Crossing the Gulf of Maine to Nova Scotia, Canada

Leaving Somes Sound on the 21st June, we motored out into the Gulf of Maine and began the crossing to Nova Scotia.
Light winds of 10 knots enabled us to sail most of the way to the southern most tip at Cape Sable, at
approximately 155 Nm Cape Sable would take in our first overnight passage.
All went well, we decided on 2 hour watch's, starting at 22:00.
During Dings watch we passed between 2 small islands sometime around 02:00 hours, all systems were functioning fine, until he realised the islands were not showing up on the radar, a brand new HD colour system by Raymarine.
This was not good, thick fogs are quite common on the East coast and the radar is vital for locating land and other vessels, particularly fishing boats.....................plus i hate fog !!!!! :-(

As the night progressed the wind dropped to virtually nothing and we stowed the sails.








Looking back towards Mount Desert Island

Cape Sable lighthouse

 Running up the East coast of Nova Scotia, we had some brilliant cloud formations out to sea.

..................and along the coast

Steve and Ding preparing to raise the Canadian courtesy flag and the yellow Q flag (Quarantine flag, it informs the port authority / customs officials that all on board are free of disease etc). Trish supervising .......ha ha ha

 from Cape Sable to Port Mouton took us about 40 Nm up the coast, making the entire trip overnight to 195Nm......a good days sailing. We motored into Port Mouton and dropped the anchor, what a beautiful spot.
Only one problem, we could'nt go ashore, as we had'nt checked in with Canadian customs ( the nearest customs are in Lunenburg).....such a shame, the beach was stunning.

Leaving the USA

The day has arrived, 18th June 2014.
The expedition is officially underway.
We set sail from Camden today and headed for Winter Harbour, not a great distance from Camden, just a nice little run to get us into it.

On the way out of Winter Harbour , next morning

Next day onto Mount Desert Island (MDI), via Stonington.

Stonington village

A schooner getting under way in the channel opposite Stonington harbour

Bass harbour head lighthouse (MDI)

One of the smaller pads on the way up Somes Sound (MDI).........all empty i might add. They are all the same, only inhabited in the Summer months............July to September.
Somes Sound is the largest fjord on the Eastern seaboard of the USA, sorry, but have to say, a very poor relation to the Norwegian or New Zealand examples...........i thought everything was bigger in the USA....!!!!!! :-)

and another

Sunset over Somesville Harbour

Next day the 20th June we went to Bay Harbour (DOH, forgot my camera) to check out with the US customs. luckily a cruise ship was in port and the customs officials were in abundance. It transpired none of them had ever checked out a yacht going to the Arctic before, so they were all very interested and promised they would watch us on the Novara blog.
Cool dudes, sailing out of the USA is great.................... unlike flying into the USA..............with it's endless queues.......aaaahhhhhhh.

Thanks Camden

During our stay in Camden over the last few months i have met some brilliant new friends and been amazed at peoples generosity.
I could mention numerous people, however, the following stand out, although they are new friends to me they will certainly be life long one's..............
Bill & Johanna Strassberg,  have without question been the most generous, open, friendly people i have met. Originally friends of Steve & Trish Brown, they opened their house to Steve, Terje and i in April for an entire month, despite the fact they were away on their boat in Florida. They have captured my heart and i will be endebted to them  for their kindness.
Doug & Dale Bruce, this husband and wife team are just amazing, they have sailed their boat "Bluewater" for 20 years or more in and around Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador. The definitive Sailing Directions (Pilots) for all these areas were written by Doug & Dale, which highlights their knowledge of this region.
As i said an amazing, inspiring couple.
All the employees of Wayfarer Marine......... i may miss one or two, but here goes........Susan, Simon, John, Billy Snr , Billy Jnr, Mike, Mike, Jess, Scott, Lewis, Aldan, Junior, Mark, Laura, West, Karma, Nancy, Doug. They have made all the team from "Novara" so welcome and worked so hard to get us ready for the trip, they have just been terrific, great ambassadors for their company.
All the Camden residents, who on the the whole have made our stay extremely pleasant & enjoyable. The staff of "Camden Deli" and staff of "Cappy's" Restaurant and bar............such good fun and excellent food & beer !!!!!!
Maine, what a superb place....................

Big red

The last big purchase by Steve before i leave was his new pride and joy (Big Red)..........a 12 foot inflatable RIB with 20 HP Honda outboard..........and here he is on the test run down Camden harbour.

Later that day Bill (Strassberg) came over to pick Steve up on "Visions of Johanna", his 60 ' boat. He has a mooring in front of his house in Northport and it is easier to pick up the bouy with 2 people, so off they went......

June 1st, off to Portland to catch a flight back to the UK.
First week in Manchester with Bryn & Nic, then onto Greifensee to stay with Gemma , Urs and the twins.
Bus ticket from Concord Coach Company procurred and i'm off to Portland.
A reasonably uneventful journey apart from the driver spending half of his time looking down and reaching for his cold coffee, peanuts, amend his Satnav and invariably ending up in the roadside ditch.
Convinced he could find better routes than his normal "Highway 1", according to him the road gets so busy in the summer, he has to find alternative routes.......... i wonder if his boss know's that ???? :-).
Plus.....plus......plus he frightened the life out of me , as i was on the front seat !!!!!