Canada at last

Anchored in Mistake Harbour
Originally uploaded by rosailither.

Well, we made a new bowsprit within a week, this time from laminated spruce boards instead of a solid tree. Hopefully this should be stronger as the wood was completely dry and the grain is alternated on each laminate. It was also was much easier to fabricate as we had the use of a friend’s workshop for the glueing process (a warm dry space with lots of clamps available), and then it was roughly square before we started shaping it.

Heading north again, we stopped at the Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island and climbed Mount Cadillac for fantastic views of the island-studded Maine coastline, made even more spectacular by the local 4-masted windjammer sailing along the bay.

Once away from the touristy Mt Desert Island, we were in true ‘downeast Maine’, where lobster fishing is the main industry and the waters are literally strewn with lobster pots, making steering a straight course impossible. At first glance, the small towns we stopped in seemed to have little to offer, but we found the locals extremely friendly and welcoming.

We had an overnight stop in Mistake Harbour, a completely remote anchorage surrounded by rocks and islands. From there we went to the pretty fishing harbour at Cutler, and on to the border town of Eastport. As we entered here, rounding Campobello island, we saw Minke whales surfacing near the boat. This amazed us so close in to shore until we realised the water was 600 feet deep.

To cross the border into Canada, we had to pass through ‘The Old Sow’ whirlpool, apparently the largest in the northern hemisphere. It wasn’t at its most fierce when we passed through but still pushed the boat madly from side to side and sent seagulls floating round in circles. We arrived in St Andrews, Canada to a warm welcome from the harbourmaster who came out to show us to the anchorage and then let us use his phone to check in with Customs.

Easy sailing

easy sailing
Originally uploaded by rosailither.

For the past couple of weeks we have been sailing around the local area. It is an ideal cruising ground, with lots of bays and islands creating sheltered waters with no real swell. You could cruise here for months and still not run out of anchorages.
There is deep water for the most part but plenty of rocks scattered around to keep you concentrating on your navigation. Not to mention the hordes of lobster pots – we haven’t caught any yet!
There are some great names around. We have been through the Fox Island Thorofare, the Eggemoggin Reach and up the Somes Sound (the only Fjord in North America outside of Alaska). We have anchored in Mackerel Cove, Pulpit Harbor and Stonington (home of the pink granite used to build many buildings in New York).
We visited the home of the Wooden Boat Magazine which also houses a wooden boat-building school. When we arrived they were running a ‘family’ course where parents and children together build an Optimist dinghy in a week.
We caught up with friends on a boat called ‘Long White Cloud’, who had just sailed down from Nova Scotia, and we joined them on their boat for the Wooden Boat Regatta. They didn’t win any prizes but were awarded a bottle of rum for coming the furthest distance (from New Zealand).
We have been planning to sail up to the Canadian border but first of all waited for a high enough tide to ground out again in Belfast. Here Dave took off the ‘V’ on the back of our rudder and welded on a foot-long plate of steel, the idea being that an increased rudder size may give us better steerage under sail. The following day we went for a test sail in very gusty conditions and managed to crack the bowsprit as a squall came through.
So we now need to make a new bowsprit before we can go anywhere. Luckily there are plenty of trees around!