Hello America we are home!!!

Sitting in Shelburne Harbor N S waiting for Danny was a bit of a dichatomy; we wanted to get on with our journey and yet the people we met touched us in so may ways we wanted to stay and share in their experiences. Rich, a single-handed sailor, Peter and Andrea, cruisers, Kelley waiting for crew and the local yacht club members who were genuinely interested in our story and so willing to share theirs. By Monday after Danny it was time. I spent severel hours downloading GRIB files checking wind patterns and forecasts. It seemed to be getting better and better so we decided to "get out of Dodge" Monday afternoon around 16:30. Our friends were all there to send us off with this look of "are you sure, it's still pretty rough out there" in their eyes and a sense of hopefulness on their faces.

Our plan was to try and reach Ogounquit, ME where Alice's family is vacationing. There are no safe harbors nearby so Portland became our objective; then we studied the weather maps again and it seemed Mother Narure was telling us this is our chance to get across the Gulf of Maine with minimal difficulties.

I can say that sailing down Shelburne Harbor, late in the afternoon not knowing what we might find out in the Atlantic was unsettling for me. We needed to get going but Cape Sable, Seal Island and Brasil Rock were waiting. Once we rounded Cape Roseway the sea swell was tolerable and there was a west wind allowing us to sail out to sea with a forecast for a shift to the north and north east. So if the forecasters were right we would be lifted around the bad stuff at the SW corner of N S. So out we went and sure enough the wind held and did start lifting. By midnight we were sailing more SW and by 03:00 we were lifted up to west and we were on our way. Hallajah!! We were leaving N S and heading 270 degress, USA bound.

For sailors familar with Cape Sable, the Bay of Fundy current is the key issue. For most of the night our trusty chartplotter reminded us that we were sailing against the current. We were sailing seven to eight knots through the water and yet only making three to four over the bottom; that is the reality of current with a sail boat. This means slow going, I mean slooooow going.

Picture yourself watching a light in the distance, you know what it represents and you know you want it to disapear over the horizon. Such were the lights of Cape Sable and Seal Island, they just wouldn't go away. Finally the Bay of Fundy decided to refill and all the current arrows on our chartplotter turned west, just where we wanted to go and it started helping push us away from N S.

So to make the story of a fantastic passage shorter, two and 1/2 days later around 0:600 Alice saw land. It was the tip of Cape Cod and we were rapidly closing another chapter in our journey. She saw two whales and yes even I saw two, unblievable more than the Saint Lawrence. We were home having just spent two months in Canada.