Portland Maine at noon on Tuesday

Hi all,
We just docked at the Spring Point Marina in Portland after an overnighter from Eastern Harbour. After 4 hours of painstaking vigilance, when darkness fell, we were far enough out to sea that there were no fishing buoys to worry about. However, at around 8:00 am they all started up again!

We will be showering, eating, enjoying a brew and emailing later today when we pay up and connect to their wireless network!! This posting will be done by ham radio.

John wasn't around for the Net this morning at 9:30, so I thought I'd better let everyone know that we're once again safe and sound!

Happy second day of retirement Linda Corbett!!!!! We've been thinking about you these days!!

Dawn

PS Tried several times to send this through Ham, but was unsuccessful. Thought it might be faster to walk down the dock and pick up my wireless Internet codes!!

Near Portland Maine

Although I wasn't around to talk to Laurie and Dawn at net time they
reported in at N 43 32.8 W 069 56 on the way in to Portland... JOHN

Under way near Mt Desert Rock Gulf of Maine

At net time this AM Cat Tales was leaving their safe harbour on way to Portland. Yhis afternoon at 16:00 adt they were at 44 04N 068 04 W They just cosumed their compost cantelope. They expect to be in Portland in the morning. They were motoring with no wind.doing 5 kts. Posted by John

Sunny and beautiful here!

Hi folks,

Good bye Kyle! It got a bit crazy last night, but really, it wasn't tropical storm strength. We watched the meter and saw 30 knots a couple of times, but it basically stayed in the lower 20's for the most part. We could see by the direction of the wind just where we were in the storm. Pretty much went counter-clockwise all night until we had gone full circle and the wind started to diminish!

We spoke to Herb yesterday and he gave us 2 days straight of fair weather, so we're off to Portland today. We should get there sometime late Tuesday. We would have aimed for Cape Cod, however, Herb advised us to be off the open water by Wednesday noon at the latest. We're hoping to have the boat back together and sailing an hour before high tide at 11 a.m.

We'll talk to John this morning on the Ham and he will probably update our position then.

Dawn

Kyle, Where Are You?

We're still in Eastern Harbour, and not much has changed. However, since some will look for it, here is an update. It is well past noon, and we still gather that Kyle is coming ashore between St. Andrews\Eastport and Saint John, and that means that not only are we 40-50 miles away from the centre, but we're on the side of it that will suffer the least, that is if Kyle doesn't decide to change direction. The quadrant to the east of an Atlantic hurricane always has the stronger wind, as the forward
direction of the disturbance is added to the circular velocity. Our side of the hurricane will have this velocity subtracted from the speed of the wind.

We've been ashore to talk to people, and have learned that the mooring we're on should hold. Still, we've backed up hard on it to test it, and have added an extra line to it. We've also removed our jib, wrapped our main to make it smaller, removed our bimini and windshield, removed all our deck amenities and safety equipment, and reinforced our davits and solar panels. Shame about the bimini - it has some bird crap upon which all this rain could work! (Ending a sentence with a preposition is
something up with which I will not put - Churchill)

The wind is non-existent as we sit in the drizzling rain. We watch many fishermen remove their boats, which isn't encouraging; but many more remain.

I'm enjoying dipping into numerous books, while Dawn is "beside herself", fretting. She just took a seasickness pill, and the water is flat calm. We took some time out for some chores, including looking for a source of water under the floorboards of the port side. We're sponging up ~1-2 litres per day. Near as we can figure out, it has to be the dew that is forming from our propane, breath, and wet cloths, onto the bare fibreglass under our bunk below the waterline. The dew is visible there,
and must be collecting. Interestingly, no dew forms on the starboard side. However, the food, beer, and other items on that side are quite cold. We're not sure of the problem, but can find no other source for the fresh water.

Wish us luck - I hope Dawn doesn't cancel Happy Hour!

Saturday in Eastern Harbour

It is 2:30 p.m. local time, on Saturday, and Dawn and I are sitting on flat water in the dense fog in Eastern Harbour. It rained all night, and was quite blustery with more rain until a couple of hours ago, and medium waves were coming in the Harbour entrance. The temperature seems to have come up a degree - a big 13 C! It feels like the calm before the storm, with the radio and ham contact reports of the storm known to us as Kyle. Present understanding is that it will hit the US/Canada border
sometime before 2 a.m. Monday. We're a little nervous, but there's lots of time for things to improve. We're tied to a mooring of expected ocean quality inside a harbour that even has some barrier islands between it and the open ocean. Tomorrow, we'll check for weather updates, and contemplate further action on our part. We can test our mooring by backing up on it - and possibly find a better one; we can remove our windshield, bimini, and possibly even our sails, and we can get our anchors on
deck ready to drop if the mooring fails. We can also start our engines and run them towards the mooring at the peak of the storm, thus decreasing the forces on the mooring and/or anchors.

We'd rather have sailed yesterday to Northeast Harbour, near Bar Harbour. We'd be 30+ miles further along on our journey and have even better weather protection. The weather certainly held off for the proposed trip. However, the lobster traps on the route from here to there, are so plentiful and difficult to navigate that we became quite disillusioned. All we could envision is having one or more of those buggers wrapped around a propeller or stuck in the little gap between our hull and rudders;
and we having to struggle to the point that yesterday's storm might have found us before we reached safe harbour. Cat Tales, with narrow hulls, two props and two rudders, is exceptionally susceptible to these buggers. I remember helping Doug and Jeanne Chown get their Catalina 30, a robust and fat monohull, through these waters. The rudder caught a rope and buoy, and it was all we could do to get untangled. The rudder stuffing box leaked all the way home, and the rudder had to be removed and
the shaft straightened (or was it all replaced - Jeanne will let us know) once the boat was hauled in Canada. Damage to our equipment, like a broken seal on a saildrive, could easily mean the complete cancellation of our voyage south.

Eastern Harbour is 15 miles by road to Jonesport, and might have 10 houses around it. Not much going on around here. Everything is wet, and we don't seem interested in getting into a wet dinghy and going ashore for a walk through the wet fog with rain pending.

Yesterday, thinking we'd want something to do, we made up a list of chores we could tackle. I took on a small one, and lost interest in chores. Dawn has tackled a book and lunch, and a nap, non on the list. I guess we have tomorrow for chores.

Well, it's time for the NB Nut Net on the Ham Radio. Dawn has promised hot chocolate while I go there and chat up John, VE1SY. Sorry there is nothing exciting here. Check back tomorrow, or Monday after the storm.

Laurie (and Dawn)

Cat Tales is hunkered down awaiting the storm

We left Eastport yesterday morning (Wednesday) under sunny skies and flat seas. We had very little wind all day, and what we had was on the nose, so it was for the most part, useless! We enjoyed watching dolphins, and lots of whales. The whales that cleared the water over and over were spectacular to watch from a distance!

We spoke to John Fallon twice during the day yesterday on the Ham Radio, once at "Net" time (Mississauga Maritime Net, at 9:30 a.m.), and the other was a schedule we set up to meet him at around 4:00. The last time we talked, I told him that it would be an easy trip into Jonesport…just one hour to get to the buoy where we'd turn, and then another easy hour into Jonesport. Well, we hadn't taken into consideration the number of fishing buoys that would be spread out before us, haunting us like land
mines. A caught line in one of our props would mean a delay while Laurie donned his wetsuit to get the rope untangled, and a bit of a fear of damage to rudders or saildrives. We wove our way very carefully, each foot behind us without an accident was a blessing. When we finally arrived into Jonesport just at dusk, we realized that the book we were relying on for information, failed to tell us that all the municipal mooring balls were on the other side of the bridge, which was too low to go under!
We got into an area with lots of fishing boats on moorings, and when we spotted one without anything tied to it, we took a chance and grabbed it and tied on. We were hoping to stay for several days until the weather system passed. We crossed our fingers that nobody would notice a catamaran in the middle of a sea of lobster boats, but it wasn't long before someone by the name of Karrolle came knocking on the side of our boat. At first, I sensed a negative reaction from him, but after he spoke
to us for a bit, he softened up. He did indeed own the mooring, and told us that he was nervous for us that it wouldn't hold us through a storm…only 700 pounds of rock down below! (Would have loved to have that mooring at Grand Lake instead of the little one we have!) He welcomed us to use it for the night since it was very quiet and the storm would be arriving a day later. The only option for us would be to get up very early the next day and head out an hour before high tide to maneuver through
the land mines (bouys) and find the perfect place…all before the storm arrives later on Friday.

Our buddy Karrolle came for a visit at about 6:15 am on the way to his boat, and told us that we needed to hit the trail pretty quick if we were to get an 8 hour day in before the storm ("when the weather would turn sour"). He was genuinely worried about us! Laurie asked if he knew of a place closer by to weather out the storm, and Karrolle told us that "Eastern Harbour", only about an hour away would be an ideal place!! He thought they even might have a few "guest" mooring balls. Well, he was
bang on and here we are sitting looking over the cove. I see loads of fishing boats, commercial docks, and some pretty expensive homes sitting up on the hills. By the sounds of the weather, this will be our home for the next few days. We have lots to keep us busy…reading, movies, soduko puzzles, and of course chores. We had a lot of movies and documentaries already packed, but Jeanne and Doug dropped off several more when they visited us at Market Slip in Saint John before leaving. Maybe I'll
even make dinner for Laurie tonight, since I was a bit too frayed to face food last night after our arrival…(of course, Laurie was calm and ravenous, so he put together a nice meal, a can of "New England clam chowder"…how fitting!)

You can see our current location on Winlink (you'll find the link on the left side of this Blog). It's a tidy little harbour, and should be quite safe.
Until the next time,
Dawn (&Laurie)

At anchor in Sheltered harbour

A correction to yesterday's position at 15:53 pm..N 44 27 W 067 31. Today's location Eastern Harbour Maine at N 44 30.1 W067 43.9 A safe protected Harbour to wait out the weekend weather.
Posted by John info by radio with Laurie and Dawn

Nearing Jones Port Maine

As of 15:53 on Thursday afternoon Cat Tales was at N44 48.9 W 067
39.23 on the outskirts of Jones Port Maine.Sorry for the late posting
JOHN ps all well aboard

Cat Tales under way near Campobello

At radio net time this morning Cat Tales was at N 44 55.6 W 066 53.0 on the SE side of Campobello Isl. All well aboard and headed for Jones Port depending on weather...
Reported by JOHN in contact with Cat Tales by radio...

Cat Tails at East Port Maine

All well aboard after a nice day on the Fudy..Tied to a buoy in East
Port. checking weather for the next few legs...

Eastport Maine

Hi everyone,

John Fallon entered the last 3 postings to the Blog while we were underway...thanks so much John for doing that for us! We spoke to him over the Ham radio and he was able to do it easier than us!

We had a lovely trip down the Bay this afternoon...wind was light and the wave height was minimal. We could have used a bit more wind, but we arrived in bright sunshine at around 3:00 this afternoon. We paid for a mooring ball and will stay put for the night.

Sometime this afternoon, our ship GPS suddenly quit! It is only a few years old, so we were both surprised. Laurie stayed behind on the boat to work on the problem, while I am sitting in the local library to investigate the rain and wind coming our way with the upcoming storm. I have downloaded all the information I need and have just had a call on the portable VHF radio from Laurie telling me that he was unable to get the ship's GPS working. I still have the computer and the portable GPS so
we're still all set. We'll have to get either a new antenna, or a whole new unit somewhere along the way. There's nothing here in Eastport. Laurie has always longed for the new coloured monitors, so maybe he'll get his wish!

The time in Saint John was very busy with John lugging us all over Saint John to get little bits and pieces, but once it was done and the weather for the trip out of the Bay looked good, we decided to head out a bit early! If we had waited a week later, we would have been leaving in the middle of the night, so we were very happy to get a 7:00 am start this morning!!

We'll sit tonight and analyze where we should go in the morning depending on the weather.

Until the next time, take care all.

Dawn

Net Time 09:00

At net time the Cat Tales was at N 46 01.4 W 66 16.35.. All well aboard

Cat Tales under way from Saint John Harbour

As of 07:00 ADT Sept 24 Cat Tails left the Saint John Harbour on way
to the USA. The weather was warm and Laurie had to remove his all
weather gear, at 08:00 they were near Mahogany Island...

Cat Tales is in Saint John Harbour

Cat Tales went through the reversing falls at 16:30 and are at the Hilton

Grand Lake to Saint John

Hi Everyone,

Laurie and I finally left Grand Lake on Wednesday afternoon after a busy day getting all the last minute things packed, cleaned out and tidied up. After Laurie spent a little time getting the shed in shape, we were even able to find space in there for our hot tub! Unfortunately, we ended up with the entire contents of our freezer onboard of which most is stored in a cooler outside in the cockpit. We had waves good-bye from Jackie Mills along with Hugh Whalen.

We spent Wednesday night at Robertson's Point tied up to Mike Daniel's mooring ball, on the southeast side of Grand Lake near the entrance to the Jemseg River, enjoying a beautiful evening while watching the 5 boats of the Fredericton Yacht Club having one of their final Wednesday night races.

On Thursday morning we headed out onto the Saint John River and although it was really cold and windy, the wind was right behind us driving us to Whelplay's Cove. I called John Fallon on our cell phone and we soon realized that his friend and ours, John Sinclair, was in Whelplay's and was heading for the RKYC for their weekly Thursday night dinner. Although I had a boat loaded with groceries, John S. picked us up on the shore and we shot off for a salmon dinner. We met up with Ken and Sally, Bob
Barnes, and lots of others from here.

After dinner, John Sinclair retuned us to our boat at Whelplay's where we had a very frosty overnight making it difficult to get out from under the blankets in the morning. It's amazing to us that although three nights earlier we had to sleep in the cottage with all screens open, we now are on a thin walled boat under a environment Canada frost warning. I don't particularly enjoy seeing my breath in the air nor finding the bottom of our mattress full of dew in the morning! Although we're just
dealing with memories, that night may have been colder than we experienced in the Bay of Fundy in 2004!

We arrived at the RKYC around noon yesterday and enjoyed the company of John Fallon, John Sinclair and Ken Ward. Ken provided us with a space heater, but it will only be usable here while plugged into "shore power". Both Laurie and I took long hot showers this morning at the RKYC club house, and I even got a bit of laundry washed while I was there!

We are experiencing troubles with the Ham Radio, which I'm sure John will have working for us sometime today. The Ham Radio is our life-line for communications, so it's a biggie! Also, we are waiting for a refrigeration expert to tweak our little fridge on Monday morning and will pick up the new life raft and replacement battery.

Hugh called us this morning to inform us that the last cushion we were waiting for from a company in Texas has arrived at the Post Office. Richard Brogan (neighbour at the cove) will deliver it to us on Sunday evening when he returns to his home in Saint John.

Tonight we have a spar shed party to attend…busy times!!

All for now,

Dawn (and Laurie)

testing from winlink