Day 1 - Beverly MA - Yarmouth NS
Magic Friday
Phil, Di and Annelise
Sun 15 Jul 2018 17:29
Heavy rain in the night didn't bode well for an early departure. Instead, we waited for a mid-day slack tide and slack lines before edging out of our narrow "T-end" slip.
A busy Sunday afternoon bay as launches and sail boats of all sizes criss-cross the open waterways and between the rocky islands.
At last out into open water, a gently south-easterly breeze fills the sails, engine just ticking over sufficiently to make way at 5 knots as we start the 220nm crossing to Nova Scotia. Freshening winds veer from the south power the sails and give us peace and quiet with the engine running. Sundowners, snacks and dinner pass the time in the escaping afternoon and into the evening.
As the sun drops below the darkening horizon, a brief glimpse of a fingernail moon followed closely by Venus, before it too, sinks below the other side of the world. A chance for the billions of pin-head stars to punctuate the blackness of space, the Milky Way - a seemingly "dust" cloud stretches from east to west and a necklace of planets (Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto) cast eerie shadows across the inky-black sea-scape.
The night passes by slowly. Two sailing vessels on a course for the U.S. coast slip by - one ahead, one astern. Not a sound from either, without the masthead light (and AIS) we would all be invisible in the blackness.
Phil and Di
