Dodging Storms between Nova Scotia and Boston

So, as you might remember from last week’s episode, we’re on our way to Boston, where Ryan can catch a flight to make a work meeting.

The weather is pretty crap, so we decide to make a stop in the lovely village of Shelburne, on the South Western tip of the Halifax peninsula. We don’t get to see how lovely it looks, though. There are no breaks in the rain whatsoever. Once we’re set up in the bay, ready to do some work, we find out that a package we were meant to receive in Lunenburg has arrived, in Lunenburg. So we need to make our way back there (that’s 150km!) via land. Our options are renting a 26ft U-Haul truck, or hop on a $300 taxi ride. As I have a ton of work to do, we opt to send Ryan on the taxi ride. He has to wear all the foul weather gear in the world (on top of his PJs), but he makes it OK. We’ll make a video about driving around on a U-Haul another time.

We spend the rest of the day working, feeling seasick, and watching the other boats anchored around us. Mark my words. When it’s very stormy, someone is eventually going to drag. It takes half a day, but it happens today, too. To make things more fun, the anchor chain of the dragging boat gets fouled around another boat’s keel. They have no choice but to drop their anchor to get out of the sticky situation - someone could have gotten hurt.

The dragging boat now needs to tie to a mooring ball, but the conditions make it difficult, so Ryan jumps in the dinghy and goes over to try and help. They eventually manage to get it done. While we raise the dinghy on the davits, we notice a small sailboat has now flipped and is being blown by the wind. They are about to hit a catamaran and we try to call them on the radio to let them know. We can’t do anything because our electric outboard doesn’t have enough battery to accomplish this new mission. Thankfully, the little boat misses the cat and someone rescues them. Phew.

The next day the rain stops and we’re ready to head to Boston. We’re soon out of Canadian waters, but the residual swell, coupled with nearly 0 knots of wind, is pretty bad, so I feel seasick all day. Nevertheless, I manage to make lemon and thyme chicken for dinner. It was pretty good!

The evening looks beautiful and I’m ready for my first watch. It’s super cold, so I’m very grateful for our full enclosure. I try to get Polar Seal to sail, so I can turn off the engine and let Ryan get a good sleep. The wind has other plans for me, though. I settle into my watch with the engine on. It’s a nice night and the moon is very bright. That’s when I encounter Josephine, our second pet seagull.

Because things didn’t go so well with our first pet seagull (he shat all over our solar panels, as you may remember), I want to make her move. She’s pretty big, so she’s not intimidated by my shouts. I go down into the V-berth and try to poke my light at the deck to scare her away. She doesn’t even flinch. I’m kind of intimidated now. So I have no choice but to let her stay, on the condition that she won’t shit on our solar panels…

In the morning, we try to sail again and - hallelujah! - we can make over 6knots without the engine. It feels so good. On this passage, we have Starlink turned on 24 hours, so we have access to the internet and, I have to be honest, I love it. I get to chat with our patrons on Discord during my night watches, which makes staying away a whole lot easier. It’s not an easy night - there are lots of fishing boats with their AIS turned off and a ton of crab pots, so the radar keeps on my toes. I put Barnacle on watch to spot the crab pots. And that’s when I discover that Josephine did shit on one of our hatches… Face palm.

We finally make it to Boston the next day. It’s my first time entering the US by boat, so it feels kind of special. Stay tuned to see what happens next week!