Making the Most of Favorable Conditions

If the weather allows, don’t let a pre-set schedule keep you from pushing ahead.

By Peter A. Janssen

I just finished a trip up to the top of the Bay of Fundy, which separates Maine from Nova Scotia, where the tidal fall can be 18 to 20 feet and where, at least this time of year, it can seem like the end of the world. But I made a mistake that still annoys me, because I know better (or should have known better, in any event). The mistake: I let a pre-set schedule determine what I was doing. Specifically, late in the afternoon of the first day of my trip I stopped for the day in Eastport, Maine, the easternmost town in the U.S., because I had set that as my goal for that day, even though there were still a couple of more hours of daylight left and the sea conditions were very kindly. The next day when I woke up I couldn’t even see across the harbor because of the fog. In fact, it then took more than twice as long to reach my second day’s destination of St. John, New Brunswick, and when I did get there my nerves (and my temper) were shot from peering at the radar and trying to penetrate the murk at the same time. I was kicking myself the entire day. The obvious moral: Make hay while the sun shines.

Shared with permission by MotorBoating.