We are engulfed in fog second night in a row. The biggest change is that yesterday we were 9 and today we are 2: Margot and I. It feels awfully quiet. For the past 5 days we had constant noise from a 1.5 year old until she crashed and from two boys age 4 and 5 until (typically) their mothers would put them to bed. And now Margot is trying to compose music on her tablet, the wind generator is making noise, and droplets of water are falling onto the deck. That's almost it as far as noise is concerned. Quite a change.
Spending so much time in close quarters seemed daunting for all adults, as it turns out. All 4 of us had different concerns as far as potential frictions are concerned, but most of the could-be-issues ended up being non-issues. For the first time the girls, Margot and Alina, did not quarrel once. And they have been spending at least a week together for the past 9 years (since Alina was born). After lunch today they proudly reminded us that they have been playing in peace.
The boys were a different story. They were best friends, they were worst enemies, and they could not stop moving. They were typical boys.
My biggest worry was that someone would get hurt. Salty Ginger offers lots of places to get in trouble: stairs, winches, getting rocked by a wave at the wrong time. I was not too worried about kids falling overboard: the danger is real, and kids sense it, plus the 24-inch lifelines reach above the boys waists. To make matters better, we lucked out with the weather. The winds were light and the swell minimal. We had minor scratches to tend to, but absolutely no major injuries of any kind.
The fog here is glorious. If I'm not mistaken, statistically 1/3 of the days in July have fog in Nova Scotia. And when it rolls in, visibility is down to 1/4 mile. We know that from our radar: on the passage yesterday from the town of Mahone Bay to Lunenburg I could see objects only when they were within 1/4 mile, and the radar could see much farther providing some peace of mind. There was one vessel that we never caught up to that we could see and the radar couldn't. At least we had visual contact.
We also had one close encounter with a sailing vessel which I noticed early enough to avoid collision. At some point the fog seemed to have lifted, i.e. we had more than a mile of visibility, but then we motored back into it, and as I was about to turn the radar back on, I took a look around and saw that we were on a collision course with a yacht under sail. Rather spooky, cause she came out of the fog and a minute later she was only visible on the radar.
By the time we pulled into Lunenburg visibility was excellent and the crew was happy to see a "proper" town as compared to Chester and Mahone Bay. We took day time dock at Zwicker's (free of charge if one leaves the dock by 23:00) and went for a walk, then picked up our rental car, got some food for dinner, and then left the dock to anchor in the harbor. Sunset was absolutely glorious with the sun peeking through the cloud cover. Right as the sun set the fog started to surround us, and soon we could see nothing but the lights in Lunenburg. A buoy perhaps 100 meters from us was barely discernible. Beautiful, but definitely much less stressful to enjoy at anchor rather than moving. Looking at such dense fog totally amazes me how the fishing vessels in the 19th century coped with such conditions. We have a GPS, radar, and lots of buoys spread around. They maybe had buoys and lighthouses. Such a difficult job of navigating!
We have a few projects to take care of on the boat, so the morning will be busy. Margot and I are hoping that the fog will lift in the afternoon for us to go back to Southwest Cove in search of birds and whatever else we can find. And Margot wants to be back in Lunenburg Thursday night for a lesson in plush toy making. Seems like the winds are favorable for such plans.
Spending so much time in close quarters seemed daunting for all adults, as it turns out. All 4 of us had different concerns as far as potential frictions are concerned, but most of the could-be-issues ended up being non-issues. For the first time the girls, Margot and Alina, did not quarrel once. And they have been spending at least a week together for the past 9 years (since Alina was born). After lunch today they proudly reminded us that they have been playing in peace.
The boys were a different story. They were best friends, they were worst enemies, and they could not stop moving. They were typical boys.
My biggest worry was that someone would get hurt. Salty Ginger offers lots of places to get in trouble: stairs, winches, getting rocked by a wave at the wrong time. I was not too worried about kids falling overboard: the danger is real, and kids sense it, plus the 24-inch lifelines reach above the boys waists. To make matters better, we lucked out with the weather. The winds were light and the swell minimal. We had minor scratches to tend to, but absolutely no major injuries of any kind.
The fog here is glorious. If I'm not mistaken, statistically 1/3 of the days in July have fog in Nova Scotia. And when it rolls in, visibility is down to 1/4 mile. We know that from our radar: on the passage yesterday from the town of Mahone Bay to Lunenburg I could see objects only when they were within 1/4 mile, and the radar could see much farther providing some peace of mind. There was one vessel that we never caught up to that we could see and the radar couldn't. At least we had visual contact.
We also had one close encounter with a sailing vessel which I noticed early enough to avoid collision. At some point the fog seemed to have lifted, i.e. we had more than a mile of visibility, but then we motored back into it, and as I was about to turn the radar back on, I took a look around and saw that we were on a collision course with a yacht under sail. Rather spooky, cause she came out of the fog and a minute later she was only visible on the radar.
By the time we pulled into Lunenburg visibility was excellent and the crew was happy to see a "proper" town as compared to Chester and Mahone Bay. We took day time dock at Zwicker's (free of charge if one leaves the dock by 23:00) and went for a walk, then picked up our rental car, got some food for dinner, and then left the dock to anchor in the harbor. Sunset was absolutely glorious with the sun peeking through the cloud cover. Right as the sun set the fog started to surround us, and soon we could see nothing but the lights in Lunenburg. A buoy perhaps 100 meters from us was barely discernible. Beautiful, but definitely much less stressful to enjoy at anchor rather than moving. Looking at such dense fog totally amazes me how the fishing vessels in the 19th century coped with such conditions. We have a GPS, radar, and lots of buoys spread around. They maybe had buoys and lighthouses. Such a difficult job of navigating!
We have a few projects to take care of on the boat, so the morning will be busy. Margot and I are hoping that the fog will lift in the afternoon for us to go back to Southwest Cove in search of birds and whatever else we can find. And Margot wants to be back in Lunenburg Thursday night for a lesson in plush toy making. Seems like the winds are favorable for such plans.
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