September 23 Tuesday:

click here for full-sized chart image

Last night I had a sore back and couldn’t find a comfortable position to sleep. As well, a power boater had left the marina late in the evening. Sometime after darkness fell, he ran his craft onto a shoal. Although this occurred some distance away the pitch of his roaring motor was irritating. His sporadic attempts to get off the mud went on for almost two hours. Luckily for him and me, he ran aground at low water and eventually his boat floated off the shoal on its own.
 

In the morning Naomi’s boom tent was covered with thick frost and the dock was slippery with frost also. There was a dense river fog from the warm water and cold air. I lit the Coleman lantern and set it on the floor for heat and light as I rummaged about preparing Naomi to leave. Perhaps the fog would be thinner once we were clear of the channel between Oromocto and Oromocto Island.


However, the fog was thicker on the river. But I motored along at low speed anyway.  At some point the sun would burn this off. Near Fredericton the fog thinned and disappeared, leaving a sunny warm day. Above the Princess Margaret Bridge, on the city side of the river, I saw a boat ramp I’d used previously when I owned a 4 wheel drive 87 Chevy Blazer. The ramp is soft sand and I hadn’t considered launching here this time because my front-wheel drive Toyota Corolla is poor for retrieving boats. 
  


 
I decided to check the ramp again in case it had been upgraded - in which case I’d use it now. The ramp was unchanged though. As I left it and was approaching the low railway bridge which had given me a fright when I first left Fredericton, a thought dawned on me. When I had sailed towards the bridge on the first day, I was reassured that since I had taken Naomi below it in the past everything would be fine.  I now realized that even though I have been to this ramp upriver from the rail bridge on a number of occasions, I’d never launched my Wayfarer there nor sailed her under that bridge before.
 
I had been challenging the bridge versus mast height for the first time. Instead of concentrating on Naomi’s tiller, I should have lowered the mast somewhat to ensure a safe transit. I’m fortunate that foolish behaviour isn’t always punished. When I finally checked the chart, I found that the clearance is 25 feet.
 
It was lunch time when I returned to the ramp with my Toyota and trailer. Several people sat in their cars nearby, eating their sandwiches while viewing the river. I hoped I wouldn’t provide any impromptu comedy as I rowed Naomi around from the dock to load her onto the trailer. Everything went well except that the trailer had a flat tire on the ramp which wasn’t a problem to change. A number of people walked over to ask how my cruise had gone. The drive home took a long but uneventful 4-5 hours.

Postscript

The passage turned out as I had hoped it would. The weather was better than I'd anticipated and I enjoyed dawdling along the Saint John River with no particular goals. My Wayfarer dinghy is well suited for this type of pottering. I am left with many pleasant memories from my thirteen days cruising on the river.

The government publishes a pilot and strip charts for the Saint John River. The river is divided into the Lower Saint John River from Fredericton to Saint John/Hampton and the Upper River from Mactaquac Dam to Woodstock. The Cruising Guide to The Bay of Fundy and The St. John River  by Nicholas Tracy covers the river somewhat as far as Fredericton.  A book I recommend on the era of river steamers is: Steamboat Days on the St. John River 1816-1946 by Dr. George MacBeath and Capt. Donald Taylor.
 

The motor mount I have is unnecessarily cumbersome and there must be a better alternative.  It does work well though, and is very easy to remove when not required.  The original motor mount from Abbott was a poor design.
 
I am satisfied with the 2hp short shaft Honda motor.  Several years ago, I owned a 4hp Johnson motor which I used on my Wayfarer. It was a heavier motor and I don’t believe any extra power it had was useful. It did have an auxiliary fuel tank which I miss, though. Kneeling on the stern to fill the Honda is a bit risky when cruising single-handed. The Honda is light enough that I use it on my 35-year-old Grumman 17’ canoe with a side mount also.

Anchor stowage: smaller Danforth in canvas bag. Stern line in blue bin. Both lines secured to bulkhead.

I use Danforth anchors but another pattern may hold better to grassy river bottoms encumbered with old tree limbs and other debris to snag onto.
 

The heavy canvas boom-tent is a bit of a chore to set up and remove each day. A damp or frosty tent is hard to stow under the foredeck. Also, the material shrinks and one has to pull hard to stretch it again so the snaps will fit. However, the material is warm, fire-resistant, provides insulation for the interior and doesn’t flap around like a synthetic material might. I have seen photos of more elaborate boom-tents (above) but I am content with the low, less complex pup-tent style that I own.
 
A few years ago I capsized my Mark 3 Wayfarer off Prince Edward Island while solo sailing.  My dinghy quickly inverted and was difficult to recover. After that, I wanted something serious to prevent cruising Naomi on that point of sail again. I’m concerned when I read claims that the Wayfarer/CL16 dinghies are virtually uncapsizable and extremely capable sea boats. In highly competent hands they are undoubtedly rugged sea boats and I agree that Wayfarers are less prone to capsizing than most other dinghy classes. In spite of the claims, however, the UK Wayfarer magazine often mentions capsizing incidents occurring at sea or in estuaries with long-time Wayfarer owners at the helm.  Not only winds but steep waves help roll their Wayfarers over.


 Many Brits use Secumar anti-capsize cushions so I e-mailed the North American distributor in Manitoba about their availability in Canada. I never received a response from them. Trident in the UK was willing to send me one. Their shipping department did a sloppy job in packaging the device and the box began to split open. Our customs bureau noticed the spare CO2 cylinder and confiscated it. They didn’t see the other one within the cushion so I received the unit intact.

The main thing is that sending CO2 cylinders by air violates all transportation of dangerous goods regulations and thus, ordering anti-capsize cushions from the UK isn’t feasible. I couldn’t replace the original 75g spare but I found 60g CO2 cylinders at a local company which services marine and helicopter life-saving gear. I installed one of the 60g cylinders in the cushion and kept the remaining 75g cylinder in reserve. This summer, during a humid period, the thing went off in my garage. The cushion filled well and its size was impressive despite my having used the slightly smaller cylinder.
 

I have installed a block near the mast head and use a line to raise and lower the device. The line also serves as a topping lift for the boom. Probably, an inflatable CO2 life-vest could be outfitted in place of a more expensive and difficult to get anti-capsize cushion. For coastal cruising, particularly when single-handed, I believe some time should be spent on fitting an effective mast head buoyancy unit. I’m skeptical of how useful bits of foam padding, bicycle tubes and empty Javex bottles would be following a capsize in rough weather. I left the Secumar at home on this cruise since I knew the Saint John River would be a tame passage.