As reported yesterday, our flotilla agreed to a 70 mile crossing that could be done during daylight, and a second hop to Bar Harbor, rather than the traditional overnighter directly to Bar Harbor. It was a calm, sunny day with lots of interesting sights.
We left Yarmouth Harbor in pitch dark. It was a clear starry night, but with no moonlight. It was tricky getting out in near zero visibility, but we made it into the Bay of Fundy without incident. The crossing was straightforward, and literally a straight line for most of the 70 nautical miles. The wind was light and on the nose so we motored most of the way. Toward the end, we had 14 knots that backed to south allowing us to sail the rest of the way in.
Clearing US immigration was a breeze, using the CBP Roam application from the water and a short videoconference with the officer, who wanted to see the crew and the boat, and asked very few questions. We tried to consume all the food products we read weren’t allowed, but when we declared whatever food was left, the officer said, “I don’t care about that!”. Our Canadian friends had equally smooth check-ins from aboard. This is a long cry from the old days, when you had to stop at a port with a videoconference booth (full of spiderwebs).
We are very envious of Jon and Cheri who encountered an amazing humpback whale that breached and waved its flipper a boat length behind African Queen IV (photo courtesy of J. Blaicher).
We saw a few dolphins, but no whales. We’re hopeful to see more as we move down the coast of Maine.
The Maine Coast is as beautiful as ever… craggy, rocky with pine trees appearing to grow out of the rocks. The most striking thing is the number of lobster pots. They begin about 15 miles offshore and become more and more dense as you get closer. We anchored between Mink and Cross Islands. The marked entrance channel was clogged with trap buoys as was the anchorage. There’s literally a lobster pot every 100 feet in every direction! The offshore pots are marked by two buoys with a horizontal stretch of line connecting them. These are notorious for getting tangled in boat propellers or rudders and it requires a constant vigilant watch to avoid it. The inshore traps, fortunately, are a marked by a single buoy with a line dropping vertically, so you can pass more closely to them.
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