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| Gathering Storm |
The more time that passes between posts, the harder it gets to sit down and write — why don’t I learn and take the easier way? Write it before our experiences begin to fade against the backdrop of a familiar dock, friends, our “home” port? I could blame this particular procrastination on exhaustion, and that wouldn’t be just an excuse. But we’re all rested now, I need to cross this off my list (not at all the way I usually feel about blogging) and then move on to fresher territory blog and time wise.
So, time travel back — Our best passage making friends arrived in Halifax as scheduled on the 26th of August, and after a pleasant Friday evening in downtown Halifax and a trip to the amazing Saturday morning Farmers Market on the waterfront, we got underway for Chester, where we visited before with our previous guest. The trip west and south down the coast took us past a spectacular landscape that we’ve seen a few times, but I haven’t really talked about it, as there has been so much else to convey — another problem with infrequent posts.
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| Peggy's Cove |
The rocky shoreline changes to a grassy slope strewn with boulders of all sizes, many of which are huge and perched improbably along the ridge line or at odd angles along the shore. The boulders are remnants of a receding glacier and make me wish I knew more about the geology which causes such spectacular and unusual results. In the same area, along the coast not far from Halifax, is Peggy’s Cove, where SwissAir 111 crashed September 2, 1998. We were driven to the memorials and the picturesque village three years ago by Canadian friends, but this trip we were only able to capture the Atlantic side memorial through binoculars and the village in the photo here.
If you looked at my last blog, you know that we were well prepared to weather Irene and sit out a couple of days or longer to wait for the wind and seas to calm down. We were able to begin moving down the coast again quite quickly and by Tuesday were at Carter’s Beach again. Another day and another hop and we were back in Shelburne, our jumping off spot for Rockland, Maine. We had a nice dinner out, did some last minute, passage making provisioning (think roast chicken,pasta entrees to microwave underway, saltines and Ginger Ale). The weather forecast was fine, the crew was well rested, and we set out mid-day for the 30 hour trip.
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| Ancient Rocks |
As we powered out of Shelburne Harbour, listening to VHF conversations between other boaters, we found we would be traveling in company with a large sailboat heading for Camden. We agreed to stay in radio contact overnight and our VHFs during the night were a pleasant diversion during our four hour watches. It was a beautiful night with a first-quarter moon that set early, leaving a black, but starry night with very calm seas. We made good time, although our 54 foot friend passed us under sail early in the evening. We made Rockland by mid-afternoon, in 28 hours, and all agreed it was the easiest ever overnight passage.
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| Fellow Traveler at Sunset |
By noon the next day we left the dock in Rockland for the last leg home to Salem, another overnight of 20 hours. As we headed offshore, the waves began to build enough that we dropped the “fish” to stabilize the rolling component of the mostly head seas. We were all comfortable enough, although moving around the boat required at least one hand, and all was fine until about 3:15 am, near the end of Paul’s and my watch. The port engine shut down, and as Paul headed down into the engine room, the starboard engine also shut down. An expletive followed as the captain realized his failure to switch fuel tanks-- we have four-- and although we had plenty of fuel on board, we had basically run out. Call it a senile moment. Attempts to bleed and reprime the engines were unsuccessful and rather than break the injectors, which were extremely hot and are always fragile, we called the Coast Guard from 19 miles northeast of Thatcher’s Island, near Gloucester, MA, who called TowBoatUS for us.
About five hours later, our tow arrived, and after 8 hours under tow, we threaded our way through Salem harbor. On Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend, we finally docked around 5 pm, a tow on our bow and another smaller tow on our hip, providing entertainment to a full dock of holiday partiers. I am reassured to know that the Coast Guard was so responsive to our situation and very thankful that none of the many, many photos that were taken of us that afternoon ended up in the Salem Evening News!
