Arctic Solo Sail

July 14, 2009: 2000 position report. Lat 49° 01’ 58” N ~ Long 068° 03’ 36” W course 056°T speed 3.9 kts WX: broken clouds, thunderstorms on horizon, wind W @ 10kts dying traveled 79 nm since 0730.

Sea room! Finally I have sea room to run, tack, hove-to, whatever I need. I feel rich with room. Not an ocean worth mind ya, but room I haven’t had before. Oh the lakes were big enough, but they were crowded too. Here, I’ve passed within a mile of only one vessel, a small sailboat making her way across the bay. The traffic lanes are to the south and my AIS is working great. There are tight spots up ahead but tonight I have sea room.

I saw a minke whale right off the little harbor I anchored in last night. I recognize him from his smallish fin located on his back. I have not seen any more belugas though. There is lots of interesting sea birds. One looked like a swan all white with a long neck and black tips on its wings. It soared dipping close to the water then up high again. Of all things not to have it’s my Audubon bird book.

I’ll stay underway tonight. I’ve got to start getting used to being underway over nights. Oh, I’ll make a few stops along the way but mostly it will be just sail. The wind will drop around midnight and I’ll hove-to then and sleep very lightly…in my clothes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Saint Lawrence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.