REFLECTIONS & CONSIDERATIONS ON "THE LONG WAY"

When Phyllis and I bought the Valiant 40 located on the Great Lakes in Douglas, MI, , there were several options to get her back to salt water: the Mississippi River via the Chicago Sanitary Canal, Lake , the Oswego Canal leading into Lake Champlain and "the long way" up the St Lawrence River and out into the Atlantic Ocean.  The Valiant 40 has a 57 ft keel stepped mast weighing 1200+ lbs.  My own inexperience in unstepping a mast and removing all the rigging with consequent setting up and retuning gave me pause to the Erie Canal and other considerations.  My dislike of emasculating anything given the remnants of male chauvinism (Phyllis might say "full blown") pointed to the long difficult passage up the St Lawrence Seaway.  Thirty years in the Merchant Service as a tugboat Captain has not sweetened my temperament but it gave me the navigational and seamanship skills to take a vessel anywhere.  Tug boating is a rough demanding affair that requires good seamanship and endurance.  Nothing fancy aboard tugs: you make do with what you have and improvise the rest.

So it was to be the long way up the St Lawrence Seaway.  I've always had a fascination with the "high latitudes".  In the past I had sailed around Cape Horn on a 54' steel hulled sloop. Then I made another trip, with a friend,  on a car ferry from Puerto Montt, Chile to Puerto Navales.  This encompassed 700 nm of the Patagonian Channels.  I knew that the St Lawrence Seaway would be nothing compared to the howling winds of Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn.  In all these considerations, I have a partner who is adventurous, daring and trusting.  She will endure hardships for the common goal.  Once committed, she'll "hang tough" until the end.  Being with Capt. Bligh isn't easy but there are 50 years of love and understanding that works for the "common weal".  We work well together and get things done.

It is difficult to appreciate just how long the trip really is.  It was 900 miles from Douglas, MI to Cape Vincent which is at the mouth of the St Lawrence River.  From there another 1800 miles to Halifax, NS and then 370 nm to Boston.  We found ourselves very vulnerable and dependent on our 43 hp Volvo Penta diesel engine.  Should any mechanical failure ocurr, it might mean a haul out and a winter in the Northern climes.  Already we were late in starting out from Lake Michigan.  This meant that we weren't able to spend time in some really beautiful places along the way.  Also, we had to work with Wx windows.  On the Lower St Lawrence, the predominant wind is from the SW.  It goes light at night and pipes up during the day to 20-25 kts.  If the winds come around to the NE or E and  blow against the NE'ly current, it sets up an uncomfortable chop.  One tries to avoid this by staying in port until the winds change.  All this works until Montreal and the Wx is warm and pleasant.  From Montreal to Quebec (just 140 nm upriver) things change:  the tides and current go from almost nothing to 18' at Quebec.  The winds are still predominantly SW but, due to frontal systems, the NE -E wind kicks in and blows in a cold air mass off Labrador and the cold waters of the St Lawrence.  Watch standing at night becomes a long cold hardship.  Fabulous clear skies and stars so close you feel you could reach out and touch them.  Whales and seals spouting in darkness that surrounds you.  Then fog and no visibility.  Suddenly, a break in the fog and mountains 4000' high with a light house that indicates "be careful, don't come too close".  On and on with current and wind carrying us to our destination--the brass ring is just ahead.