Trip Summary:
• Liscombe Lodge to Beaver Harbour
• Trip Distance of 38 NM, Total Distance, 215.9 NM
• Departed at 0800 hours, arrived at 1730 hours
Crew Log for August 20, 2022
We had a very quiet night on the dock at Liscombe Lodge. We really enjoyed our stay here and are feeling rested and ready to move on. Our planned destination today was Beaver Harbour (Port Dufferin) and it would be our first night on anchor since leaving a week ago.
Woke early and chatted with the Skipper of a power cat, mv Joint Destinations about our respective plans for the day and beyond. They were on the final few months of their Eastern Loop that had them motor from Boston, up the Hudson River, down the St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait. Like us, they were headed down the Nova Scotia coast and into Maine before heading home to Boston, sometime in early October.
Their boat was really high, so the swell in the Atlantic was proving to be a challenge for them. This did cause me to reflect on the virtues of older boat designs that had lower freeboard. While big modern boats with high freeboard provide a lot of interior living space, their added height would sure make for an uncomfortable passage where there is any side swell.
After filling our water and diesel tanks, we departed Liscombe Lodge at 0800 hours. It was sunny and warm, and the winds were forecasted to be 10 - 12 knots from the south west.
We are quickly learning that our planned route is subject to some amount of scrutiny by our fellow sailors following our track on the Spot Tracker (Where is Elizabeth M?). Several times we've gotten notices asking if we were ever going to jibe, or why are we on that line. Today was no exception.
We made a long tack 10-12 miles offshore and then tacked towards Beaver Harbour, our planned Anchorage. We did this for a few reasons. First, while the swell had flattened out considerably, a more direct route would have us beating right into it. Secondly, there were a lot of rocky shoals between Liscombe and Beaver Harbour, and so we opted to sail out into the shipping lane to avoid having to navigate through them. However, perhaps the most significant decision to sail off shore was, it was a beautiful sail boat day and we were really enjoying the trip. There was one other boat was with us for a bit, but the they tacked about an hour and a half before us and put in somewhere Quoddy Harbour, judging from their line.
About 7 miles off the coast we had a Nuthatch visit us. As the resident naturalist on board pointed out, this little fellow was not a water bird, so he was a long way from home. He sat on the stern rail for a bit and made a trip inside the boat, before flying off. He didn't say where he was headed and we haven't heard from him since. The only other moment of significant note, was when we thought we lost steerage, 8 - 10 miles offshore.
I have been experimenting with the "windvane" mode on the autopilot. On long passages, we can tell the autopilot to maintain the same direction relative to the wind. That way, if the wind direction changes slightly, the boat will automatically adjust it's course, eliminating the need to constantly adjust the sails. I had it set too precise, a greedy fault from our racing days. The boat suddenly stopped, dead in the water and the auto pilot went haywire. After a brief moment of "holy crap" we assessed the situation, reset our course (more modestly) and continued on. All was well.
We arrived in Beaver Harbour at 1730 hours, sailing directly into the harbour after making a single tack over the entire 38 NM trip. We had originally planned to anchor in Horses Head Harbour but couldn't get a good anchor hold so we opted to anchor behind MacLeod's Island, a very protected anchorage with excellent holding.
After supper Alan went swimming and Judy caught 2 mackerel. The anchorage was very quiet and comfortable. There was one other boat there for the evening about 0.5 mile away from us on the other side of the anchorage.
We had an early night and were looking forward to seeing our trip mentors and very good friends in Tangier the following day.
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