I double checked the tide tables and confirmed that the tides were at their monthly minimum so the strongest current would be slower than at most other times of the month. I decided it was best to leave early, fight the ebb tide for the first 3 hours, then ride the flood tide the rest of the trip and miss the wind versus tide altogether.
The morning sun burnished everything in gold and made for a terrific sight departing Westport and Canada. We did have to fight the current, seeing our speed over ground drop to under 3 knots as we were running the engine to make 6+ knots. That event extinguished itself as we exited the tight channel in the Grand passage and entered the open waters of the Bay of Fundy.
An hour later the sun hid beyond the fog and I couldn't see more than 1/4 mile for the rest of the 47 mile trip. This area in the Bay of Fundy is well known for whale watching, but unless a whale bumped against Kelly IV, we were not going to see any. Given the results of a whale bumping, it was a good thing to not see whales that day.
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| Bay of Fundy crossing |
The fog was brought into the bay on a light southwesterly breeze, so we took advantage of what little breeze there was and motor sailed, saving some fuel. Kelly's course took us less than a mile south of Grand Manan Island, the last part of Canada that we might have seen, but we passed by without seeing anything.
Approaching the entrance to Cutler Harbor, Maine, I could hear the fog signal but saw nothing until we almost ran into the entrance buoy. We literally didn't see it until Kelly was only a hundred feet away, heading directly for the buoy. Soon after, the shoreline shyly presented itself as a shadow only slightly darker than the gray sky and fog. This was the first harbor we had entered in fog. We've departed several harbors in fog, but that means we had already seen them before we made our way through in the poor visibility. The challenge was exciting and my heart rate confirmed it.
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| Kelly IV rafted to a fishing boat in Cutler, Maine |
Suddenly the radar showed 30 or more boats ahead of us and gradually they peeked from the murk to let us know they were all on moorings. Since there was no room to anchor, I rafted along one of the larger fishing boats. After checking in with Customs (its own little adventure!) without any great strife Kelly IV was legally back in the United States for the first time since May 27th.
Rough weather kept us in port on the 22nd, so Kelly and I departed about 5am on the 23rd. It was a gorgeous day with the sun and empty blue sky dominating the water and rocky Maine shoreline. Clouds didn't join the scene until late in the afternoon.
The trip was another motor sail in the morning as the light west wind gave us a little extra push to the southwest. The wind shifted to the southwest putting the breeze on our nose and down came the sails. We did enjoy seeing dolphins and a seal as we dodged the lobster pots. There was no point where I could let down my guard as the ubiquitous lobster pots were in both Cutler Harbor and Southwest Harbor (our destination for the day) and everywhere in between. There were periods of up to 10 minutes where we might not see a lobster pot, but they were few and far between. Since I'm hand steering the boat (no autopilot), the constant need to focus on the steering shortened the apparent time underway.
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| Moored in Southwest Harbor, Maine |
In Southwest Harbor, the home of Hinkley Yachts, we passed more yachts over 50 feet long than I've ever seen in one place before. In addition, there were several very large and luxurious motor yachts, a few well over 100 feet in length. Since the marina was $2.95 per foot, I joined the several hundred other boats that were on moorings. There didn't seem to be anywhere in the harbor to anchor, just moorings or the marina.
The next morning the sun peered like a sleepy eye between the horizon and the clouds, then closed its eye behind the clouds for a gray start. A couple dolphins jumped beside us, then disappeared.
Fortunately, it was a quiet, clear day and within a couple hours the sun was back for a beautiful day to motor into the southwest breeze. Since our course took us into the eye of the wind, there was no benefit to raising a sail. Thankfully, the breeze was light and we were sailing in the protected waters behind the islands between Southwest Harbor and Rockland.
Maine has left me thinking that an autopilot would be useless here. There are so many lobster pots that I'm sure everyone must be hand steering, just as I have this entire trip. Elsewhere, I've wished for an autopilot, but not here.
As we motored past the small town of North Haven along the passage north of Vinylhaven Island, a beautiful 2 masted gaff-rigged ketch, Angelique, raised her sails and slipped through the harbor. She was barely making way and had to tack to move into the open waters of Penobscot Bay. If Kelly and I had tried that we might still be tacking amongst the islands! Kelly doesn't point into the wind very well, so we use the iron genny to do our close hauled sailing. :-)
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| Mooring at Beggar's Wharf |
In Rockland, I picked up a mooring at Beggar's Wharf and used their internet to catch up on email, my website, and plan for Irene, the hurricane that will be down to a tropical storm when it gets to Rockland. On Thursday, August 25, I took the sails down and prepared the boat to be hauled out for the storm. If the storm throws wind and waves into the harbor, especially at high tide, then docks and moorings could have trouble keeping their boats safe.
By 11am on Friday morning, Kelly IV was hauled out and safe on land almost ready for Irene. While on shore, I did some maintenance work, cleaning and applying teak oil to the exterior wood, then did my laundry and shopping.
The next log will let you know how Kelly IV and I managed through the storm.
Kelly IV and I have now travelled over 2177 nautical miles from Erie, PA.
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