Our Summer Cruise 2019

 

Sunday, July 7

St Andrews-by-the-Sea to Digdeguash - All of 9 nm

The weather had cleared overnight and we had a sunny day for our late departure to nearby Digdeguash Harbor in Passamaquoddy Bay.

The entry into the Harbor is quite colorful with bright orange lichen on the rocks against green grass.

 

We had experience here last year and had checked water depths. With better knowledge, we anchored just a short distance off the shore in the small bay to the west in 10 feet at low with better protection than before. Dean and Charlotte hosted us for drinks and snacks aboard Carrie Rose in the afternoon.

Monday, July 8

Digdeguash Harbor to Cross Island - 43 nm

Another calm night with sun to greet us as we had a leisurely start to the day for the trip to Roque. This morning, we had to exit Passamaquoddy Bay through the Letete Passage, a fairly narrow gap with a number of islands, rocks, ledges and ferries. From low water to high water and vice versa, over 6 billion tons of water flow into or out of the Bay creating maximum currents of up to 8 knots through the two narrow passages, one south near Lubec and the other north, Letete. Passing through either Passage needs to be carefully timed to minimize the current encountered. The best time is close to low or high water. For today, slack (little current) was at 11:25 am or 5:30 pm so we planned our departure for 10:15 am and had a slow ride to the Passage where we found just a small current in our favor and a bit of swirly water outside the bay.

Seals Basking on Rocks Very Close to Our Course!

Unfortunately, since it was low tide in the area and throughout the Bay of Fundy, heading south we were seeing an increasing current against us for most of the journey with a peak of almost 3 knots. In retrospect, we should have just holed up nearby for the day and then left the next day at about 6 am to get the benefit of the outgoing current going south.

For the first part of our ride, we were lucky enough to see a number of whales, seals, and dolphins (or porpoises) close to the boat. We also saw a whale close to the boat with a large white area under its jaw and an oval white area above. it came to the surface a couple of times before we lost sight of it. Our whale identification is a little weak but it sure seems like we saw an orca which is relatively rare in the area.

Fishing weirs for herring are still used in Canada and this is one example we passed along the coast. The rings of net is supported by long poles driven into the seabed. Current draws the herring in to the net through an entrance funnel and they are then harvested by a small boat netting them

 

Coming up to the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse

is a dotted line on the chart denoting the USA/Canada border. Since the last time we returned from Canada by water, the old check-in process - the Small Vessel Reporting System - had been abandoned with some justification as it was quite a cumbersome process. Over the past year, a new system - CBP Roam, an app for Apple and Android devices has been introduced. Once basic boat and traveler information has been entered into the app onetime, just a few details have to be entered about the trip, passengers selected, and a submittal sent to CBP. After a review, a CBP Officer contacts you on a video chat, asks a few questions and looks at the passengers' passports and, in our case, has you do a quick video tour of the boat. If all is well, entry back into the USA is granted with a follow-up confirmation on the app and by e-mail. Not sure what happens if you don't pass but I expect you have to show up somewhere in person. On the face of it, CBP Roam works well!

By 3:00 pm, it seemed that the current was not abating much with 2 knots against and building winds and seas so we decided to cut our losses and make just a short detour to spend the night by Cross Island and continue to Roque tomorrow.

Our Backyard View (But Like a Christmas Tree at Night)

More and More Fish Farms are Being Installed in Canada

Now the Largest Salmon Producer in the World

Tuesday, July 9

Cross Island to Lakeman Harbor - 12nm

One of our best nights so far and away early for the short trip to Lakeman Harbor, a small cove on Roque island which is very well protected. While the entrance area is clogged with lobster floats, beyond them there is ample room to anchor in 12 feet of water at low with plenty of room for probably half a dozen boats. It doesn't have the spectacular view of the sand beach to the south west but has better protection.

After getting the boat squared away, Dean and Charlotte joined us to dinghy over to the beach and check out the few boats anchored close in. From where we were, they looked a little like Nordic Tugs and as we got closer that's what they were. One was "Celebration" owned by Warren and his wife,Judy, and the other was "Simone," owned by Bob and Barb (just 2 hulls after ours). We had met Warren and Judy in Pulpit Harbor last year and spent some time with them - small world!

 

Wednesday, July 10

STB and CR

Today was a boat job day with several things to get done - re-assembling a pump for the water maker that turned out be a longer job as one seal leaked after getting the water maker up and running. Eventually it went back together OK and we made 45 gallons of sweet, soft freshwater and celebrated by rinsing the boat off. Also installed new fuel sending units and calibrated their "empty" setting, an involved job transferring fuel between tanks. The real test will be when we fill our tanks with diesel to see if the senders calibrate their "full" setting successfully. The list of boat jobs is getting smaller!!

We did get to enjoy the great weather in the afternoon with a long dinghy ride around the bay that Roque encircles to check out the beach and other potential anchorages. Our new chart plotter for the dinghy includes a sonar so we can measure depths quite accurately.

Going Out Of Lakeman

Five Mile Ride

 

Bunker Cove - One for Next Time

Enjoyed a great pizza and salad on Carrie Rose this evening.

Thursday, July 11

Lakeman Harbor (Roque Island) to Northeast Harbor - 41nm

Awake early as we have switched back to Eastern Time with the sun streaming into the master at 4:30 am. We had planned for an early departure at 7:15 am but this was way too early so we relaxed in bed with coffee before pulling the anchor. Our departure was timed to be away at high water to take advantage of the tide flowing south at over 1 kt. at its peak.

A very calm day on the water with a sunny sky, waves of less than 1 foot, and just a few lobster boats working away!

We were soon making excellent progress catching a current of up to 1.5 kts. Traveling close to the rugged shoreline, we retraced our path from a couple of weeks ago but with brighter skies past Moosehead Light near Mistake Island and Petit Manan Island with its iconic lighthouse visible for miles away. Petit Manan Island and Point were named by Samuel de Champlain since the Island reminded him of Grand Manan Island to the northeast that he previously named using the Micmac Indian word meaning "island out to sea."

Champlain was the explorer of the Northeast, Canada and the Great Lakes in the seventeenth century exploring, charting, mapping, and establishing major settlements. Click on this link to see more about him - Samuel de Champlain.

Moosehead Lighthouse

Petit Manan Lighthouse

By noon, we were approaching civilization, a rich part, around Seal Harbor with massive homes perched high on the rugged shoreline.

 

 

 

Part of Crowded Seal Harbor

Float 300 in Northeast Harbor (our personal float lol) was available so we got a good spot again and Dean and Charlotte managed to get a float just behind us. 300 is a primo spot as it is one of the few with water (and great pressure). Just a few floats away were "Celebration" and "Simone," the Nordic Tugs we had seen in Roque Island a couple of days ago.

 

"Focus" - a 150 Foot Yacht by North American Yachts

Float 300

Hunger drove us ashore quite quickly to the Tan Turtle Restaurant adjacent to the Marina where we enjoyed a good lunch before headed back to wash the boat down - almost a month since it had seen soap. It was amazingly clean from just a few rainy days and a couple of freshwater rinses. With the boat clean, we enjoyed long hot showers in the Marina bathrooms while our laundry was going around. On the way back we cruised around the moorings to see who was around and we saw some friends, Nick and Mary Ann, from Brooklin, on their trawler and spent a good half an hour catching up with their news.

Threatened rain did not materialize by an early bedtime with darkness falling at 8:15 pm. Oh for Atlantic Time again!

Friday, July 12

The forecast rain came sometime in the night and we woke to a rainy overcast morning - no solar today! We ran the genset for a while to top the batteries up, heat water and run a small space heater to take the chill off the boat. We had a quiet day catching up on the blog, cleaning, and sorting the boat a little. Dean and Charlotte managed to hunt down a part for their water heater after losing a good part of their freshwater on the way down yesterday. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime, as the part should be in North Haven (an island in the middle of Penobscot Bay) on Monday.

The rain quit in the early afternoon in contrast to the weather forecast that predicted rain most of the day! We may not need to be here as long as we planned.

Saturday, July 13

Happy Birthday to Our Daughter, Lindsay !!!

Early morning phone call to wish our daughter who is camping up in Northern Michigan a happy birthday - the 30s are getting close to the end. She is enjoying her day with Jason, Barry, our son, and his wife, and her nephews. Weather today is totally the opposite of yesterday with clear skies and early warm temperatures; ideal weather for a hike to Jordan Pond and lunch. After getting a few jobs done and Carrie Rose moving to our Float, we were off to the west side of the Harbor by dinghy with Dean and Charlotte for a 90 minute walk to the Pond.

 

View of NEH from Asticou

 

Trail in Woods

 

Small Streams at Several places by Trail

 

Close to the end of the Walk Now

 

The Last Stream

 

The Outdoor Part of the Pond House Restaurant

We enjoyed an excellent lunch on the lawn overlooking Jordan Pond before catching the Explorer bus back to Asticou and our dinghy.

With our time at NEH running out, we took advantage of their excellent showers and took the opportunity to drop books off at the library, do some last minute shopping, and laundry before calling the day over. While in the laundry area, we met a couple checking out the place and got talking with them to find out they had just bought a 48' Kadey Krogen North Sea "Changing Course." We had seen the boat come in earlier and thought it was acquaintances from Harbor Springs in Michigan. It turned out that Bill and Lisa had decided to sell their live aboard boat and Bob and Ann had bought it. They got an exceptionally nice boat as Bill was so fastidious!