Month: June 2014

Trip Log – Gulf of Maine to Lunenburg- A Wet Warm Welcome in Lunenburg

061614_0043Well our last 12 hours of sailing was an adventure. I was asked by the Lunenburg Librarian (not a sailor) if I was afraid for my life when I told her we arrived on Wednesday by sailboat… Well, I answered, not really afraid I would say… A little nervous I suppose. (more…)

Meet Ethan!

I have mentioned him a few times but never really introduced our crew extraordinaire Ethan! Ethan met Matt working on the sailing cargo ship project the Kwai based out of Hawaii/Cook Islands. They re-met when Matt started visiting Ottawa since Jessica is also from there.

Ethan at the helm of Heart's Desire, entering Lunenburg harbour.

Ethan at the helm of Heart’s Desire, entering Lunenburg harbour.

Ethan has been working for the Canadian Coast Guard up in the arctic on ice-breakers and on the St. Lawrence ships. With extensive sailing experience in the south pacific and throughout the Atlantic he has been a great asset. Without him we would have been hoving-too out in the Atlantic for many more hours than it took for us to enter Lunenburg on Wednesday.
He’s been keeping us in drinking form in Lunenburg so far and will continue with us around Mahone Bay and up to Halifax.

Ethan has been the main engineer for the Kwai and designed their rig & construction plans. The Kwai is three-quarters of the way through the conversion from a powered cargo vessel to a sailing (and powered) cargo vessel servicing islands in the south Pacific.

Heading North – Summer 2014

WELCOME! The following map illustrates our sailing plans for June to October, 2014. We hope you will follow our posts as we make our way around the Canadian Maritimes over the summer and Maine in the early fall.

Travel plans for summer 2014. Depending on timing and how things are going the most northern part of the trip has a couple options. We plan to go straight from Vineyard Haven, on Martha's Vineyard, MA, to Lunenburg, NS. After that we will hop the coast into the Bras D'or Lakes, NS, exit to the north and cross the Cabot Strait to Newfoundland. We will travel up the west coast to Gros Morne National Park and assess the situation from there. We plan to try to go to the Iles-de-la-Madeleine, QC on our way south. We will go through the Canso Canal and hop the coast back down to the Yarmouth area. Across the Bay of Fundy we hope to meet with friends and family in northern Maine then continue home to Martha's Vineyard by mid October.

Travel plans for summer 2014. Depending on timing and how things are going the most northern part of the trip has a couple options. We plan to go strait from Vineyard Haven, on Martha’s Vineyard, MA, to Lunenburg, NS. After that we will hop the coast into the Bras D’or Lakes, NS, exit to the north and cross the Cabot Strait to Newfoundland. We will travel up the west coast to Gros Morne National Park and assess the situation from there. We plan to try to go to the Iles-de-la-Madeleine, QC on our way south. We will go through the Canso Canal and hop the coast back down to the Yarmouth area. Across the Bay of Fundy we hope to meet with friends and family in northern Maine then continue home to Martha’s Vineyard by mid October.