Position           43:45.46N 065:14.84W

Date                0715 (EST) Friday 12 July 2013

Passage Run - 282.1nm – 279nm over the ground in 1 days 20 hrs 45 mins

We had a good couple of days with Andrew in Boston where despite the high temperatures we walked the Freedom Trail around the city centre, which takes in many of the notable sights and ends up at the sailing warship USS Constitution, reputedly the oldest commissioned naval ship afloat and a victorious survivor of the War of 1812 (‘Nuff said there!).

We even found time to visit Boston’s oldest pub.

Andrew left on Monday and the convenience of our anchorage for the airport meant that 65 minutes after leaving in a cab he was actually boarded on his flight back to Austin.  Monday and Tuesday were spent shopping and preparing for the trip to Nova Scotia.  The forecast for Wednesday looked to give us 30 hours of favourable wind which was as good as it was going to get for the next 10 days or so. 

On the basis that 30 hours of this passage were sailed in dense fog and there was not much to see, fortunately, I will cover it in one entry.

We departed Boston a little later than intended as we woke to thick fog and it seemed sensible to wait until we could see the opposition.  Whether or not everything else did the same I could not hazard a guess but when the visibility cleared enough to leave at 1030 every tug and barge in the world seemed to be on the move.  Notwithstanding that, as we cleared the channel out of Boston we were able to get within 10 degrees of our course, hard on the wind.  The wind quickly freed and we had a cracking good 24 hours sail averaging over 8kts.  Then the fog came down and for 30 hours we had visibility of well under 100m.  A combination of radar, AIS and use of the VHF radio enabled us to avoid the assorted fishing boats and one 280 metre bulk carrier that seemed determined to share our bit of the ocean. 

The problem that our more rapid trip meant was that we looked likely to arrive in the dark and in the fog, one of those perhaps but both together were not considered a good idea.  It is one of life’s little perversities that we spend most of our time trying to sail as fast as possible and then find sailing a problem.  We ended up with a ridiculously small amount of sail up to try and keep the speed under 5 knots. 

Our efforts were successful and at an hour after dawn on Friday and as we passed Cape Roseway the fog lifted:

Cape Roseway - This may look like a rubbish photograph but it was a wonderful sight for us after 30 hours of zero visibility.

and we arrived in early morning sunshine at Shelburne where we came alongside at the Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club at 0815 local time, 45 hours from Boston and 282 miles covered.

What a wonderful place to arrive and very friendly.  Within an hour we had two offers of lifts to the grocery store, a visit from the OCC Port Officers , Alan and Jan Pulfrey and an invitation  to join the Friday evening Happy Hour and meal in the Yacht Club.