Kath and now Gail were helping Craig work out our 32 hour passage 260 nautical miles from Negro Island to Gloucester USA.  

We had been told we could check in at Gloucester and it was a direct sail between the two.  As always we are running from the cold it would have been amazing to take our time and cruise up the Bay of Fundy and stick closer to the USA coastline but its a huge expanse of very wild seas and we needed to keep moving.

The best time for us to leave was 1pm so we spent the morning getting ourselves organised, most things are secure anyway but we had to ensure everything was packed away or tied down and double check everything again.  Craig prepped the engine, topped up the oil etc.  I prepared a couple of wraps, had snacks and water ready and we had prepared a stew with cauliflower cheese for dinner. 

So with great trepidation we headed off out into the huge grey seas our passage started off great with a nice 10-12 knot wind keeping us speeding along between 6-8 knots and we were thanking Kath and Gail and revelling in our good forecasting.  The seas were huge but not too close together, about what we expected,  I might add still scary shit.  

But once we passed the shelter of land and we were passing the Bay of Fundy all hell broke loose. 

The seas became enormous, there is an undersea shelf that makes the seas shallow to 60mt and that produces short sharp waves, we pulled in the headsail and put out the staysail a tiny sail with the main sail trimmed to 3 reefs and we were still flying.  

Adriana is a big boat and we have had the occasional wave crash right over her but now she was constantly being drenched, luckily for us she is a very dry boat under the dodger so we were dry at least.

it was so wild we couldn't go downstairs without being thrown around I'm very lucky I don't get seasick but it was too scary to go downstairs, I would wait until I had to pee then I would take that opportunity to get food and make hot water bottles for us.  I think its lucky we haven't bought an outdoor  thermometer yet.  

It was like being on the scariest roller coaster and it went on for hours.  

At one point we were huddled together to keep warm and Craig said " Well, you didnt want to stay home and watch TV everynight -  bet you didnt expect this"   It was good it was dark so we could not see the size of the waves only feel Adrianna go up up up then down down down as she flew on through that swell.  

When dawn did eventually break we could see the huge waves and we virtually just sat there taking it in turns to have naps we could not do anything else but hold on...

There were no cups of tea or midnight popcorn on this trip.  We sailed through the daybreak and into the next day, lunchtime passed then tea time and then the sun went down again, by now we could see the lighthouses and glow of the cities.  Boston is the next big city down the coast from Gloucester.  We had only seen a couple of fishing vessels on AIS through the night but there were lots more craft as we neared land.   It still took us until 3am before we reached Gloucester Outer Harbour, it had taken us 36 hours.

We had been warned about the lobster traps in Gloucester Harbour, but this was ridiculous they were everywhere a minefield of bobbing floats.

They indicate there is a lobster pot below, and if you go on=ver them the rope can get wrapped around your prop and if its badly wrapped around you need to swim under the prop to cut it free, but luckily we have a cutter on our propeller and lucky the one we snagged
was instantly cut free.

We had to use a huge hand held spotlight to help us guide our way into the anchorage it was a busy anchorage with heaps of mooring balls.  We dropped the anchor and pulled it up again as we had miscalculated our distance from another boat and even on the second drop we felt we were still petty close to the other boats but we dropped the it, set the anchor alarm and collapsed into bed.  

The boat was like a bomb had gone off, the door to the cupboard where I keep my shoes had flown open, shoes everywhere, my bedside drawer had flown across the room, stuff everywhere. the mattress had even moved off the bed, clothes off the shelves books and magazines were on the floor in the main room and the pot drawer was on the floor but no damage just carnage.

That was a really wild ride I don't want to do that again, Craig has promised me only day sailing from now on. 

Wednesday 2nd October 2019

We picked our way through the lobster traps into the inner harbour about 11am the next morning and dropped the anchor just in front of the field of mooring balls, we were pretty close to the channel that the fishing boats were using but most of them waved to say hello as they passed and Craig later spoke to the Harbour Master and he was fine with our position.  Our top priority was to check into the USA.  Craig went to shore in the dingy but I had to stay onboard until we were cleared into the country. The harbourmaster was a great help letting Craig phone Border Protection, as our next task was to get a USA Sim card.  The Border Protection officer was coming to see us around midday so Craig went back over to pick him up - he said he had forgotten his laptop and would we mind coming to his office tomorrow, there was no need for him to come aboard, and he gave us permission for me to go ashore YAY.  

Its getting very Autumnal 

There are pumpkins everywhere for Halloween 

Gloucester 

Craig came back to pick me up and we headed the 2km to the closest AT&T store for a sim card.  We quickly organised this  US$50 per month unlimited data pretty good deal, we then stopped at the supermarket and on the way home we treated ourselves to a pub meal, I needed a good feed. 

The next day we were up early and heading to Beverley to the Customs Office then on to Salem for a look around.  The trains were the best option to go the 15 miles to Beverley.

Our customs officer was brilliant and easy and Craig is now the proud owner of a USA Cruising Permit.  We do have to call customs as we leave a port and give them our destination and call them when we arrive. And we were able to hoist our American Flag !!

Salem home of the 1862 witch-hunts, we walked from the train station following a red line that flows through the town all the tourist attractions are on this line.  We decided to go into the first one we came to it looked new and not too tacky.
It was an interactive tour with a guide, we had to walk downstairs into the cellars, there was the story of the workmen working on the site that had disappeared and the previous owner of the building having stored cursed ancient artifacts down there.  It was kinda fun not really scary, I could see if there had ben more people on the tour it might have had more atmosphere.  The second part of the experience was a narrative of the witch-hunts and the local history that was interesting.

When we came out it was raining and had turned cold we tried to look in a few shops but it was miserable and getting dark already so we decided to just catch the train home. Taking public transport in foreign countries is the best way to see how people live.

So many witchcraft shops selling spells and voodoo dolls 

Friday 4th September 2019

We had a call from Elin a friend of Kath and Gail's inviting us for a tour of Gloucester and dinner with her and her partner Mike, so we jumped at the chance to meet new friends and to be shown around.  Elin picked us up around 10am, we had a huge day, we had coffee then stopped at the 2 marine shops in Gloucester there was a good hour of sightseeing, then on to lunch, a quick visit to the supermarket and the bottle shop then back to their house for dinner, we met  2 of the kids, their gorgeous rescue dog from Honduras, had a walk through their huge garden, a few drinks steak for dinner met the neighbours walked away with an Australian flag, we have lost ours ??? don't know how. 

Anyway there was one waiting there for us Kath has asked Elin to order it on Amazon, how good is that
I was gifted jars of pickles, homemade Italian sauce and Jackie the next door neighbour gave us a tin of Milo and a tube of Vegemite.  Craig has been having Vegemite cravings he says its a real thing, he doesn't even eat vegemite normally but has been obsessed.

The hardest part about having us over for dinner is someone has to drive us home and Mike very graciously did that, even when he was in pain from a bad back.  Thanks guys it was great to meet you xx

Saturday 5th October 2019

Time to move on, our destination Provincetown, Cape Cod commonly known as P'Town.  

Back out into that big Atlantic Ocean once we had picked our way through the lobster pots, recreational fishermen are allowed 10 pots per family and I guess its easier for them to drop them in the harbour than way out in the ocean. There were plenty of pots out in the ocean too, its a full time job keeping a watch out for them,

Although we cruised about 15 miles offshore there were not too many and as we approached Cape Cod we entered the Marine Park and there are no lobster pots allowed.  We knew this was a marine park and to watch out for humpbacks, we watched 3 whale spotting boats come from the Cape Cod direction- speed out and around past us and they actually stopped about 8 miles behind us but close to our track ,we must have passed some and not seen them.

But then we did have a whale swim right past us as we had turned the corner into Cape Cod, its tail came out of the water right next to us I grabbed the camera but didn't get the perfect shot.  We did see another one and stopped for a while but it did not reappear. What we did see were a number of sunfish, they are strangest looking things, there were also a couple of seals swimming around.

Provincetown is a LGBT community there are lots of art galleries, beautiful restaurants and gift shops, they have cabaret and drag shows and all sorts of unusual shops, we walked down the main nightclub street I can imagine there would be plenty of action there after dark. 

I don't know I think we expected something a bit classier but it is really touristy with junky souvenir shops and take outs.  We came ashore on the Friday as soon as we landed and had a quick scout around then again on Saturday but that was enough Craig is not interested in browsing the shops and we are not going to buy anything so its a bit of a waste of time. 

Sunday 6th October 2019

We had another walk around P'town its good to walk when we can the weather is due to turn windy tomorrow so we made the most of our time on land, the ride to shore was a long one and on the way back the wind had started to pick up and the ride was a bit wet and bouncy and getting back onboard was a challenge.  We upped the anchor and moved a couple of miles into the hook of land.  

We had a bit of trouble setting the anchor so we just picked up a mooring ball,  we figured it was off season and the chances of someone wanting to use it were pretty small,  I am so glad we took the mooring ball we rocked and rolled and swung all night

Originally we  had anchored just past the harbour looking out to the beach but as the wind was going to increase and change direction we moved over into the hook of land, this left us too far away to go back ashore as it was now really windy and choppy
We had a lovely day on the Monday  just relaxing onboard the temp was nice and mild and we did a few chores . 

Our unlimited data didn't last long, we binge watched a show (Fleabag on Prime) and poof our data was slowed down heaps, so much for unlimited data !!!  we can still check weather and social media but no more shows until next month.

We have lost our Australian flag and today we noticed our USA flag had disappeared.  oops lucky we have 2 USA ones.
We spent Sunday afternoon, night and all day Monday onboard.

Tuesday 8th October

Back out into the North Atlantic the wind had dropped after the blustery conditions on Sunday and Monday so much so that Craig was very disappointed he could not sail, we had to motor for the first hour or so, eventually the wind did pick up as we headed towards the Cape Cod Canal.  We had departed P'Town at 7.30 am as we had to reach the canal by 11am to be able to run with the tide. I kept my eyes on the water around us as we are still in the Marine Park but with no whales showing themselves today.  It takes an hour and  a half to get through the canal its quite wide and an easy run through, our destination  is  a little inlet behind Naushon Island which is part of the Elizabeth Islands, a little harbour called Inner Harbour. next to Woods Point. Where we will shelter while another front goes through.