THE REAL START 3 



mutely reproaching your correspondent with singing another's 

 praises when she has brought us safely and easily thus far, in 

 spite of gales, fog, and headwind, calm, and treacherous tide, 

 and even now is eagerly waiting for the opportunity to carry 

 us straight and swiftly to Battle Harbor in the straits of Belle 

 Isle, where letters and papers from home await us, and then 

 up through the ice fields to Cape Chudleigh. 



Our real start was made from Southwest Harbor, Mt. Desert, 

 the Monday after leaving Rockland. Saturday night, after a 

 short sail in the dark and a few tacks up the Thoroughfare to 

 North Haven village, we anchored and rested from the confu- 

 sion and worry of getting started and trying to forget nothing 

 that would be needed in our two and one-half months' trip. 

 Sunday morning was nearly spent before things were well 

 enough stowed to allow us to get under weigh in safety, and 

 then our bow was turned eastward and, as we thought, pointed 

 for Cape Sable. Going by. the hospital on Widow's Island 

 and the new light on Goose Rock nearly opposite it, out into 

 Isle au Haut bay, we found a fresh northeaster, which warned 

 us not to go across the Bay of Fundy if we had no desire for 

 an awful shaking up. In view of all the facts, such as green 

 men, half-stowed supplies and threatening weather, we decided 

 that we must not put our little vessel through her paces that 

 night, and chose the more ignominious, but also more com- 

 fortable course of putting into a harbor. Consequently after 

 plunging through the rips off Bass Head, and cutting inside 

 the big bell buoy off its entrance, we ran into Southwest Har- 

 bor and came to anchor. In the evening many of the party 

 thought it wise to improve the last opportunity for several 

 months, as we then supposed, to attend church, and to one 

 who knew the chapel-cutting proclivities of many of our party 

 while at Bowdoin, it would have been amusing to see them 

 solemnly tramp into church, rubber boots and all. It is a fact, 

 however, that every member of our party, with a possible ex- 

 ception, went to church in this place yesterday largely for the 

 same reason. 



