Days 8 & 9, June 25 & 26 -- Nantucket to Nova Scotia -- 272 NM

As promised by Chris Parker, we had perfect weather for our passage. That is: there was no rain and no headwinds. But we also had very little usable wind. It was mostly behind us on our port quarter, and large ocean rollers, three feet to eight feet in height at various stages, coming at our starboard quarter rocked the boat back and forth "shaking" what wind there was out of our sails.

From red buoy 2 to the buoy at Brazil rock was 222 miles on a course of 073 degrees magnetic. To achieve our average speed of seven knots so as to arrive before dark, we had to motor almost the whole way. That, combined with my own stupidity, discussed later in this posting, caused the anxiety that made the trip less than a pure joy.

272 NM in 39.83 hours means we averaged 6.83 knots (but the time includes a one hour stop).

But let's begin at the beginning, at 4:20 AM, in the predawn, when only sailors and fishermen (standing on the bow of his boat to the left) are awake in the predawn light. This picture also shows how many of Nantucket's moorings were vacant at this early point in the season.
We cast off at 4:40 and  enjoyed favorable tide and speeds of more than eight knots the first three hours out of Nantucket, at the sunrise shortly after five AM,

past Great Point Light at the NE corner of Nantucket,

and through Great Round Shoal Channel to buoy Red 2 -- the last Nantucket object. Of course, over a two day voyage we would experience several such favorable tides (and several unfavorable ones as well). As luck would have it we had favorable tide at both the exit from Nantucket and for the entrance into N.S.

Q: What did we see and when did we see  it? A: Not much.  1) A large container ship, probably bound for Boston in the shipping lanes, crossed our bow, five miles ahead of us, early Sunday morning. 2) A few hours later, a school or pod of dolphins decided to play with us. I missed their announcement of their presence -- an in-air summersault by one of them, Sea World style. But I do have some video and if Lene edits it, I will add it here. 3) A sunset.

4) At 11 pm, during my nap, Lene awakened me when she saw lights. I'd rather have such an awakening than experience what the Captain of the US destroyer that got whacked by the Chinese freighter a week or so ago experienced.  It was five lights of varying degrees of brightness spread out in what seemed to be a line across our bows. They did not respond to my radio call and did not appear on radar. We never saw the boats but they had bright working lights which obscured their red and green navigation lights. I concluded that they were fishing boats, going in our general direction, though a bit slower than us. It took several hours for us to clear them. 5) A sunrise.

6) We passed a sand bar. But wait! No sandbars pop up in 300 feet of water. It was white, maybe 30 feet long, maybe an overturned boat -- maybe folks hanging on needing rescue. So we turned to close it. But it was beyond hope -- a dead whale. We called the Canadian Coast Guard to report its position so mariners passing at night could avoid such a hazard to navigation. 7) About ten miles from the N.S. coast we passed through a band of fishing vessels, none of them close to us. 8). The coastline appeared and the light on Cape Sable.

We dressed very warmly at night- multiple layers, and while it was cold, it was not so bitterly cold as I had feared.

My own stupidity? We ran out of diesel fuel and the engine stopped! If (A) either Ilene or I had remembered to fill the five gallon jerry can with diesel when we topped off in Nantucket, or (B) there had been enough wind for us to have sailed for two hours, or (C) I had fixed the starboard fill fuel tank which has been contaminated by a bit of water since Christmas 2014 so we could have switched to that tank, then this would not have happened. It happened when we were about 27 miles from our destination. What to do? There was very little wind and calm seas so I put us on a course, away from hazards, parallel to the shore, so that I could do what had to be done with auto pilot steering and no risk of going on the rocks while I was not focused on navigation. I siphoned about 20 large 48 fluid ounce juice bottles of good fuel from the contaminated tank through the hose that brings fuel to the fuel filter on its way to the engine. I did this by disconnecting that hose from the fuel filter and inserting a hand pump. Ed Spallina had taught me how to do this earlier this year. Lene poured the bottles, one at a time, through a funnel into the good fuel tank. I reconnected the fuel hose, bled the air out and voila, we were back in business, motoring to our destination. Then it was time to clean up the mess. We lost about an hour due to this fiasco and motor sailed past Roseway Light on McNutt Island, guardian of Shelburne Harbor, claimed to the third largest in the world!

We took a mooring at the Shelburne Harbor Yacht Club, and ate the rest of the sausages, onions and peppers that Lene had prepared in Nantucket. We cleared into Canada in a telephone call to Customs and Immigration. The easiest clearance we have experienced and no fee charged. We were given a clearance number in case we are asked about it later, flew the Canadian flag at the yardarm, and slept for ten hours.
We've made it to NS! It looks a lot like Maine.