Monday 30th June.

A long passage today – 65nm to Newfoundland.  So we woke early @ 5am to find all the fishing boats were long gone.  I guess 5am isn’t early for fishermen!  We did however get to see a sunrise (which we don't see too often!)

The forecasted winds were perfect 10 – 15knots from the south and even at 5am there was a light and very warm breeze in the harbor.  Once out to sea however the winds turned light and so we motored for 1 ½ hours.  Then the winds arrived and we set sail with the forecasted perfect winds for today’s passage.  Once again they died after about 2 hours as we approached the shipping lanes and St. Pauls Island, 47 11.85N 060 08.96W, and the engines went on again.

AIS (Automated Identification System) is a very nice aid that has been available to ships for many years and has recently become affordable for pleasure craft.  Essentially, it transmits a small digital packet of data on VHF radio containing information such as vessel position, course, speed, name, etc.  Any vessel with a receiver is then notified of the precise position, course, etc. of nearby vessels, and this information is typically shown on a chartplotter.  A very nice feature in fog, rain or at night.  For the past few years, we had an AIS receiver, but this year we upgraded to a transmitter/receiver so that other ships can “see” us.  Approaching the shipping lanes our AIS notified us of a large ship on a near collision course.  We first saw the other  vessel  at a distance of 11nm so we both had plenty of time to take avoiding action.  We kept an eye on her, and passed by astern of her.  I called her on VHF, explained that we had recently installed as AIS transmitter and asked her to confirm that she could see our AIS signal.  The response was, “Please wait a minute while I check”!  In other words for the past 11 miles while we had been constantly watching them on AIS, they hadn’t even looked at their AIS receiver!!  After a few minutes, they came back on VHF and reported that yes we were transmitting correctly.  In their defense, it was a clear, sunny day and we didn’t need AIS to see each other, but still …

We passed close to St. Pauls hoping to see colonies of seals but no luck.  Teresa did however get some shots of the island including a house built in the 1880s and still standing despite the fact that it's no longer being maintained.    

Some very light wind did return but they weren’t strong enough to get us to Port aux Basque before nightfall, so we motored or motor-sailed the rest of the way.  The weather turned cold and drizzly, and on approaching Newfoundland, we noticed there was still some snow on the hills.

We entered Port aux Basque, 47 34.44N, 059 08.32W, at 18:50 local time (which is ½ hour ahead of Nova Scotia) and tied up to what we thought was a public dock.  The dock shifted a little after we tied up to it, so we made a temporary repair to the dock for the night.  Tomorrow we’ll seek out the harbor master and hopefully find a more secure dock for our stay here.  Welcome to Newfoundland!

Ships Log: 3741.9, Todays Log: 64, Seasons Total: 153.9

Sunday 29th June.

We woke to a hot and sunny day.  The forecast was for winds later in the day, and given that we only had 35 nm to go today, we didn’t rush to get up early.  At about 9:30 we felt a breeze stirring in the harbor, and so cast off and set off.  Once out to sea however, the wind disappeared and so we had another day motoring.  As we rounded Cape St. Lawrence (the northern tip of Cape Breton), the wind picked up so we hoisted sails and stopped the engines.  Sailing at last!  It was short lived however, and after ½ hour the winds died and the engines came back on.

We entered McDougal Pond, 46 59.97N 060 27.78W with some trepidation, since our guide book warned us of a very narrow channel with shallow water.  As we entered, the harbour master, Fred, met us, assured us there was plenty of water and guided us to the fuel dock and then a berth for the night.  McDougal pond is a fishing harbor in a glorious setting – mountains all around.  The fishermen were very friendly and several came over the shoot the breeze, ask us about our travels and tell us their fishing tales and folk lore of the area.

Fred also runs a camp ground and invited us to use the shower there.  (Hmmm, now that I think about it I think he was standing downwind of us when he made that offer!)  We walked the ½ mile up the hill to the shower and Teresa took photos of the beautiful area. 

Ships Log: 3677.9, Todays Log: 34.8, Seasons Total: 89.9

Saturday 28th June.

Woke up at 5:30am, and left the dock at 6:15am.  As we suspected our promised NW 10-15 knot winds did not materialize and so we started motoring hoping that they would appear later in the day.   Apart from there being no wind it’s a beautiful day – sunny and warm but not too hot.  Perfect for yoga on the trampoline and practicing some photography with our new camera.  We saw several whales, seals and dolphins on route. 

The winds never appears so we motored 56nm to Chéticamp, Nova Scotia, 46 37.94N 061 00.68W.  We motored around looking for a place to dock and were invited to raft with several Quebecois boats from l’Ilse de la Madelaine.  They were partying and were very sociable.  We went ashore for a walk and on our return we given some crab legs by our Quebecois neighbours.  They were difficult to eat, especially since we didn’t have the right utensils, but a delicious appetizer! 

Ships Log: 3643.1, Todays Log: 55.1, Seasons Total: 55.1

Friday 27th June.

Beautiful blue skies and the predicted strong winds.  However, the promised NW winds for tomorrow have fallen off the forecast.  We did a few last minute preparations for tomorrow’s first sail of the season and then went for a bike ride to Basin’s Head – home of the famous “Singing Sand” beach.  It was a nice beach, sunny but cool, and if you scuff your feet in the sand as you walk is makes a squeaky sound – hence singing sands.  The sand did sing, but not very tunefully!  You can also make the sands sing with your hands, but it's still not very tunefull, and least when Ron was doing it.

Back to the boat, and Tom came around with a few beers to bid us farewell. 

We bought take out pizza, ate on the boat and had an early night in preparation for a 6am departure tomorrow.

Thursday 26th, June.

Windy, rainy and cool, but it’s nice to be afloat and tied up to a dock.  We both putzed around doing jobs on the boat.  Ron installed 3 LED lights, which save a lot of electrical power, and estimated the time to be ½ hour each.  The first 2 took an hour each and the last took 3 hours – about par for Ron’s estimating skills.  Teresa stocked up on food and did the laundry.  Strong winds are forecast from the NE tomorrow, (the direction we plan to sail), and from the NW at 10 – 15 knots for Saturday, which is absolutely perfect for our first trip to Cheticamp, Nova Scotia.  So, we’re planning our departure for Saturday. 

Our “next door neighbours” when Quinita was ashore were a Canadian couple – Tom and Clarissa.  Our few conversations so far revealed that they had sailed from Northern Lake Huron to PEI, via the Gaspe Peninsular over the past 4 years.  Pretty much the same trip we have made.  So we invited them over for dinner thinking that perhaps we had had similar sailing experiences.  We had a very pleasant evening with them, but in terms of sailing experiences, we were totally outclassed.  It turned out that they had built their boat (a 34’ Van de Stadt steel sloop) 20 years ago in Australia, and had sailed to New Zealand, the islands of the South Seas, Hawaii and ended up in British Columbia.  Next season they are planning a circumnavigation of Newfoundland (no mean feat) and are considering a passage back to the West Coast of Canada and Alaska via the North West Passage – a trip few sailors would attempt.  Despite their obvious sailing prowess, a very nice and unassuming couple.  We hope to meet them later in the season on the Bras d’Or. 

Many pink, purple and white lupins in flower at the moment.  And a pretty lighthouse on Souris provided us with some nice evening walks.

Wednesday 25th June.

Rainy and cooler.  We launched today without any issues and now have a nice spot where we can reach the wifi from the boat.  After launching, the winds weren’t too strong so we took the opportunity of bending on our 3 sails. (Forecasts indicate we won’t be able to for the next 2 days).  So we finished the day in pretty good shape. 

And… I know I said I wouldn’t mention the telephony hell again, but I feel I must, at least to give a local guy here in Souris the credit he deserves. 

After Bell gave me misinformation, I went to see a guy in a local telephone store.  He initially spent an hour trying to get my phone to work, even though it wasn’t his problem.  He said he’d charge me $10 for his efforts so far and I'd pay him next time I was in the store.  I went away to try a few things and promised to return the next day which I did.  He tried a few more things, including selling me an $11 replacement sim card.  That didn’t work either.  I went away to talk to Verizon (who sold me the phone), and returned the next day.  We discussed options.  I had an old phone which we had planned to use on the Bell network (much better data coverage) but couldn’t get to work.  I also had a new phone which we had planned to use for voice via Verizon wireless (much cheaper).  The new phone would probably work with a Bell sim card enabling us to switch sim cards on the new phone to get voice and data.  BUT the physical sizes of the sims were different.  So you’d expect him to sell me another sim right?  No, he got his snips out and trimmed the sim he sold me 2 days ago to fit the new phone.  And it worked!!  And he wouldn’t take anything more for the time he spent.  So the long and the short of it is that he spent about 4 hours of his time, sold me a sim card, and fixed a problem that wasn’t his making.  My total cost:  $11.  Welcome to PEI Hospitality!

Monday 23rd, Tuesday 24th June.

Another 2 nice days.  Can’t remember exactly what we were doing, but we were busy and made good progress on the boat and got her ready for launching.