Across the Bay of Fundy
07 October 2007 | Portland, ME
Steve
We slipped our berth in Yarmouth at 2030h Friday 5 Oct, with what had been a beautiful day rapidly slipping into a foggy night. The wind was on the nose from the west at 5 knots, but the seas were only 1 metre, and we set course for the Maine coast between Bar Harbor and Portland. Stars could be seen above the fog; nothing like several thousand lights years of visibility straight up but less than 50 yards on the horizontal plane. We settled into a watch system, and the hours of darkness slipped by remarkably quickly, as the visibility improved with each passing hour. The wind veered gradually to the north, allowing us to make sail, and we motor-sailed at a pleasing 7.5 knots. Our progress was good enough that we decided to head straight for Portland.
Our entrance to Portland was dampened by rain showers, and the US Coast Guard directed us to the State Pier to await clearance by Customs. Clare, our English friend who crewed with us on this leg, threatened to cause a diplomatic incident by arriving with an expired visa. As the Customs officer called his superior to seek direction, we wondered what the postage was to send letters to Guantanamo Bay, and whether they stocked orange coveralls in her size. Fortunately, all was resolved without further fuss and bother, and Clare and the rest of us were cleared into the US. The next day broke sunny and warm, and we cleaned up the boat and then headed ashore to explore Portland's excellent old port district with its many shops, seafood markets and cafes.
At 3pm, it was time for me (and Clare) to leave Judy, the girls and Semper V behind and head back to Halifax via Bar Harbor and the Cat ferry. I have to work until 19 October before I can take off on extended leave and join the boat permanently. The voyage back across the Bay of Fundy was a rather melancholy one for me; it was as though the voyage across in Semper V was being gradually undone with each mile that slipped behind the Cat. The next two weeks will be difficult, even though I know they will zip by quickly, and Judy and the girls can sail the boat without any problems. I hate to miss out on any portion of the trip, but we want to keep the boat moving south, and I expect to rejoin in New York or environs.
Our laptop has suffered some sort of breakdown, so it is now back in Halifax either for repair or replacement. This is a significant hassle as the girls will have no wireless capability onboard to communicate via e-mail and to update the blog. Although we have a chartplotter onboard, we also used the laptop as another navigation tool with electronic charts for the entire US east coast loaded on it to complement our paper chart folio. So the next few entries will be done by me in Halifax, based on what the girls update me with on their satphone calls home. This also means no pics for some time either, unless the girls find a computer they can use to upload on during their stops over the next two weeks. Sigh.