Hi All.
First, sorry for a little delay from SY OMNI for not giving a lifesign from me for a while. So here is a short summary from last year. As you probably know, I hauled out OMNI in Newport RI USA last fall and went back to Norway to work. It was good to be back in Norway. In the end of May, I left Norway again for Newport and another sail journey. It was good to be back in good old USA. In beginning of June, now with a crew of two guys from Norway we started to sail north. First through the Cape Cod Canal and then straight to Yarmouth Nova Scotia, Canada. Calm sea and wind from the right direction. Just like it should be. Yarmouth in Nova Scotia was just a place to fill up with still more food. The harbour in Yarmouth was just a mud-hole. But a good place for stocking up and for crew change. Next leg was from Yarmouth to the lakes on Cape Breton Island in the northern part of Nova Scotia. We had to go through a lock to get into the lakes. This was my first experience with lock since I lest Norway. We motored in the middle of the night with a big flash light on the bow. Suddenly we heard someone called from the shore in Norwegian - and there was Dina III of Oslo. A 34 foot sailboat which was sailing the same direction as us. It was a real surprise, mainly because I thought I had heard about all the norwegian boats sailing north this summer. But the sea is big and there is so many norwegian boats out sailing the seven seas. The lake was easy match. No wind so we had to motor. Took us approx 20 hours. Sydney or better, Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club was next stop. I`m always sceptical when some put a royal in in front of a yacht club name. New York Yacht Club in Newport was bad enough, and that was not even a royal one. But to my surprise. They never said anything when we occupied half of the pier, and started to preserve food, and worked day and night, even on the canadian national day. That is a sailors life. Lots of bits and pieces to work on when you get to shore. It took us 4 days to finish. One of my crew, - Steinar left for New Foundland with bus. He was short of time and wanted to see the viking sites before he went on to Japan. That guy had a tight schedule I must say. Unfortunately we lost a lot of time down south else he would have been sailing with us up to Greenland as planned. Mabye there would be some time later in the summer for more sailing.
From Sydney NS, we took one 5 days leg up along the west coast of New Foundland to L`ans aux Meadows on the northern tip. Weather was perfect. Wind from the south most of the time up to the Belle Isle Strait. There we had to use the motor. We got the tides with us and our hit the record speed on 13 nots in 2 hours with just a small jib and double reefed main. Some icebergs was drifting around in the strait, so we got a few good pictures. Icebergs is scary stuff. Its floating rocks in the water. One iceberg was stranded in 180 feet of water, and that was not even a big one. But big icebergs is easy to spot on radar. Smaller one called growlers is something else. Growlers as big as a table is not fun to sail into, so keeping watch is a good thing.
L`ans aux Meadows is famous for the viking-sites Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad found some 30 years ago. We brought a couple of books with us and there was some nice pictures there with locals working with Ingstad. The locals had never seen the pictures before so we got quite popular in no time. People up here is really helpful. If we need anything, they drive us around. There is just over hundred people living here. Mainly coastal and deep sea fishermen, there is not much to do, but people seems happy with life. They have fish, clean sea and fresh air. (and of course a bar) This must be paradise for big city people who wants get away.
Anyway, it is time to go to take a look at the viking sites now.
Email is always more than welcome. I`ll cant promise a fast answer since
there is not that many places where I cant send email from.
There is also possible to reach us on:
telephone: 870761 99 7745 at 1200-1215 GMT and 2200-2215 GMT.
SSB: 14315 at 2200 GMT (NEW).
Best regards, SY OMNI Jonny Birkelund