Shelburne

We departed Lunenburg Sunday 0730 for the 76.4 nm run to Shelburne. We passed anchored Aries Too on the way out of the harbor, and they passed us an hour or so later. We were feeling the after effects of Diana, as we experienced seas of 3-4 ft. but very long periods of about 15 seconds. The sort of wave action that is not at all uncomfortable to travel in, even with higher seas. Generally the closer the period to the height, the more uncomfortable the ride. 4:1 is pretty benign. The last four hours we encountered some wind chop, on the nose, making for a less than comfortable ride, but it was tolerable. Sammy was visible, that’s a pretty good indicator of a smooth cruise. The rougher the seas, the further down in the boat he goes!

We tied to the floating docks at the Shelburne Yacht Club, behind Cronulla who had arrived the night before. By now they think we’re stalking them.

Shelburne is another delightful quaint Loyalist fishing village, but in addition it was a large shipbuilding center, producing hundreds of wooden vessels all the way into the 70’s before the last yard declared bankruptcy for lack of orders. One shipyard further out in the harbor is still in operation doing most of their work on steel vessels. There was a very active dory-building shop that built fishing dories for the very active fishing trade. Shelburne and Lunenburg built thousands of the “disposable” wooden vessels for use in the fishing industry at the time when most of the work was manual. The dory building shop still operates as part of the local museum, where they still hand-craft the dories in the original building, using the same methods and tools that were used during the industry’s heyday. We took an abbreviated tour of the museum, as time constraints were bearing on our visit.

Earl

The second tropical storm now a hurricane that is showing signs of tracking up the eastern seaboard, with Nova Scotia as a potential calling card recipient. So we’re keeping a watchful eye on our “weather window” back to the states. At this writing, the plan is to hopscotch up the coast to Yarmouth, NS. Yarmouth is a traditional jump-off point to cross the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy. About a 70 nm run, it’s not one to start on deteriorating weather. Cronulla departed Shelburne at first light Monday, bound for Yarmouth. Their 8-9 kt cruise enables them to make the run in a single shot, we’ll need two legs due to currents at Cape Sable. Our departure was just before noon, destination Clark’s Harbor just around the west side of Cape Sable. We would have loved to spend another day here, but discretion being the better part of valor, we did a quick overview of the town and the museum then made ready to slip the lines.

Comments are closed.