Days 43 and 44, July 30 and 31 -- Overnight From St Peters to Halifax -- 155 NM

Astute (or compulsive) readers may have compiled the mileage of the four shorter passages of our trip from Halifax to St. Peters, which added up to 182 NM. The return trip, even though we went five miles further up into Halifax, was considerably shorter because it omits the mileage for the ins and outs for the three ports along the way that we bypassed on the return trip.
We dropped our mooring in St. Peters at 8:00 a.m. -- when the canal lock workers report for work. We were second into the lock with a Bristol that was going home to Maine in front of us. My first, and only mishap of the two days was in underestimating the amount of time the lock workers took to tie up the Bristol. I should have waited outside the lock until they indicated that they were ready for us. But I had called and they had told me to hurry to catch the first boat so... Ilene says that most of my problems originate from trying to go too fast. Maybe she is right. In any event, I had to stop and with the current, the lock workers had ILENE's bow but her stern swung 180 degrees so we were backwards in the lock! The anchor took a tap against the concrete wall but no damage to either. After lowering us the two feet, the lock staff held our bow and stern lines and walked us slowly in reverse to the end of the canal, where we were able to swing our bow around and get into forward motion, at 8:45 a.m.
We breakfasted before we put up sails: reefed main and genoa. We sailed south across Chedabducto Bay with the light wind on our port quarter. I persuaded Ilene to take the reef out. Once we got to turn essentially west, just a bit south of west, we jibed and had the wind on our starboard side, on varying reaches the rest of the sailing time.At one point, for about fifteen minutes, we were making 8.3 knots until Lene asked me to change from the Genoa to the jib.

Sunset, ahead of us, at 8:37 p.m. I got off watch shortly after sunset and at about midnight the wind slowed so much that we were making only 1.5 knots. Lene woke me and I told her to douse sails and motor, which we did the rest of the way.

This monster, ablaze with white lights, overtook and passed us, about nine miles further off the coast than us at about 3 a.m.










Presunrise astern of us, at  5:04 a.m.

Later, at 5:37 a.m., this is an untouched view west, ahead of us, showing the early sun's play on the calm waters. We sometimes think that artists take licence with reality but these are the actual colors, though they looked even more vivid to my eye than to the camera. This is Homer's "wine dark sea" brought to life!

Rounding up into the approach to Halifax, we passed the McNab Island Light.

Halifax happened to be hosting a "tall ships" event -- almost twenty boats -- of which these were the most striking.

We reconnected with Greg and Wanda, sailing friends of our sailing friends, Michelle and Manu. They had dined with us aboard ILENE when we were at the Armdale YC during our last stay here in Halifax. They invited us to tie up to their private dock in Parker's Cove in the northeastern corner of the Bedford Basin, the large bay of deep saltwater north of the City. Entering the Basin having passed under the second of the two bridges across the harbor.

By entering the Basin, we got a chance to use our chart of Halifax harbor, which was not used during our stay in the NW Arm during our last visit. The rest of our adventures in Halifax will be in the next post.