Day 3 - June 20 -- Lay Day in Block Island -- Zero NM

With wind like yesterday and fog, the Admiral elected to have a lay day. And it was truly that-- we lay about all day, did not get off the boat and I did not even do any of the many chores that are always available to keep me busy. The fog cleared around midday and the racers set out to have their race, but we stayed put. We ate, read, played games and I guess one could say I did something useful in planning future passages, tomorrow to Menemsha at the western end of Martha's Vineyard and the next day to Nantucket. The latter of these involves a strong tidal flow through Vineyard Sound and we did the tides and figured out that it is best to leave at daybreak.

We discovered that I had left the Nova Scotia cruising guides at home and printed up a prepaid FedEx shipping label and asked AJ to send them to us c/o the Nantucket Harbormaster. Thanks, AJ!

The other passage plan is the very long leg from Nantucket to Shelburne, Nova Scotia. We had planned to leave at daybreak of the first day of this passage and arrive before dark the next day, about 39 hours later.  But based on the distance I plotted out, we will have to make 7 knots, on average, over the entire passage to get there before dark. We can frequently make much higher speeds than that, but what if there is no wind, or it is in our faces?  So a plan B is needed in case things slow down. We can either put into a cove on N.S. that is nearer than Shelburne, or keep going until the next daybreak, for another ten hours, to a port further up the island's Atlantic coast. We are also planning to contact Chris Parker, a professional weather planner to get advice as to which days to make this long passage.

I've been running hard to get the boat ready and the two long days of sailing prior to today made a day of rest  appropriate.