Headed for PEI

We finally decided that we couldn’t wait any longer for summer to arrive on the east coast so we set off in hopes that it will come looking for us.  Unfortunately our leisurely sail out of Arichat harbour progressively slowed and when we were down to 2 knots conceded that it was time to either drop the anchor 8 miles from home port or start the motor.  We chose the latter option, as we are attempting to be in Charlottetown, PEI in a couple of days.

As we cleared out of the harbour we had numerous seals coming to investigate us.

Then we headed north through the Strait of Canso past the busy town of Port Hawksbury.

We didn’t see any freighters on the move today, but we did pass this pilot boat presumably headed out to meet one.

Looks like we caused a bit of a traffic jam on the causeway.  It wasn’t just for us though, a boat had just come through the lock headed south for the same bridge opening.

After we had passed through the canal lock I had time to marvel at the quarry.  I would really love to be able to stand at the top and see how much they have dug out from the other side over the years.

We tucked into the little harbour at Havre Bouche for the night and partly cloudy sunset.

Our late arrival was partly due to a slow start to the day.  I was reviewing insurance quotes as our current insurance is too limiting for places we can travel and our renewal is in a few weeks.  When I thought I had come to a decision I found a recommendation in the notes from the Mahina Expeditions cruising seminar we attended a couple years ago.  So I sent in one more application.  Then I figured I would take some pictures of the new anchor as Rocna has a monthly photo contest for pictures that show how their Vulcan anchor fits on different boats.  Here is how ours fits:

I’ll admit I added a little roller (which I had hoped to avoid) to lock the anchor in place when the windlass pulls it in.  The fit is solid so long as we can keep tension on the lashing holding it in, although we haven’t tested it on a windward slog when the bow buries into a wave.