9-30-10 Halifax to Chester

Thursday- Very foggy

Ann writes:

Today we saw 2 tunas jumping out of the water and 3 seals. It was extremely foggy when we left Halifax, and the Sambro Light disappeared into the fog. It was a white-out, so I went below to nap and still couldn't see anything when I came back on deck 2 hours later.

Finally around 3 pm, the fog was lifting from Mahone Bay and we could begin to see Little and big Tancock Island. There was a huge, unattractive motor yacht anchored near a large estate, and as we were watching, a helicopter landed on the deck. We snared a Chester Yacht Club mooring, but the yacht club was deserted when we went ashore. We walked around town, but almost by Jon's design, it was after 5 pm, so all the little shops were closed.

We had an excellent dinner at the Rope Loft- a delicious lobster bisque, and good medium-rare hamburger (it's difficult to get Canadians to cook hamburgers anything less than medium). We had the added bonus of watching the the last sailing race of the year finish right at the restaurant.

Jon writes:

We navigated out of Halifax by Braille, turned down the Sambro channel running buoy to buoy in the fog. I would not have attempted it without GPS and radar, unfamiliar as I was with the area and its currents & many rocks. The wind rose to 6 knots by 1115, so we put up the sails. 15 minutes later I handed them again, as the wind died to 3 knots and the slatting in the left over Atlantic swell was too annoying. Up again at 1300 with about 7 knots, and we sailed the rest of the way to Chester.

View from the helm leaving Halifax

What happens if you don't pay attention

Fog finally clearing over Sandy Cove Pt., Mahone Bay

We picked up a mooring at the yacht club, but the club and in fact the entire town of Chester seemed shut for the season. Good dinner at the Rope Loft watching "The Last Damn Race of the Season" (as it was billed). A bit of wind that night in the mooring field coming from the south made the dinghy ride to and from the dock a bit wet. It would have been much quieter in the back harbor which is better protected from all directions and just as close to town.

Moored off the deserted Chester Yacht Club

'Anomaly' is currently on the hard in Somes Sound, Mt. Desert Island, Maine