We were traveling down one of the straighter sections of canal when a faster sailboat roared by us at 7kts versus our 6kts. Even under power it’s hard to lose to another sailboat. But he wasn’t keeping a tight helm and I could imagine the pilot yacking away and periodically looking up and making course adjustments, so I felt better about losing out. When he did a strong S-curve up ahead underneath a bridge, I assumed he swerved to avoid a log or something in the water. Ha, no such thing, now I think he was using his auto pilot and it was simply searching for the magnetic heading. Because as we traveled under the same bridge our autopilot did the same thing to our boat! The iron in the bridge added about 20deg variance to the heading and then swung back minus 20 as it oscillated back to the original heading. This became entertainment for me measuring the MagVar as we transited different bridges. The old railroad bridges had the most magvar, the new road bridges the least. Likely the result of modern highway using steel versus iron. Checkout the video below on a different bridge.
What a beautiful working replica of this historic ship. It is used today as a training ship and offers 10day expeditions for youth to learn the ways of sailing a Brigg. It is about as exact as you can expect. I loved their use manila rope, linseed oil, and other items that gives it the smell of an old ship – I don’t know what it is but it’s very familiar. Below decks were tight, it only had a 5ft ceiling in the galley area – how anyone could operate in that space long term was beyond me but the professional crew does. Galley stove and 5ft ceiling - how do they do it? Watching it sail was like stepping back it time. It passed us on the breakwater silently, tall, and majestic. It was easy to imagine the awe seeing this come into an isolated harbor like Presque Island 200 years ago. Something so big and complicated carrying so many men and cannon would change the balance of power with its arrival. It would intimidate the strongest and lure the wondering spirit t
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