New England and Atlantic

[ishtar]

Louise and I met up with a couple of experienced sailors in Milford last week. One of them boat a boat in the US and sailed it back, the other boat a boat in Thailand and sailed it to the med.

This is the story of one of them. Let me know if you like it, and I'll try and post similar items. I know they are not club members, but you may enjoy reading.

I bought 'Chelone' in Rockland, Maine. She had deck issues so I had to remove the old teak deck before employing 'teak deck systems' of Florida to replace with the most modern teak deck available anywhere In the world today. I was in Rockland from 2nd April last year until sailing off with some friends at the end of June. We sailed thru the nearby Cranberry Islands, also Bar Harbour and Soame's Sound, all in the staggeringly beautiful Acadia National Park (Maine, USA).





Next we sailed across the Bay of Fundy (2nd biggest tidal range in the world) to arrive in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canadian people as frienly as the Americans, truly wonderful people, we got snagged up there enjoying the whole experience and finding our female crewmember, Laurel.



When we eventually left Halifax, on recommendation we visited the Cape Breton area of northern Nova Scotia and in particular, the Bras D'or Lakes, again, stunning, with eagles, Ospreys, Sea otters etc.





We were advised that on leaving the coast on our passage north we would meet a 'wall of fog' how right they were, checkout the pic! Thank God for radar!!



So we crossed the Sea of Alexander from Nova Scotia to the small island chain of St.Pierre et Michelon, shrouded in dense fog this French colony (complete with euro currency) was typical of an isolated island community, kinda quirky place but didn't have the sparkle of other stops.




From there it was onward around the coast of Newfoundland to run the gauntlet of the ice field and on to our next, and penultimate port, St.Johns.







Iceberg encounters under our belt, we arrived in St. Johns where we hung out for nearly a week looking at internet weather forecasts for our 'window' and the opportunity for the final push across the pond.

As I think I told you, we were again befriended by a local and advised to move about half a mile up the coast to....Quidi Vidi, a tiny but pretty harbour, complete with brewery and Dave Fong, the HC nut! Stayed there a few days, victualling, bunkering and again enjoying the local hospitality.





We took 13 days to make a landfall at Kinsale, Ireland. I have posted a link below to a short video clip I posted on youtube, typical scene onboard bar the absense of the crew who were sleeping....


www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxNaOUoS0Ts

[allan]

Great Martin, I for one love to read thing like this. Not sure I would fancy sailing in such cold conditions but "13 days to Kinsale" seem a short way to cross the pond.
I assume there are no thrushes on Cranberry Island (ask Louise!).
So the bay of Fundy has the second highest tide in the world? When I sailed in Granville, Normandy, I was told that was the second highest tide in the world! So can someone tell me, where is the second highest and where is the highest? My understanding was 1. Bay of Fundy, 2. Bristol channel, 3. Normandy.
Allan

[Deleted]

Not a straight answer it would appear. This list from the NOAA seems to be the most authoritative:

co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/faq2.html#26

[ishtar]

An update on this, and I've passed this on to Brian and Sue, of Blue Bear as well, as they set off for their own crossing. John set off from Neyland last Autumn and crossed te Atlantic in Dec/Jan.

Chelone is a 38ft Hans Christian that John, who runs a fishing business in Tenby, bought in New England and sailed back to Wales. He's currently in the Caribbean, and there is an account of the crossing and some pictures in the link below, for anyone interested.

He's just posted a video taken on the crossing:



And, just to give you some idea why you might want to do that, here's a couple of pictures of 'Chelone' last week:





John's blog is here if you want to read it:
(Start at the bottom)
blog.mailasail.com/chelone