We rose bright and early after a very quiet night and breakfasted while we debated the state of health of the various crew members, me recovering and the 3 others in various stages of serious "Man Colds".
Halifax is about 265 NM from Gloucester with a stop over at Shelburne 35NM short of Halifax. It would require at two nights at sea. Michael, in recovery mode, decided we were fit enough and so the anchor was taken aboard at about 0830 and so we headed down the channel and out to sea.
As we made our way down the channel we hoisted our main and very carefully threaded our way through the myriad of brightly coloured buoys marking lobster pots and fish traps.
Our course was almost east at 080T this would take us out into the Gulf of Maine for about 200NM before the next landfall at Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, then around the Cape to our next port Shelburne to clear in with Canadian Customs and then on to our real destination, Halifax about 130 or so miles further up the coast.
So the crew set about deciding on watches, stowing loose articles, getting the wet weather, safety gear, torches, reading material etc. ready for a sea leg.
Matt sighted a big seal as we left harbour and we took this to be a good omen.
For most of the day we motor-sailed with main only, towards evening the wind went ahead and strengthened a little and we rolled out the big headsail and stopped the motor. The silence was deafening and Roosco, a serious dinghy sailor, was thrilled, this was his first time "Off Shore". After dark a clear sky, with no big city light pollution to spoil it, displayed more stars than it seemed possible. Later, while on watch with Rossco we spotted several shooting stars and one satellite.
At sea on Drina.
