Yesterday morning, after a peaceful night, I motored through the Cape Cod Canal. It was a splendid day, full of sunshine but little wind. And sailing in the canal is prohibited, anyway. It's a beautiful area, and the canal landscape somewhat resembles the Kieler Kanal, only the houses along the canal shore are New England style and very different from German architecture.

The Canal is only some 7 miles long and with a fair tide (I was a bit early), took little over an hour to pass. Especially from the other side (East to West), it's a strange cut in the sandy beach where you sail in. Nice to have done. After that, I worked my way out of Cape Cod Bay, in only very little wind, as the prevailing southwesterly wind was opposed by a land wind that set in when I got out into the bay. It took me all day to get out, even though I motored some of it. In the evening a NW wind came up and I could set the Code 0. When I got past the North end of Cape Cod (prudently finishing a large bag of Cape Cod potato chips... delicious!), I noticed a whole group of humpback whales right on my track. Slowly they came up to breathe, spouting their colums 4 meters up in the air. Slowly they dived again, sometimes tails high up out of the water as they dove for food. Beautiful sight!

Today is another day out of the brochure; the brochure for cruising the Bahama's, that is. Clear blue sky, warm, light following wind and little swell make it comfortable but slow going. It's another 95 miles to the tip of Nova Scotia, and then another 100 to Halifax. But I might make for one of the many harbours before Halifax first, just to see what life is like in a small Nova Scotia fishing community.

Bart

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