After the usual 229 changes in plans and schedules our summer cruise started by Nick and Carol, our crew and great friends, arriving in Portland, ME on July 7. TJ flew into Rockland the day after.
As a special treat we got a visit from Liz and Andy, who were just a stone’s throw away (relatively speaking) in Ontario and drove 11 hours to have dinner with us. It was wonderful to see them after about 2 years.
A few days of getting things done and a slight loss of control at the grocery store later we left Rockland for Tenants Harbor, ME on July 14.
My usual good timing had me sleep through the fun events that occurred next: Nick and Carol were hanging out in the cockpit when a lobster boat stopped by. The captain asked if this was their boat and when the answer was negative he said: ‘I only know one person from Dutch Harbor who’s got a sail boat!’ TJ popped out the hatch and it turned out the captain was Ivan, a guy who had previously worked on the Constellation with TJ in Alaska.
He generously gifted us with four lobsters. I woke up to find buckets full of these little buggers in the cockpit, wondering how the hell that happened! I have to admit we probably had a lot more fun than our new crew members, especially once dinner time came around…
We left Tenants Harbor the next morning. We started out motoring in a flat calm with zero wind and about 100 feet of visibility, with 2 crew up on the bow spotting the endless damned lobster pots. It was so foggy, in fact, that another boat passed us at 0.2 miles and we were unable to see him! When we finally got out into the deep water of the gulf of Maine the pots were finally left behind and a NNW wind increased up to about 17-20 knots. Nick and Carol finally got to see what Rocket Science could do even though she was encumbered with about a ton and a half of fluids and provisions. Nick in particular couldn’t stop grinning as we sailed along comfortably at 10-12 knots.
While TJ was taking a nice afternoon nap Nick decided to do the dishes. Even though the fresh water pump was turned on the faucet didn’t spit out any, so I came down below to check. Which is when I found the starboard aft cabin swimming in 2 inches of water. Everything was wet. The lockers under the sink, the mattress of course, the lockers under the mattress. We suffered a small loss of spare parts (that turned into little aquariums), but no major damage. Well, we did end up throwing the mattress away. The foam was soaked and it took forever to dry and started to smell. But that just made TJ happy because it was weight off the boat and we only use that cabin as storage, anyway.
What had happened? Something left in the sink had bumped the faucet open, and even though we always keep the fresh water pump turned off when under power every time we turned it on it pressurized the lines enough to spit out a bunch of fresh water in the aft cabin. Until the tank was drained and the cabin flooded. Grump.
We had planned to go to Halifax, Nova Scotia nonstop but didn’t want to arrive at night. So we stopped in Shelburne, Nova Scotia from where we could check into Canada by phone. Everybody took a walk and we had a nice dinner that night at a local restaurant, enjoying the temperatures that actually resembled something like summer.
From Shelburne it was a long day trip up to Lunenburg, with much of the trip under spinnaker.
We arrived in the early evening, just in time for TJ and I to launch the dinghy and take Baxter for a walk before dinner. We walked by the wharf and were absolutely flabbergasted to see a boat flying the Vallarta Yacht Club burgee! What are the odds? We went and said hello and it turned out the couple were good friends with our dear friends Liz and Andy Barrow. They live about 35 minutes SW of Halifax and we had entertained the idea of stopping by their club first, but ditched that plan in favor of going straight to Halifax. Which worked out brilliantly, as usual…
However, what a pleasant surprise that was. I get such a kick out of these incidents. It is a much smaller world than we think.
On July 18 we went to Halifax. For real this time. We arrived at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in the early afternoon and found it to be very pleasant.
I exploded with happines.