This past weekend was the Natal Day long weekend here in Nova Scotia. After several days of cloudy, rainy weather, the return of full sun was a welcome change. We left Halifax for Isola Naida on Friday evening with a packed schedule ahead: a One Design Regatta, troubleshooting our solar panels, wrapping up a few sewing projects, and taking Isola Naida out for a day sail.

Of course, things didn’t quite go according to plan.

Another Year of Racing

We learned to sail through the Adult Learn to Sail program at Armdale Yacht Club in Halifax. After completing the course, we were invited to join the crewing list for the Wednesday night PHRF races and Thursday night one-design races. With work schedules being what they are, only D’Arcy has been able to race regularly. Noelle joined for weekend regattas when she could.

This year, D’Arcy sailed almost exclusively on Gersemi, a 1974 Viking 33, on Wednesday nights. One week, while sailing aboard Muir Caileag, a 1979 C&C 30, he was recruited by the skipper of Jahmon, a 2002 J/105 based out of Chester, NS, to race in Saturday PHRF races.

All of that to say: this weekend was a two-day J/105 One Design Regatta hosted by Lunenburg Yacht Club.

Saturday – A Friendly Visit, A Rough Start

Noelle dropped D’Arcy off at the dock and returned to Isola Naida, awaiting her friend Andrea, who was visiting from Halifax to see the boat for the first time.

Meanwhile, D’Arcy arrived at Lunenburg Yacht Club (LYC) and reported to Jahmon. It wasn’t long before she departed the docks, following the Race Committee boat out to the course area. With almost no wind early on, the fleet bobbed around waiting for the sea breeze to fill in.

When the winds finally arrived, so did the racing. Unfortunately, Jahmon didn’t fare well on the first day: 9th, 8th, 9th, and 9th out of 9 boats.

Back aboard Isola Naida,the evening was a quiet one. Noelle reheated some leftover pizza from the night before, and it was all D’Arcy could manage to eat before collapsing into bed.

Sunday – A Long Walk, A Big Improvement

Sunday started with pancakes and coffee, made by D’Arcy. After breakfast, Noelle dropped him off again for day two of racing and decided to go for a walk along the Rails to Trails route into Chester.

At LYC, D’Arcy learned that two regular crew members were unable to sail and would be replaced by two highly experienced sailors. Their input proved invaluable.

The day started slowly, but performance steadily improved: 8th, 9th, 3rd, and finally 2nd place. The crew made significant gains in upwind sailing, and by the final races, Jahmon was dominating downwind.

Still, the team finished the regatta in last place overall. To top it off, the final race claimed a spinnaker—it tore clean in half during the final douse after getting caught in the water.

Noelle was waiting at the dock with the dinghy when D’Arcy returned. She had just gotten back from her walk into Chester. That evening, Noelle made supper, and we spent time catching up and planning for Monday.

Monday – A Change of Plans

D’Arcy was up early, as usual, and made coffee while Noelle slept in—or, depending on how you look at it, woke at a normal hour.

With coffee in hand, D’Arcy crawled into the “captain’s berth” (a.k.a. the garage) to resume troubleshooting our solar charging issues.

Isola Naida has a 600W solar panel system. Last week, we discovered that the starboard 200W Bimini panel hadn’t produced any power in at least two weeks. Initial checks with a voltmeter showed voltage at the MPPT, but the controller remained “off.”

This morning, D’Arcy swapped the port and starboard panels, and the MPPT sprang to life—clearly, the issue lay between the MPPT and the starboard panel. Further investigation revealed the culprit: faulty MC4 connectors in the cable run just aft of the cockpit.

With the solar issue finally diagnosed, we turned our attention to the rest of the day. Unfortunately, time had slipped away. Rather than rush a sail, we decided to head ashore, prep for the work week, and perform an oil change on the Jeep.

In the end, we never even got off the ball this weekend—a bit of a disappointing close to what was supposed to be a full and adventurous long weekend.

By the time we were ready to take Isola Naida out for a sail, we were practically out of time for the day. We decided that it would be better to head ashore and take the time to prepare for the work week and perform an oil change on the Jeep. All that to say, we never got off the ball this weekend – a disappointing end to the long weekend.

Until next time!