September 06, 2010

Earl is now gone and Eos is just fine. We are now putting her back together. There are still strong wind warnings and 6-9 foot seas out there so we aren't in a real rush to leave. Bill is taking advantage of the clean deck and is cleaning and treating the teak today while I have been busy checking the weather forecasts and looking at places along the coast of Nova Scotia where we can tuck in if need be. We will put the sails and dinghy back on board tomorrow and then go through the lock in the afternoon and tie up in the canal so we can get an early start. The locks are now on shorter hours and only run from 8 - 4 every day. We would like to be in Halifax Friday evening but it will, of course, depend on the weather.

The winds at the top of the hill were clocked at 60 KMH so e probably had 55 here in the bay. We could see Eos from the cottage and watched her heel some in the gusts. The boats out on the moorings where certainly dancing around. The fire hose chafe protectors on one of our lines rubbed the teak rail down some so there was definitely some movement in the wind.

The power went out at the cottage late afternoon Saturday and didn't come on until 4 in the morning. There were a lot of power outages and many trees down as well. One of the local couples got married Saturday and the reception hall was without power. The meal was a candle lit one and they did bring in a generator to power their PC and show pictures. The bride and groom went out on the beach and had pictures taken with the waves crashing in behind them. Not your regular wedding pictures to say the least.


We are going to have to bypass going up into the Bras d'Or Lakes which is a real disappointment for us but we need to keep moving west and south. Time is marching on, winter is coming, and the hurricanes are still an issue.

We met several lovely sailing folks the last few days. One couple, John and Joan, are from Newfoundland and are on their way to the Carolinas. We will probably do some buddy boating with them for a while. They are crossing over to Maine and we aren't sure yet if we will do that or just head straight across to Cape Cod. Another couple Ken and Anne just bought their boat this year and are going back to Sydney, Nova Scotia with her today. Their fun times are all ahead of them.

We also met a couple of Norwegian fellows who came across this fall from Norway and are headed to the Hudson River where Harold will put the boat up for the winter and then return next spring and take it up the Erie and west on the Great Lakes to Duluth, have it trucked to Saint Paul and then is going down the Mississippi. That is just the beginning of all kinds of Caribbean, Pacific, and Southern Atlantic plans he has. Melvin is a single hander who came over from Poole, England and is on his way to meet his wife in Boston and then they are going south. These fellows have really been out there doing it. Our trip out the St. Lawrence and to here pales a little in light of their adventures.