Weather:
Sunday: Sunny, then cloud, 15C, Wind SW 5, sea 1m
Monday: Cloudy, 11C, Wind W 25-35. !


Photo: Dusk at Pepperrell Cove

After our great night at BYC, we got underway early the morning of the 18th and motor-sailed to Pepperell Cove, not far from Kittery, Maine. We found a mooring and then went ashore for a walk, stopping at the local school playground. We found a football lying on the ground and Steph soon had the art of throwing spirals down pat!

Today brought decidedly foul weather. Rather than sail across a little further up the coast we opted to wait out the strong westerlies that have been blasting through here all day...the anemometer hit 37 knots, with sustained winds of 25 kts, and if the wind turbine spun any faster I think we'd have been readying for takeoff! It could have been worse, of course...at Mount Washington, it was -6C and snowing with fog and 50 knot winds.

Apart from a marathon session of Mexican Train Dominoes, in which Steph won an unbelievable nine straight games, we spent the day getting rocked at our mooring, and trying to stay warm by baking cookies and a cake. The wind howled through the rigging, and the boat shook when strong gusts roared through the cove. Judy and I each poked our heads above deck maybe once each to make sure the dinghy was still attached to the boat, and the boat attached to the mooring. We beat hasty retreats down below, where everyone else complained that the warm air in the cabin had just been sucked outside. We also did some passage planning for our Bay of Fundy crossing. Of course, we want to take advantage of fair winds, the right tide conditions and reasonably behaved seas in order to round Cape Sable Island and Brazil Rock with as little fuss as possible, but nature doesn't always cooperate that way, and this week appears to be no exception. There appears to be a weather system that will pass just to the southeast of NS on Wednesday and we don't want to run into it, especially when the tidal currents are trying to shove ur heads s up on the rocks. After working out the speed/time/distance equations, tide times, and weather forecasts from several sources, we have decided to head up to Portland and jump off from there, which will also take us a little closer to Yarmouth should we feel that we need to sit out any bad weather that would make rounding Brazil Rock problematic. Marblehead racers know exactly what we are thinking, and I find that this crossing makes the Gulf Stream look simple in comparison.

Once in Portland, we hope to top up the diesel and water tanks, and then we'll call the Canadian Coast Guard to file a sail plan (a concept the USCG does not seem to be overly familiar with). While it is always smart to leave a plan with friends or family in case one is overdue, there's a certain amount of comfort knowing that the CCG also has your plan and contact information, and is diligent about following up.

Our final ETA in Halifax is still up in the air, but my best guess is Monday afternoon, a little later than our initial guess of a weekend arrival. We plan stop to visit sailing friends in Bridgewater and Lunenburg, so we hope we will have a straight sail around Cape Sable Island and then tuck into either Shelburne or Liverpool to have a rest before continuing up the coast. In the meantime, we are really excited about a two-night crossing in 4C temperatures watch-on watch-off, dodging lobster pots and hoping that the f-word (f*g) doesn't make an early appearance...