Some of the readers of this Blog may have heard stories about the recent sightings of a mysterious sailing ship drifting aimlessly off the mouth of the LaVase River.  Twice it has been sighted this week and observed that it was neither coming into a port nor making a course to one of the typical destinations on the lake.  There may be some who have attributed these sightings to being the famous ghost ship “The Flying Dutchman”.  Has such a mystical vessel fled the high seas and now prowling the vastness of Lake Nipissing to never again reach a port or release its crew?  Has the truth been finally been discovered in what otherwise has been considered a folklore from sailors of old?  The Blue Sky Sailing Club now knows the answers to these dark questions.

In one of the past Blogs, it was mentioned the potential of journeying up the LaVase River as a nice day sail.  The LaVase River is one of the national historic waterways in Canada and can be easily reached from the North Bay Marina.  Long before the voyageurs, it was the main route from eastern to western Canada.  Yours truly decided to scope out the voyage and then share this adventure so that others may undertake the same opportunity.  The day started light with a new crew having winds from the east at 1 – 2 knots.  The crew’s goal was to reach the LaVase River, motor up the river to a nice spot, have lunch and then return.  Leaving at 10:00 am seemed to be ample time for such of an adventure.  The crew started to mutiny around 13:30 while adrift at least 1 kilometre from the mouth of the river (winds, where art thou?).  Rather than face the wrath of a starving crew, we dropped sails and the motor and hoisted the keel (16 inches displacement with the keel up).  As we approached the outer channel markers of the river’s mouth, a burning smell became noticeable in the cockpit.  Looking to stern, white smoke was observed emitting from under the engine’s cowling which at that moment sputtered, coughed and died.  The good news was the odour wasn’t someone’s lunch but the bad news was that now we were adrift.  It was discovered that weeds had completely covered the bottom of the motor’s shaft in addition to the rudder of the boat.  The engine had cooked itself to death being starved of cooling water.  It’s uncertain if the weeds came off the keel while being raised or picked up while heading towards the mouth of the LaVase River.  We did the only respectable thing in which a now seasoned sailing crew could only do under such stressful circumstances.  We had lunch. 

With tummies full and nerves at eased, we tried the motor (now cooled) to determine if calls for a rescue boat is warranted to get us back into our slip at the marina.  The motor started fine and with the sails raised we headed back to the marina safely.  The voyage would have to wait for another day. 

The following day, yours truly, after finding even a newer crew (so much for trust in the Skipper) we headed out.  Same plan, same destination, same determination.  Winds were light again and the lee of the shore gave us a few problems.  Near the mouth, we dropped sails, raised the keel, checked for weeds! and then motored into the mouth of the river.  The entrance channel markers are a little confusing as there are many shoals surrounding the river’s mouth.  Being the seasoned sailors that we were, a crew member was placed on the bow to scout out for shoals following the Skipper’s command (pay attention to the details of the command).  With full confidence, man on the bow scouting, an old salty on the tiller, the objective of the voyage was finally being realized until that old salty noticed the tiller was getting higher in his hand.  As I looked over the stern of the boat and realized that there was about only 10 inches of water over the sand bottom and getting even shallower fast.  Thud!  We were now beached in the middle of the mouth of the LaVase River.  I called to the bow lookout about the absence of any warning and was promptly corrected there were no shoals observed yet to be warned about.  Lunch anyone?  The winds decided then to pick up and we began drifting (rubbing) towards the rocks in the river’s mouth.  Holding the motor at an angle to keep the prop in the water but not digging into the sand, a series of reverse/forward manoeuvres finally got the boat pointing back out into the lake and eventually freed us from the sandy bottom.  As we passed the inner channel markers, the motor decided to die a noisy death.  We immediately went into action and dropped the anchor and had lunch.

After lunch we tested the motor and it was not happy with us and continued to stall.  We set our sails and headed back towards the marina.  During our approach a few phone attempts were unsuccessfully made to locate a rescue boat so sailing into the marina without a motor was the second last option (note: skippers do not publicly share the last option as to ensure the availability of crew).  Winds from the east, mouth of the busiest marina on the lake, lots of witnesses, little chance of success, the potential titles of the movie passed through our minds.  We dropped the main, pulled out the paddles (in case) and sailed in just using our jib.  With the winds from the east we kept close to the breakwater and prepared to tack when we reached the front of the boat houses.  We made the tack but the lee of the shore took away our wind.  We were drifting on whatever momentum we had left.  A slight east breeze was going to push the boat on to the sharp rocks of the breakwater.  After a few mighty tugs on the motor’s pull cord we were able get another 15 seconds of thrust from it’s weaken state.  We came into contact of the slip with the bow at almost 90 degrees off and the crew jumped to save themselves (Skipper’s embellishment).

Are you considering visiting the historic LaVase River? 

Take Lakeshore Drive to Premier Road
and drive until you reach the end of it.

Happy Sailing