Our two night (50 hour) passage from Cuttyhunk to Yarmouth, NS was uneventful. We were able to get our sails up for part of the journey, which was better than we had hoped. Much of the trip was under motor or motor sailing. It was a very easy trip.
The most eventful part of the trip was the final 3 nm up a channel to the town. We timed our arrival to avoid crossing paths with The CAT, a high speed ferry that runs daily between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor, ME. It moves at about 35kn on the open ocean, and even in the channel it was moving at 13kn. It would have been possible, but a nail biter, to encounter them in the narrow channel.
As expected, we encountered dense fog as we approached and entered Yarmouth. The CAT passed within 1/4 nm of us, and while we could hear it (it sounded like a freight train), we could not see it through the fog. We did use our fog horn in addition to lights and our radar reflector to make ourselves as “visible” as possible.
We arrived in Yarmouth Sunday morning and tied up at town marina. We had raised a Q flag when we entered Canadian territorial waters. The Q flag is yellow to represent the original purpose. Beginning back in the 1500s, boats used these flags to signify possible yellow fever on board. Back then, boats had to endure a quarantine of up to 40 days before being allowed to interact with anyone else. Now, it symbolizes that a boat has not yet cleared with customs and immigration, and no one may conduct business with the vessel.
From the dock, as the captain of the boat, Jim called the customs and immigration line. We were not allowed to leave the boat until this step was completed. Fortunately, the entire customs and immigration process was quite smooth, taking less than 10 minutes. They sometimes choose to search boats (just like your car at a border crossing), so we were thankful not to have to go through that process. Once the check in was completed, we swapped our Q flag out for a Canadian courtesy flag.
We enjoyed our first day in Canada — we happened to arrive in Yarmouth during their annual Seafest so were treated to some traditional dancing, a herring toss contest, and complimentary hotdogs and cake. We didn’t have room for the hot dogs because we had already found a food truck with very tasty fish and chips.
We spent the day doing boat chores, wandering around town, and doing some provisioning. After a tasty dinner at a nearby restaurant, we turned in early for a planned 5am departure the next day.