July 30 & 31 — Days 22 & 23 — St. Andrew’s to Scotch Bay off the Letang River to Chance Harbor — 15 and 26 NM

 Our first route took us through Letete Passage, from Passamaquoddy Bay to the Bay of Fundy. As is often the case up here, tide was determinative, or at least influential. The tide runs faster than normal in the Passage (due to the huge volume of water associated with 15 or 20 foot tidal heights. The Cruising Guide warned against being there when the tide is running fast - the middle two of the six hour tide cycle. We planned to leave at 10, but the stiffness (otherwise desirable) of ILENE’s  new mainsail made it difficult to put a reef in the main at the tack, so we got underway at 10:30, half an hour late. My mate was a bundle of nerves over this but in the event, we has a gentle favorable tide, and with a Route of waypoints I had put in, it was like following the breadcrumbs, easy.  Then it was easy sailing at four knots under only the reefed main, a pleasure, even with adverse tide. We had only 14 miles to go, total, and half of them were done after we exited the Passage. 

The difficulty arose in going through the gap between Hills Is. to the NE and Letang Head on the mainland. It reminded me of the wide enough gap heading for St. John’s from the BVIs. We saw the big ferry to Grand Manan coming out but then confronted trying to tack against a strong current with only a reefed main and wind cut off by headlands. Back and forth at very acute angles of COG. So we gave up and let Mr. Diesel do the job. 

The forecast called for SW winds at night and the Letang River runs up toward the NE so we sought a better alternative. To port, as we were passing Scotch Bay, the a river starting at the bottom and bending to the right past the top,  it looked to present shelter from SW winds under its headlands and depths of nine to ten feet.

The good, detailed Cruising Guide does not mention Scotch Bay, however, which was a cause for concern. I elected to go in, about a mile short of where we had planned to go (and again, one less mile when exiting next day. We anchored in 25 feet of water with 90 feet of snubbed chain out near where I put the red smudge. At low we were in 12 feet. Several submerged reefs noted on the chart but not marked by buoys, that we avoided showed their ugly heads at low, like this one at the left end of the fish weir shown here.

No internet here. There were two houses overlooking this huge bay and we are the only boat.

But a highway runs nearby so the sound of “civilization” was not far away when the wind piped down, though the internet was totally unavailable. This was a day of isolation. 

In the afternoon Lene picked out which places we will want to visit in the St. John River. I also realized how hard it will be to navigate without paper charts through rivers that are not familiar. The electronic charts show the waters but not the names of the anchorages we seek. But I have figured out how to get to our first stop in the river and the marina there says it sells river charts. I also rewhipped the ends of two lines that had lost their protective caps and darned one of the fraying holes in the dodger’s forward edge. The other such hole will be more difficult.

Morning in Scotch Bay was crisp, cool and CALM as a mirror in prior photo. We got underway at 7:10 in the hope of catching favorable tides flowing toward St. John. This pretty as a postcard fishing boat came out through that cut with us.

We did not put up any sails at all.  Five hours later, entering Chance Harbor we were undecided where to anchor and ended up behind the seawall near a dock with  fishing boats tied breasted out in pairs along the dock. The cruising guide said we could tie up to such boats but without a personal invitation to do so and fearing we might have an early morning problem when they set out to sea, we anchored nearby. I had lowered the dink to go ashore to perhaps find someone to talk with when a car drove out on the dock and I had a yelled conversation with a stranger. Fishing season is closed until November he told me and we were safe where we were, or could tie up to a fishing boat. He offered to take us for a ride for groceries but we needed none. We rigged fenders and lines, hauled the anchor and selected to tie up to the fishing boat with the easiest access in terms of equal height to our decks. The only problem with the tie up was the absence of cleats on the fishing boat to tie unto. She had loops and eventually we got tied up and then kept the adventurous felines from jumping ship.

Crossing the broad aft decks of both our neighbors, took a walk around to the other side of the harbor. There we met Bevin and Joe and their five kids. They invited us to cross their property to the beach and we invited them for a tour of ILENE.

 Back at the boat Everett and his wife Kim came by. I offered them a beer which he took. Luckily she declined, because I learned that we had only that one I gave away left. He accepted my invitation to tour ILENE and I toured a fishing boat and learned a lot about the various different uses to which they are put for scallops, lobsters, and halibut. This one is temporarily rigged for dragging for scallops.

Each of the first eight boats is owned by a cousin of his family. A pleasant social afternoon. Everett said he would be here tomorrow morning to help cast off our lines when we back away from the boats.

Bevin and her oldest daughter, Charlotte (going into eighth grade) came by and enjoyed a tour.  

Thus, accidentally, by chance, Chance Harbor was the most social place we have been.

A change as to the destination in the St. John River at the end of tomorrow’s big adventure over the falls. I had selected the St. John YC at Ketepec on the west side of the river rather than the Royal Kennebecasis YC on the east side. A poor choice because, as Ketepec explained, A) they no longer sell the river charts I crave but RKYC has a next door chandlery that does, B) they have only dockage no moorings or anchorage and C) their bay has silted in a bit making it shallow for our 5’ 10” draft. Especially with it being near full moon, the tidal depth could have been a problem for us.