On to Nova Scotia

We left Charlottetown, PEI yesterday, Saturday July 18. We had a good crossing over to Pictou, NS, arriving at the city marina, the Hector Quay Marina, located next to the reconstructed square rigger, Hector, the boat which brought the original 189 Scottish settlers here in 1773. Pictou is the birthplace of

New Scotland. Sunday we traveled east, on a beautiful, calm day, around Cape George to Havre Boucher where we anchored in their natural harbor. After a very peaceful night, we pulled anchor on Monday morning, heading for Bras d'Or Lakes. We went thru two current control locks, the first in the Straights of Canso. This is a large lock capable of handling large ocean going ships. Unlike most locks which raise or lower you several feet, this lock only controls the current through this passage. Depending on the tide, you are either raised or lowered. Today the water level at both ends was vertually equal, so we drove into the lock, held ourselves in the middle of the lock, and drove out the other end. The second such lock was as we entered Bras d'Or Lakes at St. Peter. This lake is exposed to tidal water at the north entrance and the St. Peter Canal controls the current at the south end of the lake so boats can safely transit the canal. This is a small lock operated by Parks Canada. Once in the lake we immeadiatly turned left and went to St. Peters Marina operated by the local Lions Club. Two boats we knew from Rimouski were here, including Marcel and Genevieve on their sail boat SANTA MARIA 1. We no more than tied up the boat and Marcel insisted we come to their boat for lunch. They had been monitoring their radio and knew when we called into the marina, so were there to greet us. We had a delightful lunch together and then they came over to our boat for a soup supper. Many of the people we meet along the way are special, and Marcel and Genevieve are among them. Tuesday, Marcel and Genevieve took us on a 13 hour driving tour of Cape Breton Island. The highlight of the trip was the drive on the Cabot Trail, through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Around each corner there is another breathtaking vista. The camera just doesn't capture this beauty, but it's the best we have to attempt to share this beautiful scenery with you. It rained hard all day Wednesday, so we stayed on the boat and caught up on housekeeping chores and a few small maintenance projects. Thursday, at about noon the sun came out. We left the marina to see this beautiful lake. We anchored on the north shore of West Bay and a secluded cove at the base of the mountains which are the eastern edge of the Cape Breton Highlands. Friday we took an interesting ride up a narrow channel named "The Boom", to Orangedale, an interesting town with a prosperous past. The channel was remonisant of our trip through Georgian Bay in 2007. In Orangedale they have resored a late 1800 Railroad Station. In it's heydays, 1930-1950, they had 6 passenger trains and as many as 20 freight trains go through Orangedale every day. Now there are 4 freight trains a week, one each way on Tuesday and Thursdays. With some windy, rainy weather expected during the night, we snuck into McKinnens Harbour through a narrow dredged channel. The guide book didn't mention that the channel was schoaling in on the east side, so our trip in got a little interesting. We made it but I was a little concerned as I watched the bottom go by just under the starboard side of the hull. The wind blew 30 K and it rained all day Saturday, so we just hunkered down. Late in the day it calmed down, and I took the dingy back to the narrow channel to take soundings with my lead line to figure out the best course back out. If we hug the west side of the channel we had a good 8' of water. Sunday morning we pulled anchor and headed out for Baddeck, with a planned stop in Iona to go see Highland Village, a reconstructed early Scottish village. Iona also has a Government Warf, so we tied up ODYSSEE, got the bikes out, and rode UP to Highland Village. As we were docking, I heard a short squeek of a drive belt, we froze up a bearing on the starboard engine fresh water pump. Yes, we rebuilt the starboard engine, but we used the fresh water pump from the failed engine. So now I have replaced both fresh water pumps, the port engine pump failed a year age at Burlington, VT. The Village was nicely done, and the view of the lake from on top of the hill was spectacular. The ride down to hill back to the boat was a whole lot easier than the ride UP. On one engine we proceeded to Baddeck. Baddeck was Alexander Graham Bell's summer residence, because it was so much                                          like his native Scotland. We visited the museum run by Parks Canada. Most of his experimentation and inventions occured here. Besides the telephone, he is the father of Canadian aviation and the developement of hydrofoil boats, driven by air propellers. His boat, HD-4 set the world speed record on water of 71 MPH in 1919 on Bras d'Or Lakes. This year they are celebrating 100 years of Canadian aviation, in February of 1909 Bell flew his Silver Dart from the ice of Bras d'Or Lakes. More than 100 antique airplanes have flow in to celebrate this occasion. 

   

We ordered a new water pump from the Detroit dealer in Montreal on Monday morning. It will be here Wednesday about noon. So we are enjoying Baddeck, but look forward to moving on. The new pump arrived at 12:10 on Wednesday, it was installed and we left the marina at 2:30, traveled 15 miles to an anchorage on The Great Bras d'Or behind Otter Island. On the way to The Great Bras d'Or we went        past  Bell's lake estate. It was at this 

location that his aironautical and hydronautical experiments were conducted. The Great Bras d'Or is the NE entrance into Bras d'Or Lakes and is not controlled by a lock. You have to time your exit with the tidal current, which means we have a 6 hour window to go out on Thursday from about 5:00 to 11:00 AM. Well it's Thursday. It's foggy and expected to rain later in the day, and the wind is blowing near 20 Kts. So we are sitting, anticipating a better day tomorrow, if the forcast comes true. We want to see "Bird Islands" just outside and the coast line from here to Louisburg. In Louisburg, Parks Canada has reconstructed the Fortress of Louisburg, a French Fort which fell to the British in 1745 and again in 1758. It is reconstructed as it was in 1744. This reconstruction is larger than Williamsburg, and our experience with anything Parks Canada does has been very well done.

We had a nice run to Louisbourg on Friday. We passed under the Great Bras d'Or highway bridge as we headed NE towards the Atlantic. Once outside we detoured a little NW to get to Bird Islands. Not only did we see lots of birds, but large groups of seals were also present. Once we turn back                             to the SE towards the tip of Cape Breton, there was very light wind, a modereate swell, and a very plesant ride. As we rounded the tip of the cape and started back SW we went through our furthest east point, W 059 47.200. At 11;30, the wind started to build from the SW, and as we cleared Main-a-Dieu Passage we met the REAL Atlantic with 6' swells and 3-4' wind waves on top. The only good news was that we were close to Louisbourg so we had only about an hour of rough water as we approached Louisbourg, the Fortress was to our left. When we arrived at the town Warf, we learned they were celebrating their annual Crab Fest, this is a major fishing port for snow crab. On Saturday we spend most of the day at the fortress and were joined by Genevieve and Marcel who drove up from St. Peter and brought Doug and Les on HAPPY CLAMZ with them. It was great to spend lunch with everyone. We went back to town at 5:30 for their crab dinner, only to be disappointed to learn they were sold out, having already served 1500 dinners.

On Sunday, we moved to Canso in 4-6' rolling seas and light wind. passing a few seals along the way. When we arrived we found JUST RELAX was there, looper friends from Charlotte, NC. It blew hard on Monday so we stayed in port. Tuesday, with lighter wind, we left for Liscome Lodge, ran all day in dense fog.

It's Thursday, August 6, and we are at Liscomb Lodge. I'm in the Lodge lobby on their Wi-Fi. We've got lots of details to fill in, hope we have good Wi-Fi in Halifax so I can post pictures and details. Weather has not been cooperating. We've had limited windows of opportunity when the waves have been less than 6'. Ran 10 hours from Canso to Liscomb on Tuesday in 4-6' seas and fog with less than 500' visability most of the day.                                    Liscome Lodge had posted a sign at the end of their dock advising others that might show up that their dock was reserved for two boats, us and JUST RELAX. Wednesday was a lay day waiting for the seas to calm down. Early in the day another Mainship 40 needed a space to find shelter from the rough seas, and called in in hopes of finding a place to tie up. JUST RELAX, also a Mainship 40 agreed to let the other boat raft up to them. We took a walk on one of several hiking trails available on the Lodge property, which went along the opposite shore, allowed us a view of all three boats tied up to the warf. The Lodge is owned by the provincial government and operated by an outside contractor. Seas are dying down now, so we hope to make a two day run to Halifax leaving at about 11:00. Thank you Bill Riley for GPS!

We left Liscomb Lodge at 11:00 on Thursday, spend the night on the hook in Tangier Harbour. As we left Tangier Friday we passed through a narrow channel as we got back out into the deeper water off the coast. We arrived in Halifax at 2:30 on Friday afternoon. We were traveling with two other looper boats and two were here, so we have 5 of the 7 boats doing this trip here together in Halifax. We all had dinner together tonight.

There are lots of sights to see and lots of history in Halifax. The Citatel is on the highest hill, up from the water front. The clock tower and the waterfront below make for some great pictures. If you double click on this picture you will see ODYSSEE just to the right at the base of the street.

After spending a weekend on the waterfront with the "Busker Festaval" with thousands of people roaming the boardwalk watching all the street acts, and touring all the tourest attractions, we were ready to move on. Monday was forcast to be a day of rain, wind, and fog. We can attest the forecast was correct. Room became available for us to move down the harbour to Bishop's Landing to join (clockwise) VOYAGER II, HAPPY CLAMZ, and JUST RELAX waiting for better weather. Tuesday was forcast to be a little better, without the wind. With the extra day available we toured Alexander Keith's Brewery.

Tuesday morning we left with VOYAGER II, JUST RELAX, HAPPY CLAMZ, and ourselves. The fog was thick, left over swells of 4-6', no wind, and some mist. We could deal with this and test the radar and chartplotter one more time. We went into Chester and the others went to Lunenburg. After a nice lunch in Chester we moved to Mahone Bay for the night, tied to a ball in the harbour. Wednesday morning SUMMER ARRIVED. We enjoyed walking around Mahone Bay and then had a beautiful afternoon cruise to Lunenburg where we again met up with the other three boats. We spent one night on an anchorage ball and the second night at a small marina.

Like most other coastal Nova Scotia towns, Lunenburg was a cod fishing community. As part of that heritage, Lunenburg was also a great boat building port. Most famous of the boats ever built here was the BLUENOSE. These fishing schooners raced every fall to determine the fastest boat Canadian boat against the fastest American boat. The trophy's they sailed for rivaled the America's cup. BLUENOSE proved time and again she was the fastest, but as fishing turned to motor powered vessels, it became impossible to keep BLUENOSE                                          going, and she was sold, and ultimately lost at sea. In the early '60's an exact duplicate was built as a private yacht, christianed BLURNOSE II. Ultimately this boat was sold to the Canadian Government for $1.00 and is docked, sailed, and maintained by the Lunenburg Maritime Museum. She has just returned to her home port having participated in the recent tall ship gathering in Halifax. Today, Lunenburg is a tourist attraction, with some wooden boatbuilding and repair still going on.

On Friday we set out again and arrived in Shelburne in late afternoon. Some boats making this trip amongst the rocks don't fair so well. The Shelburne waterfront was reconstructed for the filming of "The Scarlet Letter". It's neat but there is no tourist trade to bring in enough business to keep the shops open, so this cute little town is falling apart. While we were there, the replica schooner "Amistad" was in port, as it heads south to the Caribean for the winter. This boat was built at Mystic Seaport for the movie "Amistad".

 They have a good fleet of Albacore sail boats here, and are having the Albacore North American Championship regatta starting on Wednesday, August 19. On Sunday the local fleet had a tune up race, and I sailed one of the sailing school boats with a young girl as my crew. We finished second behind the current Albacore Canadian Champion.

On Tuesday we had a good travel day, so the four of us went around the "bluenose" to Yarmouth. Like just about every other day we've been on this coast, we traveled in fog. GPS chartplotter and radar allow us the travel the inside passages in amongst the coastal islands, even in the fog. After spending one night 

                                                              in Yarmouth we crossed St. Mary's bay to the little fishing town of Westport in Grqand Passage. Again

we had fog all day and the entrance into Grand Passage had currents of at least 5 Kts, creating some clanging eddys and a 6' standing wave. Our shelter for the night was behind a government breakwater rafted up to idle lobster boats. When the tide is out lots of beach shows. Note where the permanent fishing warfs are, only accesable at high tide. We went through 18' tides during the night, very interesting.

From Westport we are off to Saint John, and the Saint John River.

We're off for Points Northeast, and South

Thursday, July 2 looked pretty good, not great, for the start of our continued Down East Loop trip. We dropped the lines at 7:00, got the boat pumped out, said our goodbyes the the great marina staff in Rimouski, and at about 7:45 headed out through the breakwater. Weather was drizzling, wind about 10 Kts from the NE, waves 2-3' on our nose. At 10:30, wind had increased to 15 Kts, waves were now 3-4' and things were starting to get uncomfortable. We made our decision to call it a short day and go into Mantane. Another looper was about an hour ahead of us, running a little slower, had also decided to go into Mantane. As we got to Mantane the wind lightened up and the waves were back down to about 3', so we changed our plans again and decided to go for Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, our original planned destination. It was a lumpy ride, cold, but dueable. On Friday morning the wind was calm, it was foggy, and 

the swell was 2-3'. Out on the river we were getting a nice push from the current of 2 to 2.5 MPH, so at our slow cruise speed we were making about 12 MPH over ground. We're off for Riviere-au-Renard, some 104 miles down river. The river at this point is a large body of water, 30 miles wide and 900' deep. We are running in and out of fog, even being able to see the shore 1.5 to 2 miles to the SE on occasion. Shortly after 1:00 pm, and having past Grande Valley, with a very small harbor of refuge, we entered another fog bank, but this one was different. The wind built to an estimated 25 Kts. from the east, the waves built to 6-7', and it got real uncomfortable. We stepped up the speed of the boat to about 15 MPH through the water, and things became more comfortable. The waves kept getting worse, now 8-10' with visibility in the fog of 1/8 mile or so. We slammed through a couple of big waves, one popping the right forward window on the bridge out of the frame, slamming it against the VHF antenna, cracking it. The window is anti-shatter glass so it didn't fail completely. We slowed the boat to about 12 MPH to get the bow as high as possible, slid the rear window forward, and stuffed a foam beer can holder between the broken front window and the rear side window, wedging the cracked window against the antenna. We managed to keep the tops of the waves below the bow pulpit, but most of the wave ended up on the cabin top and windshield. We were real glad to be under a hardtop and behind a windshield. The electronics kept us on track and aware of other boats around us. We pulled into the marina at Riviere-au-Renard at 4:10 PM, relieved to be behind a nice breakwater. Today, Saturday July 4, we were back on the river at 5:30 AM, no wind, lumpy swell of 3-4', thick fog. We rounded the end of the Gaspe Peninsula at 7:30 AM, unable to see the high cliffs of the end of the Appalachian Mountains as they drop into the sea, a sight that we so much wanted to see from the water. As we turned to the west, the sea became trailing, the fog lifted for a minute, the sun came out, and we cruised comfortably into the marina at Gaspe at 10:00 AM. The weather on Sunday was rainy, with fog out in the bay. Monday was better with a prediction of a nice day on Tuesday. By 3:00 the weather was clearing, so we decided to rent a car for a day, and go see the Gaspe Peninsula and Forillon National Park on Tuesday morning. As long as we had the car, we drove to the south to Perce and back. We could see the famous Perce Rock from the shore. Tuesday morning we did drive over to Forillon Park, first viewing the north side of the Peninsula and then whent to the south side, where we walked the last 4 KM of the International Appalachian Trail to the end.

By 2:00 we were back in Gaspe, turned in the car, and headed out with the boat around Perce Rock and inside of Bonaventure Island, to L'Anse-a-Beaufils for the night. What an interesting experience in this little harbor of refuge. Next to the marina is a restraunt where all the locals hang out, the food was simple but superb, and the sing along music started at about 9:30 and went until about 2:00 AM. Everything was Acadian French so we didn't stay up for the music. On Wednesday we got an early start for our planned trip to Shippagan. Little to no wind out on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Saw many Gannets, a hump back whale, and some White sided Dolphins. Shippigan is onother fishing village of French Acadian ancestery. They have made a real attempt to make their village a tourist attraction, with an aquarium and board walk newly added to the waterfront. From Shippigan we went                                                                               up the Miramichi River to Miramichi. This was a good location to backtrack for the truck. Miramichi has become a summer retirement area for many Canadians and they have activities every day and night in their waterfront park, Ritchie Warf. We had heard from ourfriends on EARLY OUT how friendly the town was, and from our location tied up at Ritchie Warf, we became one of the attractions of the town, with everybody stopping to talk. In our openion, it became too friendly, and much as we enjoyed the evening entertainment in the park, it was time to move on.

With the combination of an out going tide and the normal flow of the river. we got a 3 MPH push as we left Miramichi. We had planned to go to Buctouche, but when the wind came up and the waves reached 6', we altered course and went to Richibucto, another unplanned interesting stop. When we got their on Saturday afternoon they were in the middle of their Scallop Festival, so we were entertained with a boat parade on Saturday night and fireworks on Sunday night. When we tied up to the warf, we were in front of small local boat. While watching the boat parade we met them, and on Sunday morning they picked us up while we were walking down the main street, and gave us a tour of their little town. Sunday night they joined us on the front seat on the bow of our boat for the fire works. Alyre and Jeanne winter in Daytona Beach, FL, so we expect to see them again as they come down I95 this fall.

On Monday morning early, we ran accross Northumberland Straight to Summerside, PEI. We were meeting up again with Joe and Mary Beth Amelia, Loopers who stopped at our dock as they came north last spring. They wanted to give us a personal tour of the sights on PEI and treat us to a home cooked lobster dinner. So on Tuesday morning, Mary Beth met us a Summerside and we were off.  Anne of Green Gables was at the top of Claria's list, so we started there, now run by Parks Canada. Then to the beaches on the north shore of PEI. Then to lunch with a bagpiper and drummer! More sight seeing, then a dinner of fresh mussels, lobster, and boiled PEI potatoes, oh my was that good! We finnished the day at the College of Piping and their Celtic Storm show of Scottish music and step dancing, WOW, were those kids GREAT!

Wednesday morning we left for a 57 mile ride to Charlottetown. Along the way we passed under the 9 mile long Confederation Bridge, completed in 1997. At the center span it has a clearance of 197 feet. Each span appears to be about 500'. We arrived at 4:00 PM, and were docked three boats from VOYAGER II, our looper friends who we hadn't seen since Rimouski. After dinner with Les and Judy, the four of us went to the musical play, "Anne of Green Gables".

We're sitting in Pictou, NS on Saturday, July 18. Our data service using our cell phone as a modum is back so I will be adding a bunch of stuff in the next few days.