After a hurricane passes over your boat there is one good result: Your boat is CLEAN. It basically gets a freshwater power wash for hours and hours. Yesterday we spent all day undoing all the things we did to prep the boat for the storm. This morning we pulled up our lines and anchors, and in less than an hour we took the boat from as clean as it has been in months to a filthy muddy mess as all the lines, chains and anchors did their best to move as much lake bottom to the topsides of Harmonie as possible.

Under sunny, clear, and chilly sky we sailed south on Bras d’Or Lake. On the shores of the lake we see the first hints of fall color showing in the maple trees. That can only mean one thing: It is time to turn further south before winter arrives.

We are anchored at the southern end of the lake, at the town of St Peters. We tried to do a grocery run today, but the storm still had power out in much of the town so the grocery store was closed. Tomorrow, it is supposed to be open for business again so we can stock up for our coming passage south.

Our weather forecasts suggest that we wait a day here before taking passage through the canal back into the Atlantic. Our plan is to reverse the route we took to get up here two months ago: Leaving from Nova Scotia, straight down the coast to the Delaware River, through the Delaware Chesapeake Canal, then down to Annapolis. A total trip time of about seven days.