Day 40, July 27 -- Eskasoni to Johnstown Harbor -- 18 NM

Well this morning was sunny and spent it on the Cultural Journey; we did not get underway until the early afternoon.  There were two bits of excitement during the passage.
The first was departing the dock. I released three of the lines and Bennett held us on with only the stern line as the wind was from our bow and slightly pushing us from the port side, onto the dock. I sat on the dock and pushed with my feet to direct the bow away from the dock. The only problem was that I waited a quarter of a second too long to jump up and jump on. Bennett later pointed out, correctly, that I'm not as young as i used to be. In any event, the boat was now fully detached from land and I was ashore! Lene reversed to stop our forward motion and let the wind push the boat back toward the dock until I could push off again and jump aboard, but I almost fell off backwards in jumping to the boat and Bennett saved me. Scary thankfully but neither boat nor man was scratched.
We threaded our way out through the islands by following our track in and then confronted winds of 25 to 30 knots from the direction we wanted to go and cold grey weather, the worst weather we have had in the Lakes, including seas of more than three feet. From the western end of the West Bay to Eskasoni in the East Bay the wind had 30 plus miles to build up the seas. We put up the reefed main and small jib and started tacking. But with that much wind and waves all pushing us back, though our tacking headings were 90 degrees apart, our course over ground tracks showed a much more compressed accordion pattern.
Then came the second of today's excitements. I looked back. "Its gone!" Our dinghy was not attached. We had to go back and try to find it. I thought of calling the Coast Guard, but first we turned back to look. I also dreaded calling my insurance company. With the wind as rough as it was, we should have hoisted the dink on its davit bar. And I should have done a better job of attaching it to its cleat. Five minutes later I spotted it, floating away with the wind. Lucky it is a RIB with a rather deep "V" planing keel, which, when sideways to the wind, slowed its progress down wind. We sailed back to her and then doused sails and used the engine to maneuver close to and downwind of her. I grabbed the dink from the top with the boat hook, which Bennett took and held while I used the other boat hook to grab the painter from under her bow, which I more carefully reattached to its cleat.  All three of us were warmed by such an immense feeling of relief and gratitude to whatever higher power is looking out for us.
After she was all tied up and we motored directly to the waypoint off Johnstown Harbor, which was literally directly into the wind. With the tacking and the detour we went a lot further than the nominal 18 miles. A long, slow, cold, grey, boring, motor passage with a rather easy entrance, with iNavix. The first anchorage, just to starboard after entry, but it was off a lee shore so we motored another .7 miles deeper into the harbor.
We anchored in fifteen feet of water under a windward shore with 60 feet of snubbed chain. We enjoyed one of the best meals of the cruise. I made a cocktail sauce and a mustard sauce and Bennett cracked all of the crab claws and we sucked down with pleasure all of sweet succulent meat of the many
 claws which had defrosted, as the bulk of our dinner. The wind was vastly diminished in the harbor, the waves nonexistent, and the predicted rain did not materialize. in the morning a beautiful place all around.