Monday August 12th

We set off early with a forecast of westerly winds at 15 knots – perfect for our sail to Shippagan Gully, 47 43.11N 064 40.09W.  Initially the winds were light so we motorsailed, then the promised winds came in and we had a wonderful sail – a beam reach with sustained speeds of 8+ knots and 11knot max. Nice!  Even with a foul tide, we were still averaging 7+ knots over the ground.  We were sailing so fast, that we started thinking about skipping Shippagan and heading straight for Escuminac, our next planned port of call.  This would have been great since with the current winds we could have sailed directly there, as opposed to having to beat against the prevailing winds.  Unfortunately, the winds made the decision for us.  They diminished to 5-8 knot and shifted direction to come onto the nose.  So we motor sailed the last 10 miles.  Oh well, we had a great sail while it lasted.  The other advantage to skipping Shippagan, would have been that we wouldn’t have had to negotiate the unmarked and very shallow entrance to the fishing harbor.  Our guide book gave directions via 2 buoys which were no longer here, so we attempted the entrance on the fly.  Everything was going well … 8ft, 7ft, 6ft, 5ft – not too worried yet, we only draw 3ft -  11ft, 12ft.  Yippee we’re past the shallows.  Hmmm, how come we’re not moving and how come all those birds almost close enough to touch are walking around?   We discovered that the echo sounder doesn’t work when it’s very shallow, and it was very shallow – in fact we were aground on mud.  The tide was rising, (otherwise we wouldn’t have attempted the entrance), so we would float again soon, but the wind was blowing us back onto the shallows.  So our lightweight anchor was deployed from the dinghy and we managed to winch ourselves back to deeper water.  As we were doing so, we noticed a boat coming out of the harbor, which showed us the way in.  On the 2^nd attempt, we took the route we had been shown and tied up to a dock in the fishing harbor.   Oh, if only the winds had stayed westerly 15knots …  Actually we were greeted at the dock by a local fisherman checking to see if we  had a problem.  Apparently they don’t see too many sailboats in this shallow harbor so he thought for sure we came here because we had a problem.  We assured him we were OK.  He pointed out his fishing boat to us and his car and said if we needed anything just let him know ‘cause his car was available.  He was a jolly man, laughing very freely and making us feel very welcome.   After getting settled in, the skies opened up and it poured for about a half an hour.

Ship’s Log: 3348.8nm, Today's log: 50.8nm, Season total: 894.9nm.