We are off!
SeaFinn was taking off the same day but with a bit more time before they were to be in Halifax for a crew change. We, on the other hand, were hoping to get there to get boat jobs done and be on our merry way.
The alarm goes off, we look at each other, "meh it's sorta chilly" we both think without saying anything and we snooze the alarm. Up at around 07h00 and anchors up by maybe 07h30 we set off knowing the wind would fill in from like 5kts in the right direction to 23-25kts by 19h00 or so. We left later than expected and so it was likely we'd make one more stop before Halifax.
We motored past SeaFinn in the flat calm with just early bird Jeff on deck to wave us off. We motored along in the flat peaceful calm for about an hour before there was enough breeze and up went the sails on a deep reach.
Reachin'
The wind stayed constant from the same direction but just slowly increased throughout the day. It was perfect conditions. With little wind to start there was almost no swell so Karma just glided along, board up, at an easy 5kts or so. I slept first and literally knocked out it was so peaceful for like 3 and a half hours. Heather had to make no sail changes during that time as our speed increased to maybe about 5.5kts average and the swell was a little larger.
We switched and Heather went down for nappin' and I also had to make literally no sail changes. The swell definitely increased and occasionally we'd get sort of gently rolled over pretty far but being we were going with the waves it was all smooth and the boat was well balanced for this with one reef in the mainsail and the whole genoa out.
3 and a half or so hours into me hanging out watching the waves go by with the boat going an easy 7kts and surfing well into the 8s it was apparent we could not only make where we planned to stop before dark, but we could also make it around the point and up the channel into Armdale in Halifax before dark. We were absolutely flyin'. This boat goes off the wind like a big distance boat should.
Changin' Tack
Now that we were heading to Halifax we kept slightly further offshore which was better for the wind angle to the boat anyway which kept or speed up. The waves were decently large so we didn't feel like doin' too much more aside from sitting and watching the water but that was alright. At some point it made sense to gybe so we could head more directly north into the channel. We had the clew line sort of loose-ish on the first reefing point of the mainsail which added a lot of draft to it. While I tightened the boom to the center before gybing the fact that the sail had so much draft made it sort of slam over when it went across the wind. Turns out a few things broke when that happened but we'll discover that later on. For now we were still flyin' off the wind right into Halifax.
Rounding the point the waves started to die and all of a sudden the breeze was coming directly off the land and it was WARM. How nice! We were cruising along still at 7kts easy in flat water but still a good amount of wind, now in a somewhat shifty direction due to us entering the large Halifax channel. There were three sections we could see where the wind increased and as we went through one, it was pretty funny, as the boat rounded up and heeled waay over as we were like "woa woa woa okay lets put some headsail away".
The wind died more and more as it we made it further and further into the channel. Up the ArmDale arm we went and anchored back almost right in the same spot we did before along side a few other boats. All before sunset even. We made 82 nautical miles all in the daylight and without even leaving that early!
Let the refit begin
Somehow Halifax is like the most productive anchorage ever for us. We get down to work and end up delayed so more work can get done on the boat during our time here.
