Sometime during a sleepless February night, I started thinking about a boat trip to Newfoundland. In the past couple of years, a number of friends, customers and acquaintances had spoken enthusiastically about their trips to “The Rock”, and of course I had read Farley Mowat, Howard Norman and Annie Proulx. The trouble was, my boat was in no condition to make the trip, and I could see that my schedule would not allow me to remedy that. I knew that Mike Glasfeld, the owner of the wonderful 1915 sardine carrier GRAYLING, liked to vacation aboard with his family in Eastern Maine. Mike only had a week, but maybe he would be interested in cruising some new waters. Maybe if I agreed to get the boat to Newfoundland and back……….
I didn’t have the nerve to call Mike on the phone – email is better for harebrained schemes like this. With his usual enthusiasm, Mike shot back that he was ordering a cruising guide, and that we should talk. Within a week we had fleshed out a basic plan – Mike would cover the expenses of getting the boat to and from Newfoundland, I would make the arrangements to get GRAYLING there, scout out some good spots, and eventually return the boat to Maine. Mike and his family would fly into some remote location, come aboard, and have a wonderful vacation – simple!
Making things happen turned out to be a bit more complicated than either of us might have thought. Mike displayed his usual beneficent attitude – if it happens, great, but if it all falls apart, the Glasfelds would be happy to vacation in Maine as usual. Mike ordered Canadian charts and I set about trying to line up crew.
Day 1 – July 31, 2019
All provisioned, we dropped the mooring in early afternoon, heading out of the Benjamin River, down Eggemoggin Reach, across Jericho Bay, through Casco Passage and around Swan’s Island to Frenchboro, the tiny year round fishing community on Long Island. It was only a 16 mile trip, but it felt momentous as the first step of an adventure.
For crew I had Mike Norgang, a strapping young chap with lots of boating experience and an abundance of enthusiasm. Mike and I had been crewmates before, on a brief GRAYLING trip from Boston to Maine. He loved the boat and could cook! Mike had everything I lacked: Herculean strength, good balance, and a willingness to delve into the mysteries of the boat’s PC based navigation system.
Frenchboro has a good harbor, about the last one on a track between Brooklin and the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia. I like to have a little trip at the beginning of a bigger voyage — after all the work of getting ready, a short hop can be a relaxing interlude. You get a chance to check everything out, and if you discover you’ve forgotten something indispensable, you can go back without much penalty. Sounding like the Greyhound buses of my youth, GRAYLING’s trusty Detroit 6/71 was set at a lazy 1200 rpm, giving a little over 8 knots. No point in hurrying — we’ll save that for tomorrow.
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Heather Linscott says:
Great photos and travelogue! I moored next to the Grayling last summer. So great to see this adventure!! Loved seeing all of the places north of us. Such an inspiring story.
Tex Edwards says:
Great story, a real page turner for me!
Have been fortunate to deliver vessels between Seattle and various ports in Alaska. To make direct comparison is foolish, but if you could get a ride through the Inside Passage (, and the across the Gulf of Alaska, perhaps to Kodiak?) I believe you might enjoy that.
And great writing! Somehow I got the impression that your profession was boat building, but would not be surprised to learn that I’ve read other stories by you elsewhere.
Thank you!
David Green says:
Greetings from Petty Harbour, Newfoundland.
“Japanese knotweed and red clover were doing well” Newfoundlanders hate knotweed, we call it “mile-a-minute”, and it’s an absolute scourge. Allow me to draw your attention to a BRILLIANT YouTube sailing channel, in which the gent who does the videos has been to many of the places you’ve visited, and in fact, all around the island…all the little bays and coves and guts that people really don’t go to. One of my favourite channels on YT: https://www.youtube.com/@EdOReilly
mike Brown says:
An interesting trip, very lucky with sea and weather. Read all the stories about Bay of Fundy and Cape Sable ! My great, great ,great grandfather was washed overboard and lost on a trip from Maine to St John . 1850
Mac Turner says:
Hi Doug, I met you while taking a row with my Australian shepherd in the Benjamin River last summer. You said you were thinking of taking Grayling to NL. Glad to see the trip worked out.
Thanks for the delightful account of your trip. Maybe I’ll get there next summer on my Valiant 32. Best wishes, Mac Turner
Robert McEvoy says:
Hi Doug
I hitchhiked from Portland to Labrador and back in 2007 (?). I took the ferry to Grand Bruit which was an active town at that point, I think on the brink of disolving. It was a pretty fascinating experience, they had a “bar” which was a shed where they would all get together and drink beer in the late afternoon. There were two brothers there who spoke so incredibly fast and would finish each other’s sentences. Totally funny and unintelligible at the same time. I don’t think there was anyone under 40 living on the island at that time.
I remember there was an Austrian guy who was building some sort of house all the way back in the Blue Hill mountains which was maybe forbidden. Seemed quite bizarre since the town was closing.
I hiked up to the Blue Hills behind the town. It was maybe a couple miles back there. It was a strange sensation, I was pretty sure I was the only human for several miles, because there was no other way to get back there. I camped behind the church.
The coasting ferry was a very rough ride. One of the few boating experiences where I passed my lunch. There was a guy from NS who married a local woman there and he was talking about how rough the ride was in the winter and how all the old ladies would be praying their rosaries fiercely during the trip.
The fog rolled in while I was in the Blue Hills and I think they ended up sending a search party out for me. I was a bit embarrassed.
They showed me the oldest house in town, I’m pretty sure it’s the green house next to the boatways. The staircase was stupidly crooked and steep.
It was quite a long time ago but looked similar. I have many pictures but I’m having a hard time finding them.
Thanks for bringing up the memories. It was a pretty wonderful trip. I have never gotten back to NL but it’s been a place always in my heart since then. Every place in the Maritimes has something special. I’ve been the Magdalen Islands too and have spent a lot of time in Cape Breton. All amazing places. All my best memories are there.
Robert McEvoy says:
I’m having trouble posting pictures and finding the ones I want, but there’s a few from the trip here, including a picture of the ferry leaving Grand Bruit
https://flickr.com/photos/paulmcevoy/albums/72157606088502647
Doug Hylan says:
Great pictures, Robert! Your hikes up into the mountains certainly give another perspective to this amazing landscape.
Ted Ceelen says:
In 2013, I sailed with two friends in Hullmaster/Douglas 32 along the south coast of Newfoundland. We also visited Grad Bruit and Buego on our way to St Johns. Just like you we met some of the most friendly people anywhere. I was a trip I will always remember. In 2018, I sailed aboard a Niagara 42 from Quebec City along the North Shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence and crossed to NL at Port au Choix and sail thought the Strait of Belle Isle, down of east coast of NL to St Johns and again the people of NL did not disappoint me. A great place to visit, especially by sailboat.
Mark Nowlan says:
Beautiful trip on a beautiful boat and very nicely written. Nice folk those newfies….and nice to see a good passage around the cape (sable).
Greatly appreciate you sharing that voyage!
david leonard says:
Thank you Doug & crew…
What a treat for Sandra and me to re-connect with Newfoundland after 23 years, when we took a 20th anniversary trip (by ferry) to visit the island. Thanks for the memories.
Joe Coomer says:
What a pleasant reading voyage, Doug. I passed it along to my father, who ditched in an Air Force KC-97 off southern Newfoundland during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Their fuel lines had frozen. Dad was the boom operator and responsible for getting the life rafts onto the wing. He brought out the big one, and the crew boarded, then the Crew Officer told him to go back inside and bring out the second raft in case something happened to the first one. He dutifully did so, sloshing through the water over the wing. When he returned with the raft the rest of the crew were 300 feet away. He inflated the second raft and climbed aboard, though no matter how furiously he paddled, he couldn’t gain on the other raft and his crewmates. There were rescued later that day. Dad spent three days by himself before he was rescued. All he can remember of the rescue was opening his eyes and seeing the helicopter above him. He spent much of his later life fearing and having nightmares about the ocean off Newfoundland. But ten years ago we went back, driving the coasts as we could, and his old fears relented, and he remembered the fishermen he went out with between flights and saw again the beautiful landscape, and he came to recall again his most important realization: that he’d survived.
Daniel Morgenstern says:
Superb story! Fabulous photos! Glad to read the narrative as opposed to watching videos! OCH take note, fulfilling a life dream for me having so far only sailed as far as Halifax.
David Tew says:
Did you carry the Beach Pea aboard or tow her the whole way? And David Kelly: Any luck repairing the Bangor Packet rowing shell?
Doug Hylan says:
Hi David, We mostly kept the pod on deck. At many of our stops, we were able to tie up at a dock so didn’t need the dinghy. When you are inside one of these deep cuts, it can be hard to know what the conditions are outside. With a drogue, peapods can be towed through very bad conditions, but when it’s on deck, there’s one less thing to worry about.
Dr. Paul F. Jacobs says:
Beautiful, rugged, a glacially carved rocky bit of the world, and hearty people as well. Sad, however, to see desolate “towns” with no inhabitants. A sailing voyage in August with nobody even thinking about swimming in what I assume was very cold water. Perhaps in 50 years, when global warming has fully taken over, and most of Florida is underwater, maybe then Newfoundland will recover some modest population of hardy souls.
Paul
Doug Hylan says:
The Canadian brow seems relatively unclouded by concerns over climate change, and indeed they may be one of the few winners in this game of roulette.
Robert McEvoy says:
My retirement/apocalypse plan is to steal a sailboat in Baltimore and land in Rose Blanche.
David Green says:
Not so. The waters are warmer, the fish, crab and birds are moving differently, and the out of control seal population, thanks to Greenpeace, are moving further north to destroy even more cod and caplin stocks.
Conbert Benneck says:
Old age made me give up sailing and cruising. What a wonderful trip and all the lovely descriptions. If I can’t go sailing any more, Doug has provided a wonderful substitute. He has taken me along, as a deckhand, on his voyage.
Having spent time in Newfoundland back in the mid-50’s, St. John’s Harbor was lined on both sides with cod fish drying racks. The local specialties were cod tongues and cod cheeks – oh, and Screech!
Doug, Thanks for the memories!
Bart Chapin says:
We were in Frenchboro when Grayling arrived on her way east. Glad to see all had such a wonderful trip.
Ron Breault says:
Great article for a Sunday morning January read in Connecticut. Love to volunteer as crew but John Rousmaniere’s ‘Farewell to the Gulf Stream’ is foremost in my mind
Martha White says:
Thanks, Doug. We hope to see some of this firsthand from the Wm Underwood, but in the meantime your travel log and photos are inspiring.
Doug Hylan says:
Hi Martha, I certainly hope you get to go and would be happy talk with you and
Taylor about planning. We brought along a copy of your new book and I think half the crew got to read at least a good chunk of it. Balm for the head and heart in these awful times.
Jerry Mcintosh says:
Thank you Doug Hylan for a thorough description of a fascinating journey to a remarkable destination. I hope you might enjoy some more images, regrettably disappearing, of this incredible place: https://vimeo.com/mcintoshmedia/crossing-time-approximately
David Tew says:
I was interested to see the stern of the schooner on the hard beyond The Dory Shop. It’s one of two sisterships built some years ago. I wonder if it ever found an owner: http://www.doryshop.com/our-schooners/ http://twinschooners.blogspot.com/
Jim Heumann says:
Thanks, great read, and excellent photos.
patrick marks says:
What a great trip and well written story.
Bill Page says:
Doug, You did a wonderful job here, both in your writing as well as the many photos of this almost unbelievably beautiful, high & rugged Southern Coast, and the very friendly hearty folks still living in Outposts. Thank you for putting this together, and hats off to you! Brings back lots of fond memories. Bill
David Tew says:
Farley Mowat’s book ‘Bay of Spirits’ is a moving encomium to the outports of Newfoundland: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/farley-mowat/bay-of-spirits/
David Tew says:
I imagine the church on the promontory across from Rose Blanche with its view is spiritually inspiring.
Russ Manheimer says:
I thought the same thing.
Bill Mayher says:
Wonderful writing, nice eye for detail, lovely pictures. A pleasure all the way through. Thanks.
David Tew says:
+1!
HOMER SHANNON says:
What a great trip! I meet all of your qualifications for crew. How do I sign up? (Seriously, I don’t live too far away.)
Doug Johnson says:
Thanks for report on the voyage and the ports. I hope there is more to come.
David Tew says:
I’m eager to hear if you met up with the Pages and SERIANNA. What a cruise in tandem along the south coast of NF that would be.
FREDRIC WISE says:
Glad we could tag along vicariously on Grayling’s cruise to Nova Scotia. We hope to see you on the Chesapeake in spring.
Philip Myer says:
Thanks Doug- wonderful adventure and well told.
Alden Reed says:
I hope this story continues. It’s as if I opened The Rudder magazine from one-hundred years ago and was riding along with George P.P. Bonnell!
David Tew says:
Good advice about coastal passages in powerboats! We try to stay near shore also, in the lee whenever possible with scenery to enjoy. Should the engine stop or fail in any way we always have several anchors at the ready and set course over holding ground with room to set to leeward.
John Myatt says:
Thanks for the blog Doug. A lovely gentle armchair voyage before my Friday morning commute. Nice photos to punctuate it too.