Plan B

There were a few of you observant friends who noticed that the “SPOT” didn’t turn up in exactly the location advertised in my last post. Indeed, I published the last blog I had written, knowing that our departure was not going to occur as planned and that we had big problems to deal with before leaving. Somehow I just couldn’t bring myself to throw away, or even alter, the feelings of well-being and happiness that I felt I’d captured-- so I decided just to post anyway.

We had noticed a week earlier that we were having troubles keeping our battery banks charged up to snuff, despite running generators considerably longer than usual. The situation deteriorated further a week ago Friday until it became clear that we needed to plug in to shore power, to preserve what battery life was left and also to perform a procedure suggested by the battery company tech to see if we could rehab our batteries to a workable level. We made way to Northeast Harbor in the heat of late afernoon on Friday, the hottest day we’ve had all summer. Despite Paul’s attention to battery temps every hour well into the night, there seemed to be little change in charge levels. On to Plan B.

Scene in Passing to the Gulf of Maine

Early Saturday morning, we moved down to Belfast, where Paul had already talked with the boat yard about ordering new batteries if necessary and having them installed. We got in late Saturday afternoon, feeling pretty stressed out and fairly discouraged about once again delaying our carefully planned trip across the Gulf of Maine to Shelburne.

The one bright spot was meeting our new friends once again for another wonderful Sunday morning breakfast at Chase Daily in downtown Belfast -- great food and great talk.

The boat yard mechanic visited Carry On early Monday morning and did not have a definitive diagnosis, only that replacing batteries would be in our future-- exactly when was an open question. We could continue our travels, carefully watching our power usage, finding docks to plug in more frequently and using generators as necessary to keep our battery levels from sinking-- or we could stay in Belfast for the week, then wait for another weather window which looked at the earliest to be August 1. We decided to opt for the first and deal with the battery issue when back in Salem after Labor Day.

Light at Port Mouton Head

We left Belfast Tuesday morning at 10:30 and arrived in Shelburne, NS around 6 pm local time (5 pm Eastern Daylight Savings). It was a long trip and exhausting. We were fighting ocean swells the entire way and traveling in fog much of the time. I didn’t feel well and couldn’t really stand my share of watch, so Paul had to take up the slack. Late in the afternoon the fog cleared and we saw whales blowing and diving all around us in the distance-- quite a majestic sight. We made it safely into Shelburne Harbour, tied up to the dock and had a quick dinner while waiting for customs officials to come aboard to clear us. Their visit went fairly smoothly and quickly; we had a dish of ice cream to celebrate our arrival and fell into bed.

We did a quick regrouping the next day, cleaned up the boat and ourselves and our Phippsburg friends joined us late in the afternoon. We had expected to meet them a week earlier, but luckily for us they were driving and sightseeing, and they and their schedule were flexible. I had been so afraid we would be so delayed we would miss them entirely. We had a lovely dinner out that night, another good night sleep and we were well on our way back to almost normal.

Rocks off Carter's Beach

The weather today is rainy and windy and we seem to be in a spell of foggy days. We ran yesterday in fog again until late afternoon when we rounded Port Mouton Head to anchor off Carter’s Beach. Carter’s is one of our very favorite anchorages, a beautiful white sandy beach with rocks around the shore and salt marshes that fill and clear with the tides. We picked up sand dollars, explored the small life in the standing water and had a long walk on the fine, warm sand.

The weather today is rainy and windy and we seem to be in a spell of foggy days. We ran yesterday in fog again until late afternoon when we rounded Port Mouton Head to anchor off Carter’s Beach. Carter’s is one of our very favorite anchorages, a beautiful white sandy beach with rocks around the shore and salt marshes that fill and clear with the tides. We picked up sand dollars, explored the small life in the standing water and had a long walk on the fine, warm sand.

Fog Creeping In

It’s hours later now, almost bedtime, the weather is greatly improved and we’ve had another lovely meal on board after a long walk around town. Plan B seems to be workly out nicely.

Oh, almost forgot. Again, for you SPOT watchers-- the SPOT seemed to drop the entire first half of our trip out of Belfast  to Shelburne. The track appears to start in the middle of the Gulf of Maine. We think we exceeded the number of available track points after the first 18 hours of our trip and the software deleted all the previous points. We haven't quite figured out a way around that other than turning the SPOT on and off periodically. Maybe we'll try that next time-- but then, maybe not.