Congrats! You're planning on going to a beautiful-beautiful area!! Regarding Bras D'Or Lakes: gorgeous sailing! But you can always duck in there after you rest a bit in Charlottetown. We did a part of the route you're planning (from
Great Lakes via St Lawrence to
Florida and back up to Bay of Fundy and back down and etc...). Usually we did it in
offshore hops (3-7 days).A few thoughts based on our experiences:
Unless you're prepared to go in any
weather, you will end up sitting in some
ports waiting for better conditions. So make necessary stops, but don't spend too much time in one place if you really want to end up in Charlottetown by June.
We would watch the weather especially closely on the following points:
Gulf Stream, Cape Fear, Cape Hatteras, entrance to Chesapeake, entrance to Delaware, end of
Long Island Sound,
Cape Cod, and then the tidal swings that start about 60 miles out of Gulf of
Maine.
Gulf Stream: remember, Northern component in the
wind = get out of Gulf Stream. Watch out for frequent squalls with
lightning.
Cape Hatteras: if the weather is too nasty to go
offshore for 3+ days, it's worth taking the inside route. We don't like it because you constantly have to be on watch for other boats, staying in the channel, shoals, bridges, and it's not nice to travel at night (we did it on a cloudy night, but with a night-vision
camera and some stress involved). Plus, you will need to get back out of Chesapeake after.
Chesapeake to Delaware: if you stay outside of these bays, remember that the weather is influenced by Chesapeake about 20 miles out. We went the inside route once escaping a storm. There are local storm cells inside Chesapeake, lots of boats, tight
shipping channel in places. Though the ride out of Delaware on outgoing tide was just nice.
South of
Long Island: several
shipping channels converge with LOTS of ships, barges, tugs around.
AIS is a MUST. There is a tidal
current, so winds against current produces short waves. Beating into them with a few ships converging on your location can get stressful.
Cape Cod: if you decide to stop on
Martha's Vineyard, etc and the weather is not that nice offshore, you can take Cape Cod canal. There is a strong tidal current, so must time the pass correctly. Note, that one of the US
East Coast cruising guides used to state the timing incorrectly. Eldridge states it correctly for sure.
Gulf of
Maine: if you do decide to go into Bay of Fundy, ride the current! We did 17 knots once [scary!]. Otherwise, if you're further offshore, but still crossing MA/ME to NS, set the direction to where you'll want to end up and ignore the tidal changes to yoru course. Your course will end up looking like letter S, but you'll end up pretty much where you wanted in the beginning. Just don't adjust for tides.
For Gulf of Maine and Canada: watch the tides!!! The harbour may look completely different on low vs. high tide. Because of tidal swings, fishermen use double or triple float lobster trap bouys. Trap -> 1st buoy -> 2nd buoy -> 3rd buoy. Sometimes you can pass between the buoys, sometimes you catch the line.
Diving in 12-15 degree
water to free your prop is not recommended. Traps are placed anywhere up to depths of 500 feet. Navigating between them is sometimes a challenge, so strongly recommend having a lobster trap buoy lookout communicating with a person at the
helm station.
Canadian coast: between
Halifax and Canso Strait
charts, both
Navionics and
C-Map, maybe [severely] out of date. It's important to listen to Warnings to Mariners on ch 16. Well, it's always important, but there it's crucial. Watch for
provisioning stops:
fuel,
water, sometimes even
food may be a drive away.
Canso and north:
AIS is a must for crossing Canso as there's quite a lot of shipping. People are very-very nice and helpful - the nicest in our experience. Sometimes best
ports are fisherman harbours. You can usually tie to the wall for free there [don't forget
fender boards!!], but be sure to be out of the way of
fishing boats coming in and out.
Northumberland strait: watch, watch, watch for the weather! There is a tidal current + St. Lawrence current. Our experience [and experience from a gentleman on this forum] is that Canadian forecasts are wrong about 40% of the time in that area. If the
wind starts picking up against the current, don't think that you'll toughen it out on the water. Duck into a windward port. Watch for triple-buoyed lobster traps!!! Because of strong currents, fishermen use
steel cables. It won't be good on your prop or your
keel.
Don't forget warm clothes and blankets and a
fog horn. Watch out for whales, especially sleeping ones.
Canadian coast
cruising guides: some of them are quite out of date. As maps may be out of date too, we found the following useful: we bought 4 different guides, we had both
Navionics and
C-Map, so we would compare the guides to maps to
depth sounder to see which guides and maps were more accurate. For us Navionics was more accurate together with the following two guides:
CRUISING THE EASTERN SHORE OF NOVA SCOTIA Binnacle.com and
Down East Circle Route - 2nd Ed.. Also check websites for the guide you'll use as it will have some corrections and updates.
The above notes are just a small summary of a long route. Please ask more, if interested in details. For example, list of interesting places, list of places with good provisions, with easy entrances, list of
hurricane holes (especially up north), list of places to outfit/fix the
boat, etc.
Note, that these are just our experiences. I'm sure others can suggest more.
). ...Ralph
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