Captain's note

This was an incredible 2100 nautical mile journey. The landscapes diverse in every province, the seascapes ever changing from lakes to rivers, fresh water to salt, from still to tidal ebbs and flows and the amazing sea life along the way. Living 3 months on a small boat was easier than you may think, and time flies by when you are having fun. 

 We met lots of wonderful people along the way, who were helpfull with local knowledge and offering us rides, cars and bikes when we needed them.  I will try to keep in touch with many of them. 

It is allways the crew that makes or breaks a trip. I had the best from the beginning to the end. Keith, Darrell, Joann, Andrew and Bozidar, all knowledgable sailors, good cooks, and fun to be with, who could ask for more...... Thanks so much...... I could never have done it with out you.

Special thanks to Joann for her support and putting up with my obsession. 

Thanks

Doug 

Shediac and Home

Once in Shediac we called Jackie at Romeo's Marine and the haul out logistics fell into order. We used the day to clean the sails, lines, inside and outside of th boat, and get the sails off and the boom down. The winterizing of the water systems was completed. Daniel, the crane operator, stops by as he came to check on his sailboat and we set things up for the morning.  He was on the dock by 8 am and the mast was down by 9:00 and the slings were on the boat ready to hoist it to the trailer. Jacques showed up a few minutes later and the boat was on its way the Romeo's. Just like that! More cleaning, followed by more cleaning. We meet our my neighbour at Romeo's and he, "Garland" lent us his car to take a load to the post office and our stuff to the bed and breakfast and prebooked a taxi to take us to the Moncton airport at 5:30 am. With every thing done and the cockpit tarped to keep the snow out we headed downtown for some of La Costa's famous Shediac lobster poutine and our last blueberry beer. 

Summerside to Shediac

Let's go sailing. Testing the waters we motored out of the channel, " Yeah! Gusting to 25 knots, waves under 3 feet, so we set a double reef in the main and furl the genoa to 80%". We have 13 miles of wave protection from the north, all good. As we got to the 10 mile mark the waves stared to criss-cross for the next 3 miles, than the fetch stretched out to Gaspe Bay and the rollers rolled in. Much nicer. Made great time going across the Northhumberland Strait until we discovered that the drifting sand bar on the final approach to Shediac did not follow the charts and we park Summer Wine on top. We tried tipping the boat using an anchor tided to the spinniker halyard, but no luck due to the wing keel. We checked the tide tables and found we run aground at low tide and the high tide was 6 hours away. So we cooked dinner played 3 games of crib, did dishes, swore a bit and drove off at 11:30 p.m. with no problems.  During this time we did notify the coast guard when our first attempts failed and told them we may need their assistance in case we are unable to free the boat before the next high tide. Notifying them makes their job easier if they have the heads up. (once again a Sea at Sae course tip.)

Made it into Shediac Yacht Club in pitch black night with no issues. It was no surprise to the Shediac sailors that we found that bar, as most of them have found it too.

Summerside Chores

Since we are on a layover day Bozinar made a cinnamon bread for breafast. Having seen local sites last time here,  we were able to take advantage of the nice day to do a few chores in perp for winterizing later this week.  We scrubbed and rinsed the salt off the spinnaker gear, our spare anchor and rode, jack lines, painted the propane tanks, bought antifreeze, washed sleeping bags and sheets, picked up some bread and two lovely lobsters for dinner. Tomorrow it's sail to Shediac in North 18-25 on a beam reach, and we expect all will go well.