When one travels under sail, patience becomes a skill one must learn and so it was again with us as the weather forecast had again fallen apart, so we spent a third night, instead of just one night, in Gloucester Harbor waiting for the forecast winds to become favorable for our 245nm Gulf of Maine crossing on our way to Halifax.

Keely and I had both finished work on Tuesday the 20th of June, sailed to Gloucester on Wednesday, intending to fuel up, spend one night and depart, but the weather gods had other plans and one night became three.  Finally we got a two day window with fair and comfortable winds that would allow us to at least reach Shelburne Nova Scotia before the wind again turned foul.

Departing Gloucester a hour after sunrise we navigated our way out of a very foggy harbor with radar and chart plotter, dodging lobster pots as they appeared in our path.  An hour after we cast off we reached the #2 Whistle buoy the locals call “the Groaner” and took departure for Brazil
Rock 245nm away off Cape Sable Nova Scotia.

Little did we know we would only see the sun for just a few out of the next 55 hours, just peasoup fog.  With a wind forecast of less than 15 knots of southerly winds going southwest it promised to be a pleasant crossing.

‘While the wind occasionally went light Malaya kept moving along nicely under all plain sail in very comfortable seas.  We were a bit surprised by the sea state as other than a visually noticeable swell from the south-southeast the motion onboard was unusually very comfortable.

By the end of our first 24 hrs Predict Wind had a fair wind all the way to Halifax but our elation with that forecast didn’t survive, as our next weather download showed  the wind again turning Nor’east or onto our nose for the last 24 hours into Halifax.

‘Upon reaching Brazil rock 47 hours after departing Gloucester (5.1k average speed)we altered course for Shelburne, about 20nm or so away.  Shelburne is a port of entry, has a very welcoming yacht club with hot showers and a laundry so we could both warm up and dry out!

Other than the fog, no stars and no whale sightings we had a very pleasant crossing. Got in some good radar practice dodging fishing boats and a cruise ship in the approaches to Brazil Rock.  Had a few pleasant radio conversations with some fisherman and the watch on the cruise ship Vaandam, all we hailed answered and politely altered course when necessary so we could safely sail past.

‘Now we again test our patience as we again await fair winds.