We had a pleasant motor through the pretty Cape Cod Canal, which links Cape Cod Bay with Buzzards Bay.

Sunrise along Port Manvers Run on the beautiful coast of Labrador, last month. We are far south of there now, waiting for a cold front to pass Cape Cod.

After a careful (very careful!) study of all available weather information, we left Shelburne Harbor as Hurricane Igor was headed for Newfoundland, wanting to take advantage of the favorable winds that Igor would create for us in the Gulf of Maine. The clouds overhead all pointed to where Igor was (several hundred miles away) at the time.

Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada
We sailed into the pretty and very-well protected harbor of Shelburne for a short visit. This pretty gaff schooner was sailing in the harbor as we entered. I’ve only been to Shelburne once before, in my old schooner Orbit II. I had singlehanded from Provincetown (Cape Cod) and ran into Shelburne just ahead of a gale. Shelburne has a long harbor, offering excellent protection from storms. I had just gotten the anchor down and the sails all tied and gone below when the gale arrived. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep (it was my first singlehanded sail), and extremely glad to be down below where it was dry as the wind howled and the rain and hail pounded on the cabintop. So I have pleasant memories of Shelburne.

We have been enjoying sailing southwest. It is quite noticeable that summer is ending as the days are shorter and the nights longer, and as we sail south, the temperatures keep getting warmer. Even the rain (which is frequent) seems warm. While the location shown is where we are, Gabriela took this picture of Issuma sailing in this area a few months ago.

Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, Canada
We motored through the Strait of Canso, between Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia. We anchored to sit out a gale in Port Hawkesbury, pretty much in the middle of the Strait of Canso, where this picture was taken.

We left the rain behind (on the left of the picture) as we passed the northern tip of Cape Breton Island.

Red Bay, Labrador, Canada
The wind finally let up in Battle Harbor and we sailed and motored 60 miles to Red Bay, in the Strait of Belle Isle, where we anchored in preparation for a NE gale the following day. The Strait of Belle Isle separates Newfoundland from Labrador. The little beluga in the picture came over to the boat as we were entering Red Bay and stayed with us, swimming around and playing, for hours. The preparations for the gale were straightforward. Red Bay is a very enclosed bay and we set the main anchor (88lb Raya) and a rope to a big rock. I had read that the mud on the bottom in this harbor was thin and didn’t hold anchors well. We had no problems with the NE gale, but were somewhat dismayed to see that the forecast for favorable winds following the gale had changed to another gale from the north. We reanchored, in the north part of the harbor, this time using the Raya anchor and the little Guardian (like a 40lb Fortress) anchor, each on about 150m of chain and rope. The Raya would likely have held us by itself, but one doesn’t want to find out otherwise in the midst of a howling gale, so better to set two anchors if in any doubt. Both anchors hooked debris on the bottom, making bringing them back up a long process–quite useful for muscle-building (there is an electric anchor winch, but it only works with the chain on the main anchor, so the 80m of rope on the main anchor was lifted by leading the rope aft to a manual winch). Anyway, after two hours spent retrieving the anchors, we were able to leave the harbor and enjoy a brisk night sail down the Strait of Belle Isle. Unfortunately, in the second gale, the wind generator (Air Breeze) died. So far, I have not been able to get it operating again. The wind generator supplied most of the electrical power onboard, so now computer use is much more limited, so there may be fewer blog entries. After the gales, a big high pressure system moved in and we have since had clear, not-very-cold skies and pleasant winds.

Battle Harbor

Battle Harbor