A quiet sail to New London.

On the floating jetty in Galilee where we made up in the dark, as the wind was blowing us onto the jetty,  the feeders squeaked, which made for a disturbed night. The humans got up at 06:30 hrs and our BBF made tea and breakfast and the men discussed the next passage over it! 

A power boat next to us asked if we could move back as the bowsprit was sticking out preventing him from leaving. The men jumped to do that and no sooner were they below when they noticed him leaving! They realigned the boat and got ready for the passage! 

The day was cold grey and overcast with a promise of rain in the air. Outside the harbour Brec set a reefed Genoa and we were off, sailing! The engine was turned off and peace reigned over the boat.

We were protected from large following seas because of the land so it was good sailing were it not for the cold.

As we drew closer to Watch Point and the Passage round it, the seas began to build again. Thankfully the wind was not more than 18-20 knots perhaps gusting 25 knots at times.

You can just see Watch Point over the Starboard side on the horizon!

Fans of Bonnie Tyler may know that she has a house on Watch Point and it is the big white one you see in the middle of the photo.

Once through the Passage we were into Long Island Sound and the following seas were much calmer and we were able to roll out a bit more Genoa!

As our BBF was on watch Brec made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate as we passed Seaflower Reef Light!

It was then just a couple of hours more to New London. The Genoa was rolled away when  we got to the entrance and the engine put back on. We have made up in Crocker’s Boatyard again. 

Would you believe the sun came out after our humans had showered!

Brec then showed us a horrid  bruise he had discovered on his arm which he probably got this morning pushing the boat off the jetty! 

The humans, clean and refreshed went ashore for a meal! Tomorrow will be a sparrow fart start so they will be in bed early for tomorrow is going to be at least a ten hour sail to Bridgeport. 

A wet ride to Onset Bay

The wind which was promised howled in the rigging all night, but we Bears and our two humans slept well as we had all had a long hard day yesterday! Both humans were awake at 07:00 hrs, but turned over thinking, “ I don’t want to go out there!” 

They finally surfaced at 08:00 hrs and Brec made a cup of tea for all. The men then discussed the plan for going forward. We then dropped the mooring and moved to the fuel dock to top up with diesel, get blocks of ice and top up with water.

On the dock the humans met two Polish guys called Mark and Al on a large yacht called ALRUNA. They were trying to close the circle on a voyage which started in Newport went via Chicago, down the St Lawrence and they had left from Halifax a few days ago. A light lit up for us as this must have been the yacht that was following us on our first two days out of Lunenburg! They too wanted go through the Cape Cod Canal today. 

                                    ALRUNA

After filling with fuel OTTER was put back on the mooring and our humans went ashore for breakfast at the Post Office Café. 

 A big breakfast of French Toast with bacon an egg defeated Brec, but our BBF licked the platter clean! 

Back at the dock Brec agreed with ALRUNA how to stay in radio contact! ALRUNA left first but Brec being the good navigator that he is tuned it all perfectly! 

Here you see him in his armchair position at the wheel. The day was grey, overcast with light rain and poor visibility.

Outside the harbour Brec rolled out a well reefed Genoa and we were able to turn the engine off as we were making 5 knots. There was a following sea and with wind and rain from behind. 

Our BBF sat in Brec’s armchair and kept watch all day while Brec navigated. As we progressed towards the canal, ALRUNA called and had got there too early, their wind over tide situation made the entrance very lumpy and they thought OTTER would have difficulty with the situation. 

Brec, however, had timed the passage well slowing down or speeding up as necessary. As a consequence we arrived at just the right time to go through with the current. Our BBF with his Eagle eyes spotted the buoys well before Brec could and then hand steered through the canal taking only a break to use the heads when Brec steered.

As the unseen sun went down visibility deteriorated. Our BBF on his iPhone has an App called iSailor and has now bought the charts for this area. He has discovered that it works well as a navigation tool and now used it to good effect to steer the boat into Onset Bay in the dark.

You can see here the track we took to get out of the canal at the bottom right of the picture to the  blue arrow which is the boat at anchor.

Once Brec put the anchor down our BBF went below dried himself off and cooked the evening meal. The two men shared a beer to celebrate another successful passage. 

Starry, starry nights at sea!

On the morning of our departure (Wed 20 Sep) the two humans went ashore in the dinghy one last time to say goodbye get some ice. Upon their return the dinghy was brought on deck, deflated and stowed for the voyage. The wind was blowing a bit so Brec put two reefs in the main and hoisted the staysail! 

It was a grey day and not warm, but the men were glad to be at sea again! Our BBF told us that every day is now part of the journey home!

The engine was kept on and was not turned off till we got to Provincetown! This was done to maintain boat speed and worked well with the sails that were set at various stages of the voyage. A watch system was kept by the two humans which had a dog watch so that they did not always have the same night watch! This is a good system and why is it called  a dog watch? Because it’s curtailed Brec has pleasure in telling us! 

It was cold at night so the humans without fur dressed in many layers! 

The sunset was promising and the night was full of stars, from horizon to horizon! It was over 20 years since these circumnavigators had had this pleasure. So much so that our BBF two nights running mistook a rising bright star or planet behind us as ship!

Round Cape Breton Island

We were up early, for today promised to be long day. Brec was worried about OTTER for Hurricane Lee arrives Saturday and watched various news and weather programmes on TV. His main worry was, had he done enough to protect OTTER from the storm and kept thinking of additional things he could have done! There seem to be so many different forecasts of what will happen to Lee though the direction of travel seems to be constant now, the eye will go into the Gulf of Main so passing to the west of Nova Scotia. 

The humans went to breakfast and it was a help yourself type of buffet. You could get fresh pancakes from a machine by pressing a button, then wait for them to come out the end and you could make your own toast. Coffee too came from a large machine. Suitably breakfasted we all got in the car and we were off.

The day started grey and overcast with some light rain showers, but the road was good and we made fair progress to our first destination which was Sidney a town on the Northeast end of Cape Breton Island. Occasionally one caught glimpses of the Bras d’Or Lake and the Atlantic Ocean to our right. Stops were made to take photographs when the road allowed.

As the day went on the weather improved and when we got to Sidney we found an Irish Pub where we could sit on their roof terrace with a view over the harbour for lunch.

The men had the fish chowder which we understand was delicious. Our BBF even shared his Guiness with Brec who couldn’t manage a whole pint.

We saw no organ grinders and paid much more for our beds!

We crossed over the water to get to the Cabot Trail. The Trail was a windy road through the mountains and offered great views over the ocean.

There were fun motives too.

And many views were spectacular.

Then we went through the mountains to the other shore on the North side of the island.

The sun slowly went down and we then drove on in the dark and only stopped at a place to eat.

Sandy drove the whole way  and we calculated that by the time we got back to our hotel in New Glasgow she had spent 12 hours behind the wheel. Thankfully as a former travelling sales person in the Paper Industry she not only was an experienced drive, but loved driving. A couple of glasses of Port in the “Shipfaced” glasses were drunk before all humans collapsed into bed.

A Road trip to New Glasgow

The humans were up early having slept reasonably last night. It was grey and raining as they loaded the car and went to Tim Hortons for breakfast.

We were early now so we lingered over breakfast and then drove into Halifax again to visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. 

The car was parked in the same place as yesterday and then the way to the Gallery took us via the War Memorial Gardens which had a sort of tent city in it! Were they homeless people or protestors, we never found out.

A little further on in the gardens of a government house we came across a monument to the men of Nova Scotia that had fought in the Boer War, which was a surprise. The monument had been unveiled by the then Duke of Cornwall and York and his illustrious consort in 1901. He later became King George V and his consort Queen Mary the grandparents of Queen Elizabeth II.

On the other side of the house was a statue to Joseph Howe a proponent of free speech and a free press.

In the art gallery we bears were forced to  tick off the various motives we could find. It was fun and interesting, but we missed two so didn’t get the jackpot!

One large exhibit was about Maude Lewis a folk or primitive artist. She suffered from rheumatoid  arthritis from a very early age and lived in poverty in a small house in Marshalltown Nova Scotia. Her house was preserved in the Gallery and was very interesting as Maude had decorated it all constantly.

The house had no running water or electricity. 

There were ceramics in another part of the Gallery

And a replica of the wild boar staue that is in the Uffizi in Florence.

On the top floor were interesting exhibits of Indigenous Native art as well as Native Amazonian Art. 

This piece is entitled Miss Chief’s Wet Dream! The raft on the left represents European culture and history, you see Jesus, Mary Antoinette and Queen Victoria for example and the canoe on the right represents Canadian Indigenous people.

We actually passed this artist as we were going up the stairs and found his hair style intriguing, but thought no more of it till we saw the painting!


After a coffee in the French Café we got on the road. The weather was not nice really, virtually constant rain, sometimes drizzle and at others a real down pour, but Sandy our driver handle all with ease. Had the weather been better we would have had some stunning views of bays and harbours, but even in the rain one can get a feeling for how it would be when the sun shines. 

We stopped for a late lunch of BLTs after an hour on the road in a very small diner and then only stopped occasionally to take the stunning views through the window.

Brec had told us all about his time in 6th Grade when he was so bored that he would study the Atlas and discovered an odd named place in Nova Scotia. He called it Eecum Seecum, but we now discovered it for real as Ecum Secum and so had to take a photo of him when we got there.

It’s at the arse end of the world for we now found we no longer had a mobile signal for miles and miles. Our BBF, however, still managed to navigate us onward.

In honour of Pat and Dan Markovich who sang the Sea Shanty Barrett’s Privateers for us the first time on the Camino in 2015 we had to stop and take a photo.

“Oh the year was 1778

How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now

A letter of marque came from the king

To the scummiest vessel I’ve ever seen

God damn them all! I was told

We’d cruise the seas for American gold

We’d fired no guns, shed no tears

But I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier

The last of Barrett’s Privateers.”

Then it was on to New Glasgow and the Travellodge Suit where we have no decided to stay for three nights.

The humans went to the Shopping Mall nearby to eat in the Boston Pizza and Sports Bar. There was female Ultimate Fight Competition and Baseball on the TV and our BBF said the women took no prisinors, but really went at it and drew blood. Not a pretty sight. 

They returned to us in the hotel and thence to bed. It’s been a long day on the road and tomorrow promises to be as long again.