Off the dock at 8 with sunshine and light airs to cross St George’s Bay to the Canso Strait, the Canso lock and then Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton.
Both boats used their asyms for awhile
but eventually the breeze died to below 2 knots. Of course the wind picked up to 15 knots as we entered the Canso Strait. As it was on our stern this caused real problems in stopping inside the lock. Several bruised/cut hands on both boats trying to keep hold of the line. Why not tie or at least wrap to a cleat? By the time I got control of it I only had 5” of line! With Chris’ help we managed to obtain enough slack to get it on the cleat. The lock was only going down a foot so no fear of ripping the cleat off! The exit wasn’t much better as the woman throwing the stern line onto our boat missed and it all went in the water. Quickly retrieved it to save it from being prop meat. I returned to the wheel to find us at a 45 degree angle to the lock. A quick application of power fixed that although had to then throttle back to maintain a slower lock exit speed.
Three miles later we were at Port Hawkesbury to get diesel and pumped out. Diesel yes, pump out no. Ah oh. Called ahead to our next stop to ensure they have a working pump out. Whew they do as we are getting close to bucket time.
Port Hawkesbury is very much a working port and as such the prettiness of Cape Breton is not present here.
