We stay 'only' a week in a fantastic sailing area where you can relax for months if not years and still see something new every time. The 10 mile long Cape Cod Canal connects the sailing area of the Long Island Sound (with islands like Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket) to the Boston-area and the entire coast of Maine with numerous islets. The sailing season starts around June 1st and the real season is in July and August. We take a tip of the veil but understand very well that Dave and Sally like to live here and in the summer months mainly sail.
Immediately upon arrival we are warmly welcomed by Dave and Sally at the dingy dock and taken to their house a few minutes walk with views of the bay. A beautiful old wooden house and an attractive large garden where small humming birds fly around. Dave and Sally are real sailors and have also sailed a lot with their three children (who are now in their 30s with young children of their own).
Dave helps us rent a car and in the afternoon we explore the southern part of Cape Cod. The whole island is very wooded and hilly with beautiful sandy beaches and dunes on the coast. It looks a bit like Vlieland, but much bigger. And sometimes it reminds us of the Holterberg but with electricity poles above the ground. A beautiful area, so far somewhat mysterious and mostly known from movies; great to be here yourself now. The first evening we have a drink and dinner with Dave and Sally and we have a lot of (sailing) stories to tell each other.
The second day is the sunniest day with a good temperature and we explore the National Park 'The Seashore' and the village of Chatham on the east side of Cape Cod. We eat a delicious lobster sandwich for lunch and read in the newspaper of the national park that those big animals we saw swimming the last day are 'great white sharks'. They are 4-6,5 meters long and mainly eat seals. At several places they warn you never to go swimming near seals. Now it attracts us so who so not to go swimming in water of 8 degrees 😉. We make a nice walk, stop at several places along the beach and near lighthouses and get a very good picture of this part of Cape Cod. Now still nice and quiet, in the summer months flooded with tourists.
The third day is a messy day. Eline and I go running and Dave goes with Toine on the boat to the tank pier further on in their harbour. In between all kinds of shallows handy to do this with local knowledge. A few days ago we ordered two large boxes of ministeck for the girls from Amazon and had them delivered to Dave. Just like 8 years ago a nice activity for the girls while sailing. The boxes have arrived and are eagerly received. In the afternoon Toine and I go shopping and the girls do some school (repeat physics VWO 5 together 👍). We are away all afternoon, a.o. to R&W Ropes, a fantastic big shop where they sell all kinds of lines and ropes. We need a new genoa-shot because on our way from Florida we damaged it with a broken pulley; we immediately buy two. We are home just in time to welcome Dave and Sally on the SeaQuest for drinks and food. We get a large bag of homemade 'chocolate chip cookies' for when we sail north. Again a great evening with lots of sailing stories.
The last day we drive by rental car the 1.5 hours to Boston. A beautiful city we walk in the morning and in the afternoon we explore with a trolley bus. Especially when it rains in the afternoon it is convenient to get on such a hop-on hop-off bus. This way we get a good impression of this sometimes un-American city. That was already on the list for a long time, my English teacher lived there for a long time and told a lot about it; also very nice to be here for a day. When we return the rental car late in the evening we can take an Uber taxi back to the boat. A fine and efficient day 😉.
After four days there is a nice weather window to continue. We leave at 7 o'clock for the sailing trip of 190 nm to Frenchboro in Maine. Nova Scotia is not sailable, that is why we make a stopover in Frenchboro, even though it is a bit of a change. We also heard from the Dutch that this is a beautiful and special place. The whole boat is covered in bright yellow powder that has come blowing off trees.
We motor for 1.5 hours through the Cape Cod canal under three high bridges with the first part of the current. At the end of the canal we suddenly end up in huge waves (current with us and wind in the pijpenla of the last part of the canal) and we struggle our way out together with two catamarans. Once at sea it gets a bit calmer and we sail north with reef 1 in large and genoa high on the wind. Until the middle of the night it is firm sailing, not so much because of the wind (bft 4), but because of the combination of high sailing and a messy sea with relatively high waves. A good test for the watertightness of the boat because there is regularly an enormous amount of water coming over the boat. The combination of how the dinghy is lying and the air barge in the forepart is not waterproof; the mattresses get wet. Also the deck window in the cabin leaks some drops of water. The anchor regularly raises a little because of the waves coming up against it. From now on we clean up the dinghy and secure the anchor with an extra line. Lubricating the rubber window frames with Vaseline will be on the job list.
Only after 0.00 the wind turns to the south-east and the sea flattens out. The whole night we can sail with half wind (bft 3-4) under a clear sky with many stars and the half moon. So there is not always fog here 😊. After 6 hours the wind picks up a bit and it is especially intensive sailing between all the thousands of lobster pots. Dave had already warned us about this. The whole coast of Maine is full of lobster pots. Regularly we have to swerve, but fortunately we have good visibility. We are glad when at half past 11 we are at a mooring in the small bay of Frenchboro. It wasn't a trip for wimps like Toine always says 😉. An hour later it starts to rain and blow harder. Good timing in a precisely fitting weather window!
Frenchboro is the only village on the island of Long Island (which by the way is not long but small and round) with about 60 households, a church, a library and a school with currently 4 school-age children. A hundred years ago there were still 300 inhabited islands in this region, now there are only 14, and then there were 75 school-age children here. The bay is beautiful with high rocky shores, full of fishing boats and wooden houses on the shore with piles of lobster pots on the jetties. The island is full of beautiful hiking trails through the forest and along the coast (about 18 km in total). A special place.
The guide states that free wifi is included in the rental of the mooring. Especially Marinthe is very happy with this and can't wait to go in the direction. Unfortunately The Deli (who rents the moorings) is closed and there is no one to be seen. What to do now?
It's cold and it's raining, but we're going to have a look in the village. There we finally call at a house. A nice woman opens the door and tells us that The Deli is closed until July 1st, but there is a library with free wifi and she gives us a map with the walking routes. The library is beautiful with a large collection of books and a few computers and wifi. And that for such a small village. Always open but not heated. The rest of the afternoon and the whole next day Marinthe spends in the library. She sits there with a blanket and a backpack with food and drinks, totally happy 😅. Eline sails up and down with the dinghy and also spends some hours there. Toine and I clean up the boat and I spin some laundry. It keeps raining, the heating is on and it is cozy inside the boat. The next day the three of us take a nice walk in the drizzle rain and the rest of the day Toine and I are back on the boat. The girls get to know a boy in the library who lives here, has just finished high school and regularly picks up lobsters with his boat, but also spends a lot of hours behind the computer in the library. What a different life. Nice to get some of that.
Then it's time to move on. The layer is over and there is a nice weather window with very little wind. Because of all the rain the boat is completely clean again and the yellow powder has disappeared 😉. We leave at half past 11 for the trip of 260 nm to Halifax in Nova Scotia. It is almost windless and the sea is flat. Even the sun shows itself once in a while. In these circumstances it is no problem to avoid the many lobster pots. We see several seals swimming, and another great white shark. At 6 pm we pass the border ... we leave the US and enter the waters of Canada. The last couple of months we have been worried about visa status and whether we could stay in the US for the whole period. Well, we did it!!!!
In the evening it opens completely and we see a beautiful setting sun. We motor into the night under a clear starry sky with lots of stars and in the early morning we round the southern tip of Nova Scotia. A notorious area with current fragments that can cause annoying tidal seas. Not in these conditions with almost no wind and at the time of turning and dead tide 👍. All night long we see a lot of fishing boats around us and every now and then we have to swerve for it. The sea temperature drops to 4.5 degrees and it is cold. It is great that we have a good heating system on board so we can keep it warm inside. We mainly do the guards inside from the screen (pointed screen for navigation and next to that radar) and occasionally look around outside. The girls sleep around the clock.
During the day we sail along the east coast of Nova Scotia the last 100 nm to Halifax. We make some appointments with the Dutch and they arrange a place for us in the marina. The sun is shining abundantly and we can sit outside. We set the clock one hour ahead (that is already 1 of the 6 hours 😉). In the afternoon the engine is switched off and we can sail the rest of the trip with wind from behind to the harbour entrance of Halifax. Around 1.00 am we are there and we motor the last part between all the buoys towards the marina with the help of navigation screen, radar, thermal camera (works very well) and our own visibility. At 3.30 am we are lying down and after a short phone call to the immigration we are also officially admitted to Canada!
We are in the marina where we went to look exactly 9 months ago with the expectation that the SeaQuest would arrive there. Special to be here with our own boat. That feels like quite a milestone again!