23 Jun 16

We had a quiet, pleasant sleep in Dipper Harbour and woke to the alarm at 07:00, followed by breakfast al fresco in the cockpit. LW was at 08:30, so we started getting the anchor up about 08:10. It came up clean and easy and we departed Dipper Harbour a few minutes ahead of schedule. The flood current was not very strong, but we averaged about 7.5 knots for the first 2 hours. Ten miles out of Saint John, we were far enough ahead of schedule and the wind was fine (SW 12-15), so we sailed for nearly an hour on the final approach to the city. Just as we got to Partridge Island, we met the tide line where the flood was mashing into the outgoing river current, so there was a bit of turbulence, and the wind piped up to 20 kn, so we furled all the sails and motored in through the shipping lane into the heart of Saint John Harbour. The ebb/river current was still running strong, so our SOG dropped to about 5 kn. In the end, we did not have any time to loiter around Market Wharf, but just headed up the river to the turn just below the lower falls. When we arrived, their was still a lot of turbulence visible in both the lower and upper falls, and the current was running very strong, so we just drove around in circles in the eddy below the lower falls for about 10 minutes. Then, everything flattened out and the current dropped noticeably, so we went for it. There was still quite a bit of turbulence (upwellings and small whirlpools and eddies) and the current was as high 3.5 kn against us, but we got through both the lower and upper falls without much ado; another bucket list item survived and crossed off. Back in fresh water again, we headed on up the Saint John River to the Royal Kennebecassis Yacht Club, arriving about 14:00. First, we fueled up, then moved to our assigned berth. After showers, we went up to the clubhouse and partook of the Thursday night buffet. We ended up chatting the night away with the current and past commodores and a few other folks, and had a friendly drink on the fleet captain’s boat later; quite a good night and an excellent welcome to the RKYC.

45-18.322’N, 066-06.134’W

24 Jun 16

Slept like lambs last night. We were up relatively early, considering last night’s fun, and had breakfast and coffee watching a beautiful morning. About 09:30, we started trying to get going toward Saint John, but kept getting involved in conversations with various of our slip neighbors, so it nearly noon before we finally got started. We caught the bus into town, had lunch, roamed around town for a few hours, spent an hour in the NB Museum and had early cocktails at the Saint John Ale House on the boardwalk, where we listened to a bit of live music. The temptation of sunset fireworks was strong, but a chilly wind was blowing off the harbour and we were under-dressed, so we decided to head on back to the RKYC for dinner, arriving back at the boat about 18:30. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening, so we enjoyed another al fresco dinner in the cockpit and watched the sunset. While supper was being prepared, I prepared a rope fender for the dinghy based on something I saw on another wooden rowing dinghy. Earlier today, we finalized plans to go tomorrow to visit some Houston friends, who are originally from NB and have a summer cottage about an hour NE of Saint John.

25 Jun 16

Today is another absolutely gorgeous day: clear, calm and pleasantly cool - i.e., mid-70s. We rented a car early and, after checking out the Reversing Falls at LW (pretty dramatic, especially compared to what we experienced), we packed up our overnight bags and guitar and headed to Mechanics Lake to visit one of my tennis buddies from Houston - Pete and his lovely wife Kathy. We got to their place about 13:00 and after a quick lunch, loaded into Pete’s Jeep and headed to Fundy National Park. We visited Cape Enrage Lighthouse and Wolf Point (covered bridge and former site of a busy lumber mill), then stopped in Alma to pick up six 1.5 lb lobsters, which we took back to Pete’s place to boil up for dinner, which was delicious. After dinner, Pete and I unlimbered our guitars and proceeded to play every song we knew and serenade the residents of Mechanics Lake until well after midnight.

26 Jun 16

We slept like logs in the guest house and, after a scrumptious breakfast, loaded into the Jeep again and went for a long ride along logging roads to Martin Head, which has a huge pebble beach. As it was just about dead LW when we arrived, we had fun driving around the beach in the 4-wheel drive Jeep and eventually stopped for a picnic lunch on the beach to watch the tide rush in. With a 9.1 m tidal range today, at 2 - 4 hours after LW, the water level rises at about 7.5 ft/hr (or 1.5 inches/minute). With large expanses of relatively flat and level beaches exposed at LW, the tide covers a truly impressive area with each succeeding minute. If you are walking down on the flat parts at mid-tide, you have to pay very close attention to avoid being overwhelmed by the water rushing in; pretty cool. We got back to their place about 15:00 and then had to head back to Saint John to get in the groceries before heading up the river tomorrow. We have another 2 days, at least, of excellent weather ahead of us, so we want to make the most of it. Also, we need to get ourselves lined up to be some place cool (i.e., where they have a good fireworks display) on Canada Day, which is next Friday, 1 July. Back to the boat in time for a late happy hour and dinner aboard: salmon.