We were now close-hauled in a light southerly, just ahead of a frontal wind shift to the southwest. Since the wind had been veering clockwise for the last few hours, the swell was still coming from directly ahead, as its direction tends to lag behind that of the wind. This kept our speed to about two-thirds of what we would normally expect. Maryanne was particularly frustrated by this, since our ETA was a full day later than my initial prediction.
"Don't worry," I told her, as I left her to her first watch in a four-knot breeze. "Tailwinds are coming. In fact, I've already reefed the main so it will be ready for it when the gusts hit."
I didn't sleep as well as I would have hoped. I was trying to fall asleep a little earlier than I was used to and there was more than the usual amount of stomping around on deck going on above me.
When Maryanne did wake me from the deep sleep that I had finally achieved so that I could begin my watch, I learned that she had not been rushing around, trying to deal with the building, shifting wind, but instead had spent most of her time trying to keep enough wind in the sails to hold their shape. I had emerged briefly in the middle of her watch to help her switch to the spinnaker, but fifteen minutes later, the wind shifted back forward and she had to pull it down and go back to her original configuration. Only one of her hourly log entries had broken the elusive two-knot speed barrier. The shift in wind direction had happened, but all the dire forecasts about gale-force gusts never materialized. Our original arrival estimate into Tobermory had been around midday. Now, it was starting to look like we would struggle to get there by nightfall.
Perhaps the winds were coming a little bit later than forecast. I watched the instruments for the first half-hour of my watch and then spent the next studying the western sky for any sign of approaching weather. The clouds were just run-of-the-mill fair-weather altocumulus with no signs of stronger convection and no wisps in the high cirrus to indicate strong winds or turbulence up there. I decided the gusts weren't going to be coming after all.
We now had eight knots of wind on a reach that was broad enough that the jib was occasionally collapsing in the turbulence in the lee of the mainsail. Now it was my turn to make some noise as I switched from white sails to spinnaker. This time, I was able to leave it up.
Despite the forecast, we had light winds and slow progress. The lovely orange full moon just after sunset was a bonus on an otherwise frustrating passage
Our speed doubled. The wind doubled and our speed doubled again. We were now up to eight to nine knots, which was more than enough to put us back at a midday arrival. At one point, Maryanne surfaced and said she was worried we were going too fast. You can't please that woman. She had fallen asleep to a light gurgle and woke to louder whooshing, making her think we must be over-canvassed. It happens to both of us all the time. Our mattress is pretty much at water level, so speed changes feel like they are magnified down there. We have each, on occasion, come up concerned and found the one at the helm having a perfectly nice time in moderate conditions.
The wind held all night. Even with stowing the sails and getting the engines up to speed, we still pulled into Tobermory at one p.m. Maryanne tried the same thing with the Canadian Border Services Agency that she had when we arrived in the U.S., calling before we made it to the harbour. They weren't having it and told us we needed to be tied up before they could issue inbound clearance. Well, we tried.
The harbourmaster at Tobermory told us they were so full that boats were having to raft up, which with our width would be a problem. She then told us we were free to use the fuel dock to clear in with customs and immigration (a single call). We didn't need fuel, but topping up our water would get us through the rest of the summer. We had left Little Current full, so we didn't need much. By the time I was done filling, Maryanne was off the phone and said we were now officially back in Canada.
We hoist the courtesy flag on arrival at each new country
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