Sailing

Well, we did it. 11 days of sailing and motoring from Gaspe, Quebec to Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. Some days were rough and some calm. We managed several days of sailing, even though the trip was to move the boat from point A to point B. (Make passage, rather than dawdling along for sailing sake)
We were at anchor 3 nights, two nights were spent in one area waiting out a storm. We got in late and dropped anchor behind a barrier beach, but was tossed around a bit all night, so moved anchorage the next day to a more protected spot. Waiting out the storm paid off as the 3rd day was good weather with good winds. The other nights were able to tie up at yacht clubs, or public piers.
We could not get over how many lobster traps were out. Virtually hundreds of them in the gulf of St. Lawrence. In some places we played dodgem to avoid running over lobster trap marker floats and rope tethers. The numerous and variable colored floats looked like it might if a giant bag of M&M’s had been thrown out across a small table.
At Charlottetown, P.E.I., all of the yacht club and public anchorages were full. While we were refueling; however, they mentioned that one of their members had just taken his 50 foot motor cruiser out for 2 weeks and we could tie up at that member’s slip for a day or two if we wanted. It was late, so we did tie up for two days and waited out another storm. Having a “day off" gave us the opportunity to explore Charlottetown and view a parade that was held for “old home week" Nice parade that went on for over an hour and a half. It turns out that the slip we tied up at is owned and usually occupied by the owner of one of Canada’s largest grocery chains. (Sobey)
In the past, Jane has had problems with motion sickness on boats. We tried a new medication this time and it worked like a charm. She was not sick at all during the 11 days and on the final day she went without medication and did just fine. The final day was one of the roughest of the trip, so she now knows she can go boating without worry of motion sickness. GREAT!!! The medicine is Meclizine HCl, an over the counter product.
Moving the boat from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Bras D’Or lake meant traversing a lock that had a major highway swing bridge across it. The bridge was swung open for our passage, holding up traffic in both directions. Apparently it is a fairly common occurence as there did not appear to be any angst at having traffic held up for one boat, but it was new to us!
The trip was a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about sailing from a master sailor on a notably seaworthy yacht.

This beautiful boat is owned by New Zealand friends who live in England. Art has crewed for Dick twice up the Inside Passage to Alaska. Pictures here