The "Down East Loop"

The Down East Loop

We have talked about our plans for this summer with so many people that I did not realize that I had not explained the plan in our Blog. We are currently heading for New York, the starting point for the "Down East Loop".

Starting in New York, the Down East Loop is about 2,400 NM and will take us all summer, and some more!. We plan to make it to NY harbor in mid to late May and to be back by mid September.

The basic route is made up of:

* Up the Hudson to Waterford
* Thru the Erie and Oswego canals to Lake Ontario
* Across Lake Ontario to Kingston, Canada
* Down the St. Lawrence "all the way" with visits to Montreal, Quebec City, and the Saguenay Fjord
* Into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and East around the Gaspe Peninsula
* East thru the Cumberland Straights to Prince Edward Island
* Back into the Atlantic and north to Cape Breton Island
* South down the coast of Nova Scotia
* Across the Bay of Fundy
* South down the Maine Coast to New England
* South to Boston and the Cape Cod Canal
* South to New England, stops at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
* Back to New York

We will be travelling with Barb and Don Cavin on Cavara. Don is an ex USAF and Northwest Airlines pilot and Barb is English and an ex Northwest Airlines stewardess.

This voyage will be quite a challenge for boat and crew. We will be travelling thru some rather raw territory. (The Gaspe peninsular has more wild moose than anywhere else in the continent. We will have to keep a sharp lookout!) We are keen to see some whales, but we are told the issue will not be seeing them, but avoiding them!

The tides and tidal currents are impressive in this part of the world. Our research has told us that we need at least four 60' docking lines to help cope with the large tidal rise and fall. So I purchased a reel of 600' of 3/4" nylon rope that we will split with Cavara.

Making mooring lines