A passage to Nova Scotia

It was another glorious pre-dawn departure. Awoken before my alarm-watch buzzed on my wrist, by a bit of splash of who-knows-what swimming creature on the other side of my fiberglass wall.

I rolled over to snuggle, and noticing it was already getting light, for it wouldn’t be long now. Excitement was roughly divided between getting to witness a sunrise (never failing to amaze) and the relatively short passage that was about to begin.

What defines a “passage” by boat, versus a “hop” or a “journey”? In our case, a passage is a segment of the longer journey. As our intended travel will take us past 46 degrees to Cape Breton Island and then back south to who knows how far.

Having recently provisioned at Rockland, and then jaunted across the bay to anchor in one of the most beautiful coves on earth for the last two days, we used the quiet time to prepare for an offshore departure from Vinalhaven. Now all we needed was to make the coffee, fire up the motor and pull up the anchor.

And as we slowly motored out of the furthest reaches of Seal Bay, only the loons were up to say goodbye, as well as the rising sun. Once into the outer part of Penobscot Bay, Kelly hoisted our mainsail. Working lobster boats criss-crossed our path, reminding that not everyone is on vacation this week of July 4th.

Sailing past the southern tip of Isle Au Haut, on a perfect broad reach our happy vessel was on a course of ESE toward Canada’s province of Nova Scotia.

We had been planning a Tuesday departure, waiting out some thunderstorms and generally crappy weather. However, as the day approached, the weather cleared out sooner than expected and so we only caught the tail end of the typical wind following a front, resulting in extended calms. This forebodes motoring for three quarters of our passage, else wait for more wind. We chose the former, so to get started on our summer Canadian holiday.

Timing the tidal currents off Cape Sable was part of the plan. The Cape Horn of Nova Scotia, as it’s called, is shallow, and tidal currents rip back and forth at 2.4 knots. I tried to time our approach such to maximize currents in our favor, but the length of time needed to get around is longer than the tidal frequency. We fought against less than we received a boost, so we’re chalking it as a net gain!

First stop: Shelburne.

We arrived to pick up a mooring after 36 hours travel, with plenty of remaining daylight. A large fishing trawler followed us up the harbor, where several aquaculture setups and fish processing facilities appear like small islets on approach. A quick call to the Shelburne Harbor Yacht Club confirmed that a mooring was available (most are available this early in the season) and then one more to the Canadian authorities officially confirmed our arrival in Canada.

So about Shelburne…

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We can’t say enough good things about the Shelburne Harbor Yacht Club and its members. We showed up unannounced but were treated as though we belonged. Well-maintained guest moorings, clean showers and a fabulous deck overlooking the start and finish line for Thursday and Saturday races. (Not to mention the amazing draft beer selection and low prices!)

Next stop… somewhere north!