The public Wharf was full when we arrived and so we rafted up outside a small local yacht Roll'n Rose. This manoeuvre, accomplished in a reasonably seaman like manner, we introduced ourselves to our neighbours on UNA a beautiful Hallberg - Rassy, Reidar Oesterhaug from Norway and brother in law Mike from London. They were on the way to cruise the NF coast, Mike had just joined and was without luggage, didn't make the plane in London or missed the connection in Dublin! He only recovered his lost baggage the day before we left almost a week later. Next was a very nice looking Alloy sloop with a french couple onboard whom we waved to briefly before they departed for a berth further up the harbour, making way for our NWP buddy Moloda with Gary and Li onboard as they arrived a few hours later.
This was to be our first real catch up with our NWP attempt buddy boat so Gary and Li were immediately invited onboard for drinks and a big catchup on plans, provisions, weather, ice melt progress, information sources and so on and so on...
We ate onboard (another triumph by Matt) and later Rossco and I went exploring the night life in St.John's only to find that there wasn't any (that we could find) on a Wednesday night!
Thursday dawned bright and clear on what promised to be a hot St.John's day 24C was predicted. Sure enough Summer was here and out came all the summer dresses, shorts thongs and hats, think Bondi without the bikinis!
Mike was off to explore the local supermarkets and to find more fuel filters, Lisbet, Matt's wife had flown in late Wednesday and they were off walking to the Coast Guard station on the far side of the harbour to set up our liaison with them regarding ice reports/analysis and position reporting etc. While Rossco and I went in search of "Free WiFi".
Gwenyth had, by coincidence, been in St. John's early in January 2014 in a vain attempt to reach Fogo Island further north for a holiday with friends Phillip and Cate. They had been snowed in at the Sheraton just at the top of the street for several days and so were a mine of information on the best places for coffee etc. Thus forearmed with inside info we made directly for Coffee Matters at the top of Duckworth St. So good was the info that Coffee Matters became my/our shore base for the next several days. Very acceptable espresso, nice soup, good sandwiches and Vfast "FreeWiFi" with power to every table!
We met back at the dock towards sundown and choose the local Korean as a suitable place to eat. This proved to be another inspired choice, the restaurant was run by Julia Kwon, Julia became our "new best friend of Drina" in St.John's and on Sunday took Rossco and Matt "Hand Fishing" at a nearby lake and then to lunch before delivering them back to the boat where Mike and I were introduced to Julia's husband Ted and we all enjoyed a sundowner on Drina .
On Friday the US Coast Guard sail training ship the Barque Eagle made port and secured alongside within sight of drina just up the harbour. They were here for a neighbourly visit and a crew change for some of the officer candidates onboard. It turned out that we on Drina had several connections to the US Coast Guard Barque Eagle.
Rossco had been to High school (Oneonta) and came from the same part of Upstate New York as one of the Officer Candidates. And myself who sailed against her on Norske in the Tall Ships Race (Hobart to Sydney) back in January 1988 as part of Australia's Bicentenary celebrations. Some of you (Malcolm, Dicko, Leon, Gouldie, Watto, Jimmy D, Billy M and possibly more) will have fond memories of that race and the few weeks afterwards, tied up in Darling Harbour with a ringside seat for the celebrations. If I remember correctly the our Commodore hosted the officers of the Barque Eagle to dinner at the club, the crews of Norske and Polar Bear became friends with many of the officers and continued a correspondence long after Eagle departed.
On the occasion of my visit to the Eagle alongside here in St. John's I was introduced to a very young looking Officer, before recounting my previous visit I enquired his age. "24 Sir" he smartly replied, alas he was not even a twinkle in his farther's eye in 1988. I was assured (but not shown) that the RSYS Burgee was still maintained in a place of honour onboard!
Rossco had more luck and was invited to dinner with his school mate Officer Candidate who turned out to be a very attractive young lady Officer Candidate!
Saturday Night in St. John's. Rossco, Mike and I had planned to prove that there was some action in this town after dark. However circumstances or rather a cultural opportunity intervened for Rossco and he had to attend a piano recital! That left Mike and I to elplore. We found the Brewery a nice enough pub and spent a pleasant time over a few pints of the local brew while we chatted up one of the US expats looking after the Oil Rigs. We learned a lot about drilling and managing rigs in "Ice Berg Alley" as the area is known and very little about the night life. Later we went for a stroll thro' the local "red light district", think very small scale Kings X!
Sunday we had to delay departure as the Post Tropical Depression that had once been Hurricane Arthur made it's way up the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfound land.
While sitting onboard planning our evening we had a knock on the hull. A friend of a friend of Matt's had come to see if we needed any help, transport, food, showers etc. The mention of showers was enough to move Frank O'Connor up to the top of our list of "Drina's New Friends" Frank (an expat Irishman) lived up to his word and the following morning at 11.00 turned up to take Mike shopping for provisions and the very hard to find fuel filters. Later he took Matt, Mike and me to his very beautiful home in Manuels, overlooking Conception Bay, north of St. John's where we showered, washed and dried lots of dirty laundry and enjoyed some traditional Irish cooking, wine, a tune or two on Frank's fiddle and the odd glass of Jameson.
Frank turned out to be a retired academic at St. John's University and a past Commodore of one of the local yacht/dinghy clubs at Conception Bay. We, the crew on S/V Drina, owe him a big vote of thanks for his outstanding Irish/Newfoundland hospitality. Thanks Frank!
Tuesday, the weather had finally moderated and turned in our favour and we planned to take advantage of "Arthur's" coat tails and clear out for Greenland.
Having successfully fuelled on Friday, all that remained was to take on fresh water. We slipped the lines early on Tuesday morning and motored up harbour to Wharf #6 where we filled our water tanks. Then with a quick goodbye and thank you to St.John's Harbour Control we made our way out through the narrows and set sail for the North East coast of Greenland, ETA 15 days from now.
PK On Drina
Apologies for the lack of Pic's Nuuk "Free WiFI" infrastructure can't support large data transfers!
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