What it's like on board a sailboat racing from Saint John to Digby
Wind, waves, fresh scallops and bragging rights are the prize in sailing competition founded in the 1930s
On a clear day, Digby seems little more than a stone's throw away from Saint John. Often, you can look across from Saint John Harbour and see the Nova Scotia town with the naked eye — a faint blue-grey outline on the horizon.
To get there by sail, however, requires the perfect combination of wind, tides and skill.
Just after dawn on the first day of autumn, a fleet of eight sailboats tack back and forth across the harbour in the rose-gold sunrise.
It's the 2023 Digby Race, a sailing competition across 33.6-nautical miles, or 54 kilometres, from the Port City to Digby. Organized by the Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club, the interprovincial tradition dates back to at least 1937.
The starting line on the morning of Sept. 23 lies between an orange flag on Pier 12 on Saint John's west side, and the corner of the pier at the old sugar refinery site in the south end.
A countdown comes in over the radio from Fundy Traffic.
"One minute to start. Don't be early. Five, four, three, two, one all clear." The blast of an air horn echoes across the water. Off the sailboats fly like a flock of startled seagulls.
The radio crackles again. "Have a safe trip and a pleasant race."
Interprovincial challenge
On the deck of Go For it, a 40-foot Beneteau Oceanis 400, skipper Greg Hemmings's crew included his father, Don Hemmings, Crystal Hansen, Damon Goodwin, Scott Pavey.
Hemmings grew up around boats. In the 1990s, he worked on cargo ships in the Caribbean delivering supplies to remote island communities.
But this race is a new experience, Hemmings explains. The last time he raced was in a Laser 2, a type of dinghy used mainly by young sailors, back in 1989.
It's also a new challenge for Crystal Hansen.
"I've been wanting to do the Digby Race since I started sailing," she says.
"It's freedom. You get out on the water, and it's peace. It's just beautiful."
Conditions are less than blissful, however, as the Beneteau passes Partridge Island, at the entrance to the harbour. The swells get bigger. The boat pitches up and down unpredictably.
"It's pretty choppy," Hemmings says. "I would say four-foot swells, a few white caps. A few of them are significant enough that waves are going right over the whole bow."
This exactly is what these sailors signed up for.
"You've got to take what the ocean gives you," Pavey says. "It doesn't care about you at all.
"People sink and die, right? So you've got to stay safe and play, play by the rules.
In our modern lives, he points out, people are generally accustomed to being in control.
"Being on the ocean is absolutely a place where you're not necessarily in control."
Seasickness is a prime example of factors that are difficult to control. It affects seasoned mariners and inexperienced sailors alike.
The trick, according to lifelong sailor and seasoned ship's cook Damon Goodwin, "is to keep your eye on the horizon and keep breathing."
On sailing ships of old, Goodwin says, they sang sea shanties for a reason.
Singing "helps you with your seasickness, right? You keep that oxygen flowing through your lungs. You keep singing, keep being loud, and screaming — you'll actually feel better."
True to his own advice, Goodwin belts out tunes by Otis Redding and Kenny Rogers while hanging casually from the rigging.
Four hours after departing from Saint John, what was once the faint outline of Nova Scotia comes steadily into focus: wind turbines, then houses, then the first blush of fall colour in the coastal Nova Scotia forest.
The water, which had been pewter-grey in the middle of the Bay of Fundy, is now emerald green, and the heat seems to radiate from the land.
The race is over when GPS indicates racers have reached a certain latitude and longitude between the western and eastern ends of the finish line.
Opportunities for everyone
Hemmings's boat, Go For It, finishes second in its class in 4:56:40 — less time than it takes to drive from Saint John to Digby.
On the dock at Digby's Royal Western Nova Scotia Yacht Club, a huge feed of fat Digby scallops and cold drinks are waiting.
It's a feast fit for a king — but sailing, as Pavey points out, doesn't have to be a pastime reserved exclusively for the wealthy. People are always racing and looking for crew.
"There are learn-to-sail classes, and a lot of opportunities, without very much financial commitment at all,: he says.
"You do not need to own a boat to get out on boats in Saint John, N.B."
You do, however, need to be ready for the whole range of experiences that can only happen on the water.
Of the eight boats that started the race — Skyfall, Aurora, Boss Lady, Relentless 3, Go For It, Josephine, Sea Dancer, Key of Sea — only six are official finishers.
One withdrew and turned back because of steering problems. Another arrived in Digby but did not submit a finish time.
The good news in a race with an 86-year history is that there's always the chance to try again next year.
As Don Hemmings puts it: "Every time I'm out in the ocean I ask myself why did I do this again? But every time we get off, I love it.
"There are always things that happen in the fog, or in the high waves, or storms — and a lot of stories that stay on the boat."
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