a whale close by. Then the bumps started!
We get the sails up which gives some stability but its head on, not on the beam as predicted. Waves are choppy, coming up both from The bay with big rollers crossing at a nasty angle as they roll in off the Atlantic. 🤢

Up side of this trip - several rafts of seals pass at close range and there’s a few whales - a couple of which pop up next to the boat rather surprising themselves as well as us!

We spot a fin whale - one of the biggest around here (we’ve yet to see a blue) and 3 orcas identifiable by their huge dorsal fins.

We did manage a couple of hours of good fast sailing - then a wind shift takes us out to sea on a big tack from the headland Spear head, above St John. This is confounded by big seas, a total loss of wind, followed by 24knots at completely different angle. Multiple sail adjustments required and we tack back towards the mainland having made little ground. We abandon Petty harbour and opt for St John’s. Once an oil rig supply ship exits the narrow channel we have a clear way to enter, its early evening after a long day at sea.

We pile down to the bottom of the basin and tie up close to our normal spot! Adjacent to the multi-storey car park with container loading terminal on the other side, Oh and Ocean Quest tourist boat playing awful Irish ballads rather too loud astern.

We are here for 2 nights
Austen spots Claus and Christine - friends met in Labrador last year, their yacht one of the 4 others here - it’s busy!!

There’s an opportunity the next morning to pop back to the Georgetown bakery - croissants and fresh bread! Delicious.

Next day we plan to walk out to the north headland in the fog - we are drawn in and properly side tracked by Roddy Pearce operating a mini family museum in his twine shed, with photos and stories a plenty. He does walking tours which I would imagine are a whole day event judging by our 2 hour interlude - he’s informative passionate and has good tales to tell. My fave was as an 8 year old boy his dad gave him a broken off fish knife and taught him to use it. He became adept at removing livers and tongues from cod as they were filleted. He then towed ashore and sold his buckets of livers and tongues at 12c/lb whilst his day was being paid 1c for the muscle.

Turns out we stay in this stunning location for 3 nights! It’s very windy through the next day. We end up spending almost all of it in “The Rooms” it a modern dominant excrescence on top of the Hill visible from all around. Reality check on just how bad the wind is as we arrive. Inside is as well thought as it’s unattractive outside!
It’s a melting pot of art galleries, history museums and natural world displays.
As we tumble out, starving, we happen upon the UFO cafe - run by an Iranian couple - and enjoy a delicious lunch !
Then time to get home and cook supper for friends - including baking a lemon cake using yogurt, maple syrup and ground almonds. Didn’t turnout too bad!Baca lagi