9th till 11th October by Dario:
On Sunday Jim and Lea visited our boat and took our kids fishing and hiking so that we had the hands free to clean the boat and start responding to the 1200 emails I got while in the Arctic. The Watson’s and Blynn’s also did all our laundry at their place.
In the night the wind started to blow. At 3 a.m. Monday morning I called all man on deck. The kids were first! We came dangerously close to the pier. Strong gusts let the rigging vibrate. Salina rescued her kayak, that was between the pier and the boat. The others had the dinghy and fenders ready, if the anchor would let go.
We decided to anchor in the middle of the bay to be able to give more chain if the wind is strengthening. It was pitch dark with heavy rain coming sideways and cold. Andri managed the flash light. Sabine at the helm. Christina and Cornelia relayed Noe’s readings on the depth sounder in the cockpit to me at the anchor windless. Salina and Alegra were busy securing dinghy and kayak. Everything went like a Swiss Victorinox watch. We anchored in 8 meters and had 75 meters of half inch (12 mm) chain out. Christina made a tea to warm up and after a debriefing we went to bed. Outside the wind peaked 45 knots.
Thanks to the hot tip of Jill Fredston we made it to the “Celtic Coleurs”, the Celtic music festival happening every year here for a week. Many bands are playing all over the place. We made it on Monday to a free concert at the church, after paddling hart against the wind and rain to shore. Our kids were so inspired and started to exercise for their own concert.
That night we did a presentation about our expedition in the yacht club. It was hard to come back to the yacht club from the Watson’s, because the roads were flooded. It was calm later when we paddled back to the boat, but some minutes later the storm was back. It peaked 50 knots that night. But our SPADE anchor did again a great job.
The general outlook for the area of Cabot Str. to Halifax – Issued 20:00
ADT 10 October 2016 reads: “Tonight and Tuesday Storm warning in effect. Wind north 30 knots increasing to north 50 late evening”.
We were supposed to give a school presentation on Tuesday morning, but the school was closed because of the flooding. The local newspaper asked for an interview. Andrew was our journalist. His whole family came to visit the boat with Clark&Barb. Afterwards his wife went shopping for us, so that we had the opportunity to enjoy the great Alexander Bell museum meanwhile. It is amazing too see Bell’s wide interests and the innovations he did.
On Tuesday afternoon Salina and Andri were on stage at the bar of the yacht club. Andri fiddle and Salina voice and cello. Noe and Alegra were too shy.
Back on the boat we had a goodbye meal for Cornelia. She joined us in June covering approximately 8000 nautical miles from Hawaii through the Northwest Passage. She was always there to help and became a good sailor and helmswoman on this trip. We wish her luck for her teaching exam in Switzerland. We will miss her and hope too see her once back again.
Please note: Our gofoundme page is now working. Please check it out: https://www.gofundme.com/2gb7d6c
Donations: http://www.toptotop.org/bank.php
Voyage link:
https://share.delorme.com/ChristinaHartmann
Best high resolution pictures:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s0aorug11707501/AAC394QkszKupn4syRj2EyMpa/best%20pics%20of%20TOPtoTOP/2016-annual-report?dl=0
