25-Jun-2003 -- On Wednesday June 25th, 2003 we visited 46 North Latitude 63 West Longitude which is situated in the Northumberland Strait about 3 miles from Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Gerry Chaisson and Lorne Lea left Charlottetown, P.E.I. at 11:00AM and drove southeast for about 20 miles to an abandoned wharf at Point Prim. We were met there at noon by Allan Morrison and Gary Byrne in Allan's 42 foot lobster fishing boat SHIALLA II. Allan and Gary had been fishing nearby since 05:30AM and, by prior arrangement, came in to the old wharf to take us aboard. We hauled lobster traps until 3:30PM and then went searching for 46N 63W. Wind and tide made it tricky to get the exact position but after some jockeying around with Gerry piloting and Alan giving navigation advice, we finally drifted over the point and took a photo of the GPS receiver for verification. The time was 4:01:33PM

We took a couple of additional photos and sailed into MacAulay's wharf. Another lobster fisherman, Donald MacPherson, was there and took a picture of the four happy degree confluence participants.

We had learned of the Degree Confluence Project in April of this year. Only 2 points are in P.E.I. One on land near Tignish and the one that we visited near Point Prim. The easy one, near Tignish, was visited last year so we determined to get the Point Prim point this year. We kept quiet about our plans to avoid having someone "steal" our point. We had planned to sail from Charlottetown in Gerry's boat but when the lobster fishing offer came up, we decided to see if Allan would try to reach the point. He was agreeable and the rest followed from that.

For the more technically astute another version of our trip follows:

DEPART ONBOARD THE LOBSTER FISHING VESSEL " SHIALLA II "AT 12:00 ON JUNE 25, 2003 FROM CLOSE ABOARD THE RUINS OF OLD PRIM POINT WHARF. PROCEED TO LOBSTER FISHING GROUNDS IN HILLSBOROUGH BAY AND NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIT. FISHED OVER A CIRCUITOUS COURSE FOR THREE HOURS.

AT 3:00P.M..GERRY CHAISSON TOOK THE HELM; ALLAN MORRISON ANNOUNCED COOL REFRESHMENTS WERE BEING SERVED AND THE SIMARD SHIPMATE CP32 WAS SET FOR 46 00 00N; 63 00 00W AND WAS DESIGNATED WAYPOINT 41 BY ALLAN MORRISON.

AT 4:01:33 P.M. REACHED WP41 460000N; 630000W AND SPOTTER GARY BYRNE SHOUTED OUT THAT A LOBSTER DOG TRAWL BUOY APPEARED TO BE ON THE VERY LOCATION. RECORDED AS ABOVE AND BY PHOTO ON MAGELLAN GPS 2000 PN62010 BY LORNE LEA. CHARTED AND CONFIRMED BY ALLAN MORRISON AS WP41 ON SIMARD SHIPMATE CP32 AND TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP USING CHARTVIEWPRO. PICTURE OF CREW AT DISEMBARKATION AT MACAULY'S WHARF TAKEN BY DONALD MACPHERSON.

In the Northumberland Strait, but with a view of land.