28 Aug 15

After last night’s torrential rain-fall, we awoke to sunshine, light NW winds and everything above deck soaked and clean. We wanted to lock through at the same time as “Yankee Lady”, so we left the dock at 08:00; “Daybreak”, out of Mahone Bay, was also with us in the lock. “Yankee Lady” and “Daybreak” were both planning to shoot straight through to Halifax. After we cleared the lock, the wind was favorable - W10 - 15, so we hoisted all plain sail and had a great sail west of Ile Madame, across Chedabucto Bay and into Canso Harbour. On the north side of Chedabucto Bay, we were visited by a large pod of dolphins (Atlantic?). It was still only just noon, so we decided to press on to Yankee Cove, there being not too much going on in Canso. Once we passed through the channel between Andrews Island and the NS mainland (where we encountered countless seals, many of whom expressed their displeasure at our interruption) and pushed out into the broad Atlantic, the SE swell left over from the last few days mixed with wind waves from the WSW (i.e., right on the nose, of course) to make a rather unpleasant couple of hours. We thought briefly about pushing on to Harbour Island anchorage, “only” another 20 miles, but after 2 hours of pounding, decided that Yankee Cove was a better idea. We crept into the anchorage, keeping an eagle eye out for slightly submerged rocks and had the hook down by 15:00. We heard “Yankee Lady” and “Daybreak” on the radio, just after we got the hook down, planning to call it quits at Fishermans Cove, about 20 miles beyond us. Hardly surprising, as “Yankee Lady”’s four young girls, aged 5 to 13-ish, looked like they might not enjoy 26 straight hours of bashing to windward. Pushing on to Yankee Cove puts us one day ahead of our schedule into Halifax; ETA is now 6 Sep. Not a cloud in the sky for the first time in weeks and the mosquitos are not too hungry - finally, an opportunity for some serious star-gazing. Except for the fact that the moon is as bright as a reading light, so we can hardly see a star.

http://youtu.be/lMwX9O2YjM4

45-13.950’N, 061-09.633’W