Day 38, July 25 -- Maskells Harbor to the Crammond Islands -- 22 NM

It rained all morning with a forecast for clearing in the afternoon so we left at 11:30 and sailed, with the wind behind us, almost all of the way, under reefed main and headsail, except when raising and lowering the main and while passing the bridge.

There we furled the jib and hauled the main amidships to depower it and used the engine to have better control. We departed from the planned course so as to keep the wind about 140 degrees from the bow, on starboard until near the south coast of the south lake before jibing for the north entrance to the anchorage. Bennett enjoying a day of sailing.

The Crammonds are two islands, lying next to each other in a NS orientation in the western end of the southern lake. We did not follow the iNavix chartplotter closely enough and touched bottom on the way in sliding across the shallow spot. This was not the fault of the plotter but of the driver. We anchored with eighty feet of snubbed chain in 25 feet of water in the favored south east corner at about 3:45. About an hour later a second boat came in and anchored, it seemed, in the northwest corner. It looked like a Beneteau and was Canadian flagged.

Half an hour later we dinked over to say hello to the new neighbors, Bennett being a fellow Beneteau owner. It was Jim and Paula from the Armdale YC in Halifax aboard "Mairin." As soon as we got close Jim said "We are aground!" I asked if he had an anchor with a line rode, rather than chain, and he did. We took it and 100 feet of line in our dink, drove to various degrees off the port bow, and dropped it. But the first two tries failed: the anchor did not set and the windlass pulled the anchor to the boat instead of of pulling the boat to the anchor. We suggested setting a sail to heel the boat and they put out the main but while it heeled the boat, it was not far enough to break the bond between the keel and the bottom. When Jim gunned the engine, the boat pivoted a bit left and right but was still stuck. Bennett went aboard to help. The third time, between windlass and engine, Mairin got off. Bennett stayed aboard and I drove Lene back to to ILENE because she was cold and to start dinner,
In the morning the Mairin people dinked over to thank us with a bottle of wine and their information.

We chatted a while, they toured ILENE, and then Bennett and I followed them to the nearby sandy beach for a swim.

They followed us out of the anchorage, closely and uneventfully.
They felt foolish and I told them that we had kedged off in Malagawatch Harbor about a week before. I also told them of the time when a claming boat dragged us off the sand in the Chesapeake back in 2006. Knowing from our hailing port, New York City, that our wakes would likely never cross again, the clammer said: "You'll do the same for me next time." It is called "Paying it forward." The fact that sailors take such pleasure in being able to help each other is one of the aspects of sailing that makes me so pleased and proud to be a member of the sailing community.