Anchored at Sheet Harbour's dock, waiting for Hurricaine Irene to hit

Our new quarters - the V-berth!

We've had a great couple of days! Our first day was getting oriented with the boat, our surroundings and most importantly our hosts. The second day was testing our systems and filling up on water. Pilger actually unfurled her foresail and jib to sail. This gave us an opportunity to get oriented with the helm and the controls, but not without any casualties - a hat fell overboard, swept of by a gust of wind. We did turn around to scoop it out, but it had sunk by the time we turned around. It was the one Lucia wanted me to throw away, so she got her wish. 

Sleeping in the v-berth is actually quite cozy and comfortable despite its looks. The reading light that I got with my case for the Kindle is handy in such a situation.

Even though there's a lot of preparation to get underway we have time to read, talk and work on our projects. So yes, I'm slowly getting used to life aboard the ship as well as getting comfortable with its sounds - especially the water slapping against the hull at night.

A few friends were concerned about Hurricane Irene hitting us and rightly so!

I just checked online with weather Canada - they predict that by the time it's near us it'll be a tropical storm and most likely will be in northern Quebec / New Brunswick.  FYI, I found a good link for tracking storms with google maps.

Pilger moored at Sheet Harbour

Earlier today we took advantage of the rainy weather to clean the deck of the ship. This gave us an opportunity to test out our foul weather gear - happy to report that both of us were warm and dry (especially Lucia who gets cold fast!). Remember that exercise of trying to save an overboard hat? Well, it came in handy when I lost the pail!

Of course, the deck got all dirty when we secured the ship to its original mooring to weather out the storm. The captain reckons that we might get a tidal surge. When Hurricane Juan hit Nova Scotia, along with the strong winds that leveled the trees, there was a strong tidal surge in the area high enough to wash over the wharf! So we'll see what happens.

As for sailing out ... well we'll see but it looks like sometime after Monday.

Till later :)