June 21 Well, we are off again and this time to the northern latitudes. We are going to join an OCC (Ocean Cruising Club) group going to Newfoundland! We left late and only made it to the Sakonet River for the night but at least we were on our way.

June 22-23 Up early and off for the Cape Cod canal and an overnight to Rockland Harbor. The weather was calm but overcast and the trip uneventful.

June 24 The fun of this gray day was having lunch with our friends Rick and Julie Palm who live near Rockland and were on Windermere this winter in the Exumas for a visit. They helped us do some errands and then we headed up the bay to Holbrook harbor and a rendezvous with our friends Mike and De and a group of sailing friends from Bucks harbor nearby.

June 25  Another rainy day but we had a fun breakfast ashore with a couple who have developed a free software program called Active Captain that works online or offline cruising information service complete with reviews from cruisers. When we returned to the boat, the gang had arrived! Mike and De came over for a few hands of Biriba and later, the whole gang came for serious eating and partying. The good news about these get togethers is that everyone brings their own drinks and food to share.

June 26  One of our friends had brought his 1936 Chris Craft runabout and he gave us a ride around the harbor. John especially enjoyed the ride and was even allowed to drive for a while. Everyone said there goodbyes and we headed down the bay to Rockland again for the night.

June 27-28  It was finally a glorious calm sunny morning were up early and headed for Nova Scotia dodging lobster pots for the first three or four hours. Finally, we were in deep enough water to be free of those little buggers and we made good time to Shelburne which is a little ways along the southeast coast of Nova Scotia. John Zened the boat into the dock and the customs officials arrived to clear us into Canada. The officers were impressed with John’s long detailed (to the ml) list of the various alcoholic beverages on board. We also left another 17 bottles of wine and 8 bottles of liquor with Mike and De for safe keeping till our return in August. Afterwards,  we went out and anchored. We noticed there was a sailboat out in the harbor near us flying the OCC burgee so we hailed them on the radio and they came over for drinks. They were the first of many new friends we would make on the cruise and we had an enjoyable visit.

June 29 Foggy. Thank heaven for good radar and lots of practise with it over the years because we needed it. It was a long tedious day but we made it safely to our anchorage. not that we could really see it but the little boat on the electronic chart told us we were there.

June 30 Another very foggy day and a longer way to go (83nm to be exact) and another anhorage that was safe but invisible to all but the chart picture. At least we were making good progress up the long Nova Scotia coast. Seabirds would dart in and out of the fog and every once and a while a seal would poke its head up to have a look around.

July 1 The sun shone brightly for once and we could actually see the pretty wooded and rocky islands that surrounded us. This was a short hop of only 55 nm and it was interesting to see all the islands, rocks and shoals with their breakers that we hadn’t really noticed till now. Luckily, the conditions were calm and the boat was working well but I thought of the old seafaring days when many a ship sailing by these same places wasn’t so lucky.  This time we anchored in a big bay with several villages along its coast and meadows with boulders and, what seemed like, perfect little Xmas trees dotted around here and there.

July 2 Yeah, another sunny day! When we did this trip in 2003 with the Mason 44, we had more fog than sun out at sea. We did manage to get sun when we went up rivers or into big bays where we could get away from the sea.  Today was get into the Bras D’Or lakes day. The entrance in the south is through a small lock and canal at St. Peters and we made the transit with the friendly help of the lock tenders. Once in the lakes, the water became a teal green and was very clear. Our destination was a small almost totally enclosed harbor we had been in on our last trip. A sailboat ahead of us disappeared around a bend and into the entrance and we soon followed. Once anchored, we went over to her because she was flying the OCC burgee. This couple had been running the radio net every morning for our group. There was a German restaurant in this harbor so we decided to have dinner there together. The food was good and the conversation flowed and we had two more friends.

July 3 I can’t believe our luck. Another gorgeous day. John decided it was the moment we needed to give the boat a much deserved bath. You never realize how big a 65ft boat is till you have sprayed, scrubbed, rinsed and dried it! The next thing to tackle was the long green algae and barnacles growing on the red water line stripe. John had to lie across the dinghy seat and scrub while I balanced on the pontoon and held on to the mother ship keeping it just far away so he could get to the waterline. It didn’t help when a speed boat decided to circle the harbor and through up a big wake. We couldn’t finish the whole job because our old bodies were plum tuckered out. Up the anchor and off to our next stop not far away. There is a low bridge at a narrow spot in the lakes  and you have to go through to get to the northern lakes where Baddeck is located. The tidal current was with us and we sped through there and were “spit out the other end”.  Our evening harbor was well protected and crowded with other sailboats but there was plenty of room for all to enjoy it.

July 4 Independence Day- this time for us Yanks. It was a short trip over to Baddeck where we were meeting up with all of the other boats in our cruising group. After anchoring, we dingied over to Bluewater and our fearless leaders Doug and Dale Bruce for lots of hugs and kisses of greeting. Many of the boats had already arrived and several more came in during the day. That evening, we went to the yacht club for a 4th of July gathering with the other Yanks in the group and I met Beth Leonard who is with our group and very low key and friendly. Then we had Bluewater over for a jolly dinner with some talk about all the wonderful spots we are going to see in Newfoundland.