For the weekend of August 8/9, we decided to do an overnight trip to Knight's Island. They would travel together aboard their boat, while I led the way solo aboard Serenity. With wind and tide generally in your favour, this is about a 2 hour run. On this day the wind was not of much help, and not being in a huge rush, it took us about 6.
Since I reached Western Harbour first, it was a great opportunity to practice picking up a mooring ball while alone on the boat. That went well in the calm conditions. Tracey and Brad soon joined me, and we went about making some supper. Somewhat tired after the time underway, we all turned in not too long after dark.
The next morning I awoke at about my usual time, and went about making myself some breakfast. Even after I was cleaned up and ready to get, there was still no sign of life on the neighbouring boat. Not wanting to disturb them, I disconnected the lines, and let go of the mooring. It was then that Brad poked his head up through the companionway to our shared plans and say goodbye. They would be another couple of hours.
Clearing the harbour at about 0800, I was greeted by a grey and fog covered world. My boat has no radar or chartplotter, so I mostly rely on chart and compass for navigation. There is an old handheld GPSr, which I have had since 1998, that can hold a few waypoints and routes, but it needs to be setup again. I suppose I could also use the navigation software in my smart phone, if I needed to. Anyway, I always have a chart close at hand. For the first hour I also kept a close eye on all my safe compass headings.
Eventually, the fog lifted, and the world got a little brighter. It was a rather pleasant motorsail back to Lewisporte, and nice getting some use out of my sailboat. Along the way, a few short phone videos were combined into one covering the trip. You can find that here or on my YouTube channel.
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