O'Canada
08 July 2016 | Yarmouth, NS
Miserable Crossing
Northeast Harbour, ME - USA... to... Yarmouth, NS - CANADA (102nm)
Open sea to the east, USA to the west as we departed Northeast Harbour @ 04h00. We knew we were heading to Canada because of the fog, 11° water, and wearing all of our clothes at once to stay warm!!
An early start, no fog, calm seas, light winds BUT for only the first 25 nms when all Hell broke loose! From that point on, our 12 hour crossing to Yarmouth became rough, holding on while we Rock'd-N-Roll'd with a few moments of sheer terror. Dear old weather man was telling us a good weather window... light airs...NW winds BUT what he should have said was: "its going to BLOW NE Winds...15-20 Knots with GUSTS as high as 30 Knots the Entire Time and Pound-Your-Guts-Out" - that would have been much more accurate.
We rolled our guts out pretty much the entire way to Yarmouth. Thick fog, white caps, breaking seas - 2-3 meters (but 12-15 footers were to often with some extra BIG ones) mostly on the beam. We ended up zig-zagging down our course as we couldn't do a straight shot hoping to eliminate some of the trashing-smashing-bashing that was going on. Couldn't eat, take a nap, shoulders & legs sore from hours of balancing and mind-numbing to be constantly steering. Most of if was in the thick fog...thank goodness for radar and AIS. Man, we won't be doing that one again. Looking for smother seas for the balance of our trip!
As you can see we survived and it's gonna take a few days to fully recover. We arrived at Yarmouth dock at 18h00, exchanged USA Courtesy Flag to Custom Flag, then called it a day with NS & Cdn Flags left flapping in the wind. What a day!
It's good to be home.. well almost.