CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI TO HALIFAX, NS WITH ANCHORAGES IN BETWEEN

It has been a long hard struggle against the elements after leaving Charlottetown, PEI.  It has taken 8 days to make Halifax only to find that we are preparing for the remnants of TS "Irene".  I'll break the voyage down into the several anchorages we had to make because of strong wind warnings and seas.

August 20, 2010

We departed the Charlottetown Yacht Club Marina at 0700 hrs this morning.  Although the forecast was for SW'ly winds 15-25 kts this was not the situation in Charlottetown.  We had a light SW'ly wind at 10 kts and it was a beautiful day for getting underway.

Since Charlottetown is located 10 nm up the Hillsborough River, we motored out out of the bay until we cleared the shoals offshore and then set the main and jib for a wonderful sail on a beam to broad reach.  These are the most favorable points of sailing for ease and speed.  We were averaging 6 kts with sunshine and warm weather.  The Northumberland Straits is known for its warm waters and favorable weather with virtually no fog.  Most of this trip has been cold.  The waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence are cold.  While sailing it's cold but in the harbors it gets much warmer.  If the sun gets hidden in clouds,the cold factor goes up.  The Canadians got screwed when it comes to warm weather.  Once we left Montreal for Quebec, the weather got increasingly colder.  This becomes more so with a NE'ly wind which is blowing off Labrador and the colder Gulf waters.

Good sailing  weather continued until we entered the Bay of St George about 40 miles distant from Charlottetown.  The last 10 miles saw an increase of wind so we reefed the main and rolled in some jib.  If there had been even more wind, we would have double reefed the main and set the staysail.  This makes for a great heavy WX combination.  The actual distance form Charlottetown to the Canso locks is 90 nm.  The Bay of St George and the Straits of Canso are renowned for strong winds.  This was not the case with u:.  The wind headed up and died in the Straits of Canso and we locked through the Canso Lock in dead calm wind at 0345 hrs on August 25th.  How wonderful is that!!

Exiting the Canso Locks is straight forward and easy:  There are range lights for big ships.  The Wx continued calm so we motored until we finally entered the open Atlantic Ocean and was greeted by an easy rolling 6' swell.  A feeling I hadn't experienced since I retired from tugs in March 2011.  It was a wonderful sensation and we enjoyed the beautiful sunrise that accompanied it.

By 1500 hrs in the afternoon, the glorius SW'ly swell had given way to 6-7' confused seas and yachting was no longer fun!  Time to seek a safe haven anchorage.  Fortunately, there are many along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.