Southwest Harbor to Shelburne

Hi everyone,

On Wednesday morning we departed the US towards Canada.  The forecast was for S-SW winds varying from 6G10 to 20G30.  Overnight we'd have a nearly full moon.  It would be a 170nm passage to Shelburne in Nova Scotia.

Rugged Up!

Here are the usual plots...

Track

Arrival

Graphs

Departure from Southwest Harbor was simple with no fog and a light breeze.  The breeze filled in as we cleared the lee of the nearby islands.  Most of the passage was under a blue sky.  The night sky was dominated by the bright moon.

We had a nice reach SE towards our waypoint off Seal Island.  Tidal currents of up to 2 knots played an important role  What would have been a beam reach became a close reach as we held high to stay on our route.  We then had positive current rounding Seal Island but by the time we passed Cape Sable it was against us again.

Last sunset in the USA

Goodbye to Mt Desert Island

Close reaching SE before sunset

We rounded Seal Island in the dark amongst quite a few fishing vessels.  Some were on AIS, and they appeared to associated with pairs of AIS buoys.  One Vietnamese vessel had over a dozen AIS buoys nearby.  Other fishing vessels weren't using AIS.  We stayed well clear of them all!

The most wind we had was 18G25.  Sail varied from full down to 2 reefs and 3 furls.  Zen Again loved it and we enjoyed the ride.

Reaching SE at dawn

Passing Cape Sable we noticed the sea temperature had dropped to 7C.  That's pretty chilly!  In Maine it was around 14C.  As we closed the coast the temperature went back up to 14C.  At Shelburne it is 17C due to the rivers flowing into the channel and the current heatwave inland.

We had a great sail up the channel towards Shelburne past several large fish farms.  We motored the last couple of miles while handing the sails and preparing to anchor.

Canada Ho!

Passing Sandy Point on the channel N to Shelburne

On arrival we anchored off the town then called Canada Border Services.  They informed us we needed to call them with the boat moored at Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club.  So we weighed anchor (it's still heavy) and docked at SHYC, where happily there was a free spot alongside.

We called Border Services and after providing all our details we were told 'Welcome to Canada' and no inspection would be required.  Excellent!  Down came the Q flag.  We went up to the club and had burgers and beer put on for their Thursday Twilight event.  Lots of friendly folks.

Alongside at Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club for clearance

Back on the boat and settling in for the evening we were instructed we had to move immediately.  Apparently another boat had just booked 'our' spot.  We'd erroneously presumed we had the spot for the night.   We needed their workboat to haul us off the dock since we were pinned against it by the wind.  Once off we anchored just as light was dying.  The drama saved us the overnight dock fee.

Anchored off Shelburne

Today we've started to explore Shelburne.  We arranged to use SHYC's dinghy dock and amenities for C$15/night plus a little more for showers and laundry.  Found two pubs and a good supermarket within walking distance.  It's a pretty town.

Sampling Boxing Rock's fine products

Shelburne's clearly a friendly place.  Looking forward to exploring more over the next few days.

Trust all's well where you are.