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| Shelburne lighthouse |
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| anchored in La Tour with two Cape Dorys |
The next day we raised our anchors at 0500, just as the fog started to roll back in to the harbour. We made our way out in the company of the fishing vessels, starting their day as well, and then turned right, heading for the infamous Cape Sable, the southwestern-most point of Nova Scotia. We were giving this area a lot of respect, as it is known for its strong currents, high seas, high winds, rocky coastline, and fog. In fact one of our pilot guide books mentioned that it has been compared to the 'other' Cape....Cape Horn! I'm not sure how true that is, as I don't ever plan to do Cape Horn OR Cape of Good Hope, for that matter, but there has certainly been a number of ships lost at this cape. As it turns out, the fog continued our whole trip around the cape and didn't let up until we were just entering the Gulf of Maine, so we didn't see a thing!!! The seas also co-operated and although were somewhat 'lumpy' and had the occasional rip tides, were easily managed by Wyvern III.
As we passed through The Hospital ( a passage north of Seal Island, off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia) and headed in to the Gulf of Maine, the fog lifted....just in time for us to see the big, black squall headed our way!! The winds had been predicted to get to about 20 knots that day, so we put in a first reef in anticipation of the winds building, especially with the ominous sky. No sooner had we done that, but the winds did, indeed build, pushing the seas up with it, and it started to rain. The winds quickly reached 20 knots, so we hove to and put in a second reef, as things didn't look like they were going to get any easier!! Indeed, the wind increased and the waves built to about 3 meters. Fortunately, George is an excellent helmsman, and he was able to find a good point of sail which essentially kept us on our track ( we had about 150 miles to sail, so didn't want to get blown too far off our destination!) with the wind at about 60 degrees off our bow coming from the north, and the waves at about 45 degrees off the bow. It continued to be very rough with the occasional wave breaking over our bow and into our dodger, but Wyvern handled it well and we were fairly well protected by all our cockpit canvas. By the time we had the boat organized, George had gotten soaked from rain and sea, so he went below and I took the helm to give him a break. The system continued for about 3-4 hours in total, and actually broke the repair job that George had done to our wind anemometer back in Kingston, so if it climbed to any more than 25 knots, we were blissfully unaware!!! Finally, about 3:30 in the afternoon, we could see the clouds breaking up on the western horizon and sunshine!!! Slowly the winds died down to about 10-15 knots, the rain stopped, and the seas even calmed down. We shook out the second reef, as there was only the one low predicted for that day, and settled in to enjoy a lovely sunset, (red sky at night, sailor's delight...) some supper, and the star-filled, moonless night. The Cape Dorys had also weathered the storm well, and we were able to watch them as they progressed across the gulf with us.
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| after the storm!! |
At about 10:00pm, the wind and seas picked up again, this time with a slight northwest direction to the wind, making for a pretty rough passage. Once again, the seas picked up to about 3 meters, and the wind felt about 20-25 knots, but the stars stayed out, which was a nice distraction from the waves crashing in to our boat!!! This weather continued until almost day-break, but once the sun was up, we could see the island of Mount Desert, Maine, rising up out of the sea, and the closer we got to land, the calmer the seas became! It was so nice to see the sun, although the wind was cool! Carefully we wound our way through the myriad of lobster pots along the coast of Maine, and eventually made our way to North East Harbour, where we picked up a mooring and waited for customs to come and clear us in to the United States of America!
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| Mount Desert Island |
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| flag 'quebec', awaiting customs |
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| North East Harbour |
Needless to say, we were pretty tired from what turned out to be a fairly physical crossing, but all in all, we had fared fairly well, and good old Wyvern had stood up to probably the roughest weather she has had to contend with so far this trip. We will check all our standing rigging (the wires holding the mast up!) to make sure not too much was shaken loose, but other than the broken anemometer, a nut coming off the staysail boom (screw stayed in, though, and a second didn't come loose at all, so the boom stayed put!!), and finding seaweed wrapped around the bottom of some of the shrouds (!!), Wyvern seems to be as good as ever!!
We have been enjoying our first landfall in the US. A large part of Mount Desert Island is made up of Acadia National Park, so lots of hiking and biking, with a free bus service sponsored by L.L. Bean that we can catch here in North East Harbour and it will take us all over the island! Our second day we went in to Bar Harbour and met Guy and Pika for lunch, as they have caught up to us again, and had a lovely visit. Yesterday I hiked up to Jordan Pond House (a distance of about 6 miles there and back) and really enjoyed being back walking in the woods for a while!!
Today we are fogged in and gale force winds are predicted for tomorrow, so looks like we will be here for a couple of more days, and then we will make our way to Penobscot Bay as we start to head down the coast of Maine, with a plan of getting to New York City, and then re-evaluating from there as to whether we will continue to head south and then to the Bahamas, or head up the Hudson and make our way back to Lake Ontario for the winter. We will see how the weather treats us, how the boat holds up and how WE hold up!!!!
We must have just missed meeting you. We're from Ontario, retired to Shelburne a few years ago and you may have noticed our little sister to your boat out an a mooring, Tachyon, Alberg 29. We'll be reading your blog regularly, fair winds!
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