Gulf of Maine Spinnaker Run

After a night in Mattapoisett MA and our first lobster roll, we set out for the Cape Cod Canal.  13 miles and you are through into the Gulf of Maine.  It was a quiet, clear, windless morning but the sun was shining and the air was finally cool.  North of Cape Cod the temperatures and humidity disappeared.   All the boats put up sails, and Aria and Iolair flew their spinnakers.  We saw 8 knots of boat speed with 12 knots of wind.  At dusk we reduced sail and continued toward Maine.  Heading toward shore, we planned to hit the depth of 300 feet of water at dawn...that's where you start to see lobster pots.  The pots are everywhere and you need the light to spot them. That said, the fog was so thick we could not see two boat lengths in front of Iolair. The radar system we have aboard was set to look for objects within 200 feet, and it picked up the pots before we could actually see them.

As we approached Rockland, we still couldn't see squat. A large ferry was heading toward us. We could hear it's horn and see it on AIS.  We scrambled to get out of the way and it passed close on port. That's the way it works in Maine.