8/15/04   Dingwall, NS    <Dingwall Images>

Back in Dingwall, Nova Scotia at the tip of Cape Breton Island.

46 54.152  N
60 27.481  W

Sitting at Hamilton Carter's dock in front of his beautiful and incredibly scenically situated house.  Hamilton and Sarah are on their sailboat somewhere on the coast of Newfoundland.  Got diesel fuel from the fishermens' Coop right next door -- they are always incredibly friendly.  Used a weather window to hop back across the Cabot Strait at fast cruise from 3:30 to 9:30 am on Friday. As expected, weather came up later Friday and it has been pretty windy (wind = waves) ever since.  Hurricane "C-something" is expected in Maine this (Sunday) afternoon as a tropical storm - its counterclockwise rotation will bring strong Southeasterly's up here.  It is a beautiful (breezy) day though and hopefully things will calm down sometime around the beginning of the week.

I was eager and relieved to get out of Channel Port Aux Basques on Friday morning.  It is a ferry town with lots of transients and dock-walkers, no local self-esteem, and lots of crud (literally trash).  Rename it Skankytown.  At least harbor traffic control has nice female voices that in a well-trained radio demeanor sincerely wish you a safe journey when you roust then from napping at their console at 3AM to check that "Atlantic Freighter" isn't going to mow you down in the dark and fog in the narrow channel on your way out. 

Sunday morning backyard mechanic today: just routine stuff, but I try religiously to keep up with it at least every few days.  Put a little oil in the main engine -- first time since Maine -- about 250 hours of diesel run time.  Also added a bit of oil to the generator -- I've screwed this one up before so I watch it particularly carefully.  The genset is overdue for another 100 hour oil change.  I do run the air conditioning when it gets hot or when docked in a sewer -- only for the dog's benefit of course.  Also, I seldom have shore power and the boat has lots of electrics (playing Loud music to wildlife takes Power), so the batteries also need charging.  Oil change will just have to wait until I get someplace more civilized though.    Checked and cleaned the sea-strainers - nothing to speak of there,  Pulled all the dog hair off the engine intake filter pad -- this happens almost daily as the dog sheds significant hair and a 440 HP diesel sucks gobs of [h]air.  Everything in the engine room looks great -- it is amazing how easy it is to get at routine things on this boat since the rebuild (it was really hard before).  The Ellis folks (and me) get kudos for creating a complex yet easily serviceable package in a 32 foot hull.  The fact that I can get down in the engine room next to the diesel and in front of the generator is invaluable.  

No time to go back via the St. Lawrence, but I am hoping to get from here over to the Iles de la Madeleines (70 miles) if the weather permits before heading back southward.