We got underway from Shelburne heading south on Fri morning, 29 Aug, as the forecast was for a couple days of rain in Nova Scotia followed by several days of SW winds – we figured we better take advantage of the two days of northerly winds to get south.
We departed at 0800 on the outgoing tide and headed south with a 15kt NE wind on the port qtr. We poled out the genie to windward on the port side and sailed wing-on-wing down the coast, but about 30deg off course to the east to keep the wind at a good angle on the quarter. A 49ft schooner had left with us and they were sailing with jib, foresail and main all out to stbd side. We slowly pulled ahead from them and 6hrs later they were out of sight. By noon we were off Cape Sable, ready to make the turn to the west so we jibed the main and kept the genoa poled out to the port side. The wind had built to 20kts and the tide around Cape Sable had not turned yet so it was on our nose against the wind creating some steep wave faces and a rocking and rolling ride. The waves had built to 5-7ft and fairly steep. Within an hour, however, the tide changed as anticipated and the waves smoothed out. We now had 20kts astern and a 1.5kt current carrying us along.
Cape Sable is a great place to observe sealife as the tides take the deep waters (600ft) against the 150ft ledges stirring things up. We saw several whale spouts, a couple broaches, and several seals that came close to the boat. No close encounters with whales which was fine with us.
By afternoon the wind continued to veer to the ENE and we had to transfer the whisker pole over to the stbd side and go wing-on-wing again. The wind had eased to 10kts and our speed through water to 3.5 but we had a 2.5kt current with the tide and wind blown current behind us. At 1800 the wind backed to the north so it was time to tack the genoa over to the port side. We left the whisker pole up for awhile but eventually took it down and secured it before dark as the wind was forecasted to stay in the north. The wind was down to 4-6kts and we motored for a few hours. It was forecasted to be 10-15 with higher gusts so we left 1 reef in the main as darkness fell. By 0200 the wind was up to 20 with gusts to 25 and we were glad to have the reef in. The wind blew steady all night long and continued to blow at 15kts until finally quitting at 1800 the following day. We made great progress and were only 60nm from Cape Cod when we had to resort to the engine. All was fine for a few hours until the forecasted 5-10kts from the SW became 15-20kts and opposite the tidal current. The wind kicked up 2-3ft waves with vertical faces and we were faced with bashing our way forward the last 20 miles. There was no need to go fast as it was 7hrs to dawn when we could make port at Provincetown so we bashed along at 3kts. I thought of just stopping and waiting for the wind to die to the forecasted levels, but it was supposed to be even stronger the next day, so figured we better get into port before morning. I put up the staysail, which actually provided us about .3 to .4kts of extra speed, and had the main with 2 reefs mainly up for stability. As we finally made the turn to the south seven hours later rounding the cape at 0600, the wind eased to 10kts (I suspect it was still 15+ off shore). It had been a long, tough night for the crew and we were glad to kill the engine and sail the last 2 hours into Provincetown at 3kts. I’m sure the departing sailboats, with their sails up full in the 10kts of wind were wondering why we were coming in under staysail and deep reefed main. We were just too tired to change the sails and besides, 3kts in a gentle breeze was fantastic sailing. By 0830 we were anchored off the eastern end of the breakwater, almost exactly 48hrs after departing Shelburne. I had a cup of tea, and hit the forward berth for a well deserved rest.
