FAIRWELL TO NOVA SCOTIA

Here is our route covered by this blog post

On Thursday September 1st, we continued our journey southwest along the shore of Nova Scotia with a 42 nautical mile run from Lunenburg to Port Mouton (pronounced Matoon), passing numerous fishing boats along the rugged and rocky shore line. We did not go into the village of Port Mouton, opting instead to anchor at Carter’s Beach. This was a stunningly beautiful anchorage with a long and lovely white sand beach with lots of locals braving the cloudy, cool day to walk the beach. Some even went to far as to swim in the decidedly cold water. As it was just an overnight stop, we did not lower our dinghy and go ashore to explore.

On Friday, we were up and underway by 0630 under a clear sky and light winds, headed a further 39 miles to Shelburne, Nova Scotia. We took a mooring at the very hospitable Shelburne Yacht Club. Shelburne is a very picturesque town that was founded in 1738. The first Europeans to settle here were French Acadians who established a small fishing settlement. After the British expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, there were no further settlers in the area for almost three decades. In 1783, about 5,000 settlers came to Shelburne form the New York area. They were United Empire Loyalists who opposed the American Revolution and wished to remain loyal to Britain. The Crown offered them free land, tools and provisions to attract them to Shelburne. 

At the same time, the Black Loyalists, a large group of black slaves who escaped from the rebels to British lines, were promised freedom and free land. They were evacuated and transported by the British to Shelburne, which became the largest free Black settlement in North America. But the Black Loyalists endured long waits for their land, they got smaller parcels than the whites and they faced discrimination from other colonists. In 1784 the whites conducted Shelburne Riots against the African Americans. 

With multiple waves of settlers, by 1783, Shelburne’s population ballooned to 17,000 making it the 4th largest settlement in North America. However, with a lack of agricultural land and too few pioneers who knew how to develop the land, Shelburne’s population fell sharply. Its remaining population focused on fishing and ship building. 

Another notable event occurred in May 1945 following Germany’s surrender to the allies, German submarine U889 surrendered to the Royal Canadian Navy in Shelburne. 

Today Shelburne is a lovely town with a beautiful historic section. We enjoyed a great lunch at Charlotte’s Lane. Later, we learned the Shelburne Yacht Club has local restaurants cater dinners at the Yacht Club on Friday nights (instead of running their own restaurant), so we took advantage of the great deal they were offering

Historic Shelburne, Nova Scotia


Charlotte's Lane Restaurant, Shelburne

Our adventure for this summer was going to finish up in Maine and for several days, we’d been discussing how best to complete the crossing from Nova Scotia to Maine, across the Bay of Fundy. Initially, we’d planned on a series of multiple stops (Yarmouth to Brier Island, to Grand Manan Island and finally checking in to US Customs & Immigration at Cutler, Maine. This route would involve relatively short runs of between 30 and 50 nautical miles. Hurricane Hermine (4th named Hurricane in the 2016 Atlantic Season) was an unplanned complication that was going to cause multiple days of strong ocean swells that could cause us to have to wait in one of these ports. Also, these ports all had fixed piers (as opposed to floating docks) and tides of 5 1/2 meters all of which were vulnerable to the forecast southerly ocean swells. 

The preferred route by my friend Denis and other local boaters we met, was a direct route from Shelburne to say Mount Desert Island in Maine, a distance of about 160 nautical miles. As it happens, the author of a popular Nova Scotia cruising guide, Peter Loverette was docked at Shelburne while we were there and he agreed to meet with us to discuss our plans. There were two key factors we needed to consider. One was rounding the southern tip of Cape Sable Island, nicknamed the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. Its low lying land coupled with strong tidal currents and rip tides demanded respect and everyone recommended you time your passing to coincide with low tide. The other key consideration was arrival time near Maine as their lobster fishing season is year round and lobster pot floats start appearing about 15 miles offshore, so we wanted good daylight when we reached that area. At our cruising speed of about 7.8 knots, it would take us about 20 1/2 hours to make the crossing

Taking all this information into account, we concluded we were best to depart Shelburne around 1300 hours on Saturday September 3rd, round Cape Sable Island at about 1730 hours and get clear of a variety of other smaller islands and shoals south of Yarmouth before dark. Then we’d be on a straight course for Maine throughout the night and we could adjust our speed as needed so we’d not arrive along Maine’s lobster fishing shore before daylight.

Fran and I had done several “overnighters” on previous boats and were fairly comfortable with the idea. The others had a little less experience but all agreed this was our best strategy. Looking at the forecast for the coming seven days, there was no better weather window than what we had for the next two days. Despite our previous experience, I find my mind becomes a whirl of thoughts and a sound sleep is not possible. When we got up Saturday morning we were excited to get going, but kept ourselves occupied until 1300. Winds and waves were lighter than forecast. On our way to Cape Sable Island, I spotted a large flock of seagulls prompting Fran and I to grab binoculars to check what they were doing. What a wonderful surprise - a group of humpback whales were doing their organized bubble feeding and the seagulls were taking advantage of their activity too. 

Rounding Cape Sable Island we got a great “push” from the tidal current adding as much as 2.8 knots to our speed for a while. Before it got dark, we figured out how to dim all the lights on the navigational equipment. We have dim red lights in the pilot house for night cruising and nearby switches for white lighting were taped over so we wouldn’t turn them on by mistake and mess up our night vision. As dusk arrived, we started our 2 hours on, 2 hours off shifts with Fran taking the first 2000 to 2200 hour shift. The three boats fell into a line about a half mile apart so we could always see the navigation lights of each other and we were in regular contact via VHF radio. The sky was a clear but moonless night, the winds remained light, there was very little boat traffic and the half meter swell has hardly noticeable. We simply couldn’t have asked for better conditions. As the boat was being steered by autopilot, for the person on “watch”, most of the time was spent staring at the radar screen to see if any other vessels showed up as a new blip on the screen. If one of us spotted something, we’d alert the other two boats so the three of us could keep track and determine if there was a risk to us. 

I took the 2200 to 2400 shift, munching on peanuts and other snacks to keep alert. I also kept singing that famous song "Farewell to Nova Scotia" to myself.

Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea-bound coast,may your mountains dark and dreary^]be.For when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed,Will you ever heave a sigh or a wish for me?

Fran surprised me on her 2400 to 0200 shift as she decided not to wake me and she continued on until 0400, which was a lovely treat. Through her shift, the three boats spoke regularly about the remaining distance to go before daylight and when we expected to see lobster pot floats and gradually slowed the boats down so we wouldn’t arrive too early. Sure enough, right after sunrise, the first lobster pots appeared. We were in 250 feet of water and gradually the numbers of floats increased dramatically. Soon, we could no longer use the autopilot as a straight course was impossible. It seemed to us like the “wild west of lobster fishing” making us wonder how there could be any lobsters left on the bottom. Fran woke up to quite a sight of lobster pot floats along with multiple whale and propose sightings all around us, such that Fran was afraid we'd hit one. 

En route, we phoned in to Customs and Immigration announcing our arrival, providing our names, birth dates, Nexus numbers, passport numbers, our boat information, our starting place and our destination. They called back half an hour later confirming we were cleared but they’d meet us in the harbour to sell us our cruising permit. After an hour and a half of dodging lobster pot floats, we arrived at our destination, North East Harbour on Mount Desert Island. Here was another first time experience for us. In addition to regular docks and mooring balls, the marina had a series of 40’ docks anchored in the bay, but not attached to shore. These docks allow two boats on each one, thus squeezing more boats in the harbour than mooring balls. Some of these docks also had a fresh water tap as well, which was very convenient.

Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park, looked very appealing to visit with its rich history dating back some 6,000 years. We will  have to explore it next season as our time here is going to be devoted to preparing the boat for winter.

Monday was Labour Day, so on Tuesday, we contacted the Atlantic Boat Company in Brooklin, Maine to discuss timing of our haul out for the winter and agreed on Monday September 12th at 0715. They can only haul boats out at high tide, so it was going to be a bright and early haul out. We spent the intervening time getting our boat ready for haul out and winter storage by doing a wide range of tasks including washing and waxing the boat; engine and generator oil and filter changes, fuel filter changes, water maker winterization, washing all bedding, clothes & towels that would be bagged and stored on board for the winter, defrosting the two freezers, finishing up all our food supplies etc etc. Suffice to say, it was hard to stay awake after 2000 hours each evening as we were so tired from all the work. 

Recreational boats shared North East Harbour with many lobster boats who make daily treks out to pull up their traps, empty the lobster catch, rebate the trap and lower it again. Normally, they’d go to a commercial dock and unload their catch to an awaiting refrigerated truck before going to their mooring. One day Fran noted a loaded lobster boat was briefly moored behind us. We motored over in our dinghy to see the fishermen and Fran purchased two 1 1/2 pound lobsters and less than an hour later they were cooked and cooling off in our galley. She cooked them perfectly, shelled them and they were one of our best seafood treats of the summer.

Staring at this dashboard on our overnight passage
across Bay of Fundy


Bay of Fundy sunrise


Mount Desert Island, North East Marina


Some big yachts in NE Harbour


Recreational & lobster boats at NE Harbour


Fran's two lobsters all cooked up!

We moved the boats 15 nautical miles over to moorings at Atlantic Boat Company on Saturday September 10th, a perfectly lovely day. Haul out occurred as planned on Monday, followed by more washing and waxing of the hull, winterizing the water systems etc. We picked up a rental van on Tuesday and departed for home on Wednesday at 0620 hours. It was almost 1,200 kilometres to Oakville with four drivers taking 2 hour shifts. All was going well until we got stuck on highway 401 east of Kingston where the highway was closed for the day due to a horrific crash. That cost us over 3 hours delay and we ultimately got home just before midnight. Bob, Jan, Dave and Judy stayed overnight at our place and then after a final group breakfast at Cora’s Restaurant, they were on the road again to their homes in Michigan.

Tug'n haul out at Atlantic Boat Company

















Final fairwell breakfast with Bob & Jan, Dave & Judy

This is the wrap up for the end of Season One of our Down East Circle Route Adventure. What a privilege and magnificent experience we had. We got a much deeper understanding of the history and culture of the areas we visited and their importance to the development and shaping of Canada. We learned much about cruising in salt water, coping with tides and currents and learning to anchor in tides. We enjoyed a wonderful diet of seafood this summer, both from our own galley and in local restaurants. Finally, we met the most wonderful and helpful locals. /Wherever we went, they were always curious about our trip and anxious to help us any any way they could. 

We’ve enjoyed documenting our trip in this blog and loved all the emails we got from some of those who followed us along on our journey. Stay tuned for Season Two in 2017. 

Best wishes

Stephen & Fran Hill

Tug’n

Here are the numbers:

Distance Travelled: 2,135.9 nautical miles

Fuel Consumed: 2,107 litres of fuel (~533 gallons)

Engine Run Time: 327.5 hours

Days Away: 111

Nights at Anchor or Mooring Ball: about 35%

Nights at Marina Dock: about 65%

Provinces/States Visited: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Maine

HALIFAX TO LUNENBURG - AUGUST 26 - 31, 2016

Here are the destinations covered by this blog

Friday August 26th was taken up by a walk to the mall to pick up a few supplies and completion of a few boat chores in between periods of rain. A brief crew meeting with Wings and Sir Tugley Blue to discuss the coming weather confirmed our plans for heading further south west down the coast of Nova Scotia tomorrow. 

The skies cleared out overnight and we awoke to a perfect day on Saturday. We were off to an anchorage called Rogues Roost, about 23 nautical miles away, in prime boating territory for Halifax boaters. Rogues Roost is close to the village of Prospect and is very popular with locals. It is a beautiful and well protected anchorage, lightly forested with lots of low lying brush on rock strewn rolling hills.

Nova Scotia Nature Trust is an organization dedicated to protect pristine land. The organization is funded by donations from private citizens, generally Nova Scotians. In 2013, they protected 13 hectares around Rogues Roost that they describe as “a coastal barren ecosystem with wet, exposed bedrock, lichen, scrub and salt marsh". They've also protected a big chunk of land along Nova Scotia's eastern shore. The Rogues Roost area is similar to Peggy’s Cove, without the tourists. Nova Scotia Nature Trust and its donors - what an enlightened group...

There were only two boats when we arrived, but by mid afternoon, there were over 15 boats in the anchorage and later, back down to 10 boats for the night. We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon and evening there and the dead calm overnight wind was perfect for sleeping. 

Passed heavily loaded container ship en route

to Rogues Roost

Tug'n at anchor in Rogues Roost

Sunday Aug 28th was another perfect day as we raised anchor preparing to head some 20 nautical miles across St. Margarets Bay to Deep Cove on Mahone Bay. Deep Cove was reportedly a hurricane hole where boaters like to head in bad weather and indeed it was. The one mile long cove has a narrow entrance, a long narrow channel averaging about 260 feet wide and a lovely basin at the end, surrounded by heavily forested hills. There are a number of great looking homes amongst the trees around the cove and numerous mooring balls for local boats, but there was plenty of room for our three boats to anchor. We had a lovely afternoon and after completing a few engine checks and maintenance items, we sat in the cockpit reading, watching osprey fly about and waving at boats coming and going. 

As former sailors and owners of a Nonsuch 30, we’d been surprised by the number of Nonsuch sailboats in Nova Scotia. There were two in Deep Cove and one of them, named Aristocat, was previously a Georgian Bay boat (from Lions Head up on the Bruce Peninsula) we’d made an offer to buy, in January, 1989. At that time, the owners decided not to sell her and we found another. But it was fun to see Aristocat here in Nova Scotia looking very well cared for.

Wings at anchor in Deep Cove basin

Monday August 29th. This morning was cloudy with 12 to 20 knot winds, but in the relatively well protected Mahone Bay, we headed off to Mahone Bay Town. En route, we did a “drive by” the very picturesque town of Chester. Chester was officially founded in 1759 during the French & Indian War, however, its first permanent European residents came from Massachusetts in 1761. 

During the American Revolution, Chester famously avoided a raid by American Privateers. The townswomen turned their red lined capes inside out to resemble uniforms of British soldiers and marched around the blockhouse in the early morning of June 30, 1782, successfully convincing the would be raiders at anchor to go and plunder another village. 

Today, Chester is filled with lovely Cape Cod style homes and it has become a sailors’ haven famous for its mid August “Chester Race Week”. The bulk of its summer residents are from New England and Chester is one of the wealthiest communities in Nova Scotia. 

Chester harbour

Lovely Cape Cod style homes in Chester


Another stunning home in Chester

We arrived in Mahone Bay Town around noon and after anchoring, we met up with Bob and Jan from Wings for terrific lunch at Rebecca’s Restaurant. We always use a smart phone app called YELP to find good restaurants. So far, it has never let us down.

Malone Bay Town was also founded in the mid 1700’s and through the 19th century the town prospered with its wooden shipbuilding. Later, its economy declined with the advent of steel ships and steam power, but during WW1 and WW2 Mahone Bay’s shipbuilding prospered again, building schooners, tugs and barges. Later, the town was known for production of its innovated moulded plywood boats. Today, tourism is its prime economic driver and we enjoyed the walk around town checking out its shops and boutiques. 

A mega yacht anchored near Mahone Bay Town

Well preserved homes and stores in Mahone Bay Town


Unusual craft on mooring balls in Mahone Bay Town


We shared this amazing Strawberry Shortcake!!

August 30 & 31st. Today’s 25 nautical mile run to Lunenburg was easy and comfortable in quite protected waters. Well before we arrived, we spotted the famed Bluenose II sailboat out for some “man overboard” drills. Shortly afterwards, as we turned at Battery Point the beautiful town came into view causing us to reach for our camera. This famed town with its great history of fishing, shipbuilding and sailing, its harbour filled with many wooden schooners on moorings is stunningly beautiful. In 1995 it was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site to preserve much of Lunenburg’s unique architecture. 

The village was founded in 1753 as one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia, intended to displace the Mi’kmaq and Acadian Catholics. German, Swiss and French settlers were brought in to colonize Lunenburg and the surrounding area. The British settlement posed a lasting threat to Mi’kmaq and their sovereign, traditional territory. The village was subject to numerous raids by Acadians and Mi’kmaq, unsuccessfully attempting to regain control of their territory from the British.

Today, Lunenburg continues to prosper through tourism, as a fishing port and boat building & boat repairs. We had a great visit to their wonderful Fishing Museum of the Atlantic that was staffed by former cod & scallop fishermen, captains and family of former fishermen. In the early days, schooners fished cod on the banks off Nova Scotia using hand lines with baited hooks over the side of the schooner. Later, dories were used to widen their coverage, with about 12 dories per schooner. Each dory had two fishermen who used hand lines with bated hooks and they were expected to fill the dory with about two tons of cod every few hours (about 100 fish at 20 pounds each). They’d row the dory back to the schooner and unload the catch by hand before heading off again. A fat rich diet kept the fishermen going through sixteen hour days in the often frigid conditions. 

Steam powered steel hull boats with side loader nets replaced schooners and finally, trawlers with stern loader nets were the final solution. Sometime later, the cod were mostly gone and long after it was too late to save the fishery, the federal government shut it down in 1992 putting some 40,000 fishermen and fish processing plant employees out of work. The nutrient rich banks off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were a wonderful natural resource that provided an enormous bounty of fish for almost 500 years. When you see the historical photos of the enormous catches of cod it is so very sad that this resource was mismanaged by the industry and by federal and provincial governments. 

I spoke with a former engineer who worked on a side loader trawler fishing cod from the late 1950’s to the late 1980’s. He talked about fishermen not being required to go out when winds exceeded 50 knots, but Captains had the right to overrule this restriction and often did, under pressure from the company owners to produce more. He said there are many names on the Memorial to Fishermen Lost at Sea due to vessels being out in very adverse conditions. 

Lunenburg was of course, home of Canada’s most famous schooner, the original Bluenose that is on every Canadian Dime. The original Bluenose was completed and launched in 1921 as a cod fishing schooner. Annual sailing races were held with the fishing schooners and Bluenose regularly proved she was the fastest. Bluenose won the last International Fishermen’s Trophy Race held in 1938. In 1939, former Captain Angus Walters bought her to prevent the sale of Bluenose at auction. Three years later, he sold her to the West Indies Trading Company as a freighter and in 1946 she struck a reef off Haiti and sank a few days later. It wasn’t until 1963 that the Province of Nova Scotia built the replica Bluenose II to serve as a provincial attraction. Lunenburg is home to Bluenose II, who continues to perform her duties as a major tourist attraction around Atlantic Canada and the Great Lakes and four years after her rebuild in 2012 she continues to look as good as new. 

Lunenburg truly is a delightful town to visit with its great mix of restaurants and boutiques, its commercial harbour and dry docks for ship repairs, its fleet of traditional wooden schooners (that we saw enjoy a great Wednesday race night) and its colourful, well-preserved old-world architecture that fills the streets reflecting a strong European influence. It is one more highlight on our summer adventure!

Colourful downtown Lunenburg


Steve Dashew design FPB64 (a favourite of mine).
The same boat we saw in Hawaii 18 months ago


Lovely sunset in Lunenburg


Classic sailboats at Wednesday night races




Bluenose II passes very close to Tug'n


Picton Castle enters Lunenburg Harbour

ST PETERS TO HALIFAX - THE ATLANTIC OCEAN - AUGUST19 to 25, 2016

Map of our route for this blog post

During our hour and a half in St. Peters, we got a holding tank pump out, topped our fuel tanks, bought groceries and filled one of our galley propane tanks. Then Tug’n, Wings and Sir Tugley Blue were off, through the St Peters Canal and lock, out across Chedabucto Bay and out into the Atlantic Ocean to head west southwest down the coast of Nova Scotia. 

Technically, this is our first outing in the Atlantic Ocean and she was kind to us for our introduction. If you let your mind wander, you realize, far off to our port side (left), the ocean stretches all the way to Europe. That is a lot of open water! For sea conditions, we had 1 to 2 meter ocean swells from two directions - from the east and from the south. The good news was those ocean swells were well spread out. Also, there was a 10 to 15 knot wind from the northwest providing “wind waves” of 1/2 meter from that direction. Our course was west south west and while those swells and wind waves sound like a confused sea, it was really quite comfortable. Occasionally the swells combined to give the boat a big lift and it felt like our bow was briefly pointing up to the sky to climb on top of the water. 

Along our 36 nautical mile trip to our anchorage at Yankee Cove I spotted a thin black and rather straight fin at the surface of the water (for about 4 seconds), about 30 feet off the side of our boat and I immediately thought shark. But looking at pictures in our cruising guide later, it was the wrong colour for a shark, it was too small a fin for a killer whale and it was straighter than the fin of a porpoise so I have absolutely no idea what it was, other than exciting.

Our anchorage at Yankee Cove was interesting. We entered a low tide so the shoreline was strewn with rocks covered in seaweed, reminding us that we were back in tides of about 5 1/2 feet as compared to about 6” in the Bras D’Or Lakes. The ever present evergreen forest covered the surrounding land. The spruce beetle attacked and killed many of the spruce trees some time ago and about 30% of the forest is dead, providing a rather unique look. There was an oyster aquaculture farm in the cove and we shared the anchorage with one other sailboat. It was a lovely and quiet evening, perfect for cooking our maple glaze salmon dinner on the BBQ. 

Sunset in Yankee Cove - oyster aquaculture in
background

Saturday August 20: Today’s destination was Shelter Cove in Popes Harbour, about 71 nautical miles further along the Nova Scotia coast. Locally, the anchorage is known as Sally’s Cove. Once again, it was a lovely cruising day with somewhat smaller ocean swells and light wind waves. Watching the shoreline pass by, one couldn’t help but think of the immense challenge for early explorers from France, England and elsewhere attempting to navigate this rock strewn shoreline with its seemingly infinite number of islands, inlets, rocks and shoals, some just above the waters surface and some much scarier ones just below the surface. Tides, currents, plus fog, rain and mist would be serious obstacles to a safe passage along the shore. We learned at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic that there are well over 10,000 wrecks along the shores of Nova Scotia and its possibly as many as 25,000. Those navigators and captains of centuries passed would surely marvel at today’s electronic navigation tools with chart plotters, radar, depth sounders and auto pilots allowing us straightforward navigation to each days destination. 

Shelter Cove was recommended by our sailing friend Denis as a favourite. Indeed, it is a well named anchorage providing tremendous protection from the wind and seas and surrounding us with lovely scenery. It was a rather late arrival, but we fit in a short happy hour aboard Wings. We stayed put in Shelter Cove on Sunday and after completing some boat chores unique to salt water cruising (clean and wax stainless steel railings and fittings), we toured around the area by dinghy including a nearby beach that locals picnic at. We had a Happy Hour and game of Sequence aboard Tug’n. 

We’d heard about another lovely beach one could explore by going to the head of the cove we were anchored in and traversing a 200 meter piece of land. This was apparently best done at low tide, so when the water rose, your dingy would be floating, rather than beaching your dinghy in a falling tide and not being able to drag it back in the water when you returned. So, after dinner, we went off to see this beach. We got our dinghy within 10 feet of shore and it hit bottom. I climbed into the water with water sandals and found myself ankle deep in black muck and quickly concluded this was not a great idea. I pushed the dinghy around and back into deeper water and with some difficulty got back in with muck covering me from my toes to my knees and making a colossal mess of our dinghy. Not all adventures end well…

Shelter Cove at low tide - seaweed covered rocks

Monday August 22nd. As usual, we studied the forecast first thing and then had a three way VHF radio discussion to make a travel decision. Our next destination was Halifax and the forecast would put the ocean swells on our stern corner resulting in a significant rolling, corkscrew kind of motion of our boat while underway. While the forecast was not great, it was much better than the next three days, so, at 0900 hours, we raised anchor and were on our way with Sir Tugley Blue and Wings. After a short while, Sir Tugley decided they’d return to the Shelter Cove anchorage. For the first few hours, about every fifth swell would give us a really good roll of up to 26 degrees to one side or the other, which can be quite tiring. We experimented with different speeds and concluded about 7.2 knots was significantly more comfortable than 8 knots. The further we went along, we were on a more westerly course and the ride gradually got more comfortable. 

About an hour before the entrance to Halifax Harbour, I spotted a new target on our radar about three miles ahead of us and I started to “track” it with the radar tracking feature. Because of mist and light fog, we could not see it with our eyes. A minute later I was shocked to see the radar reported the target was moving at 81 knots and was off my screen in no time at all. The answer came shortly afterwards as the blip turned out to be a military helicopter. A little while later we came upon a smoke flare on the water that the helicopter had dropped and they were practicing approaching the flare and hovering about 50 feet above the water. There is always something interesting to observe on the water.

Entering Halifax Harbour is exciting. We saw two cruise ships tied up at the downtown Halifax piers as well as several container ships at the commercial harbour. The city of Halifax is located on a peninsula. Downtown Halifax and its commercial harbour are on one side of the peninsula and several yacht clubs, rowing clubs and fabulous residential housing/mansions are on the other side on what is called the Northwest Arm. Originally, at the suggestion of our friend Denis, we’d planned on staying at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron on a mooring. However, on entering the harbour, the south east wind was causing waves to move up the Northwest Arm and it would cause quite a bit of wave slapping on the hard chines on our hull making a lot of interior noise for sleeping. We decided to go all the way to the end of the Northwest Arm to Armdale Yacht Club and took a mooring there with a little better wave protection. The trip up the Northwest Arm was amazing as we gawked at the waterfront properties along both sides. We had no idea Halifax was so picturesque. 

Beautiful properties along Northwest Arm

Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron

Denis had offered to take us around town by car to do our chores. He picked us up at 0930 and in the space of two hours we bought groceries, filled a BBQ propane tank, got a haircut for Fran, picked up beer, got cash from the bank, visited Canadian Tire and got back to the boat. What a wonderful treat that was as normally these activities might take a whole day. That left our afternoon open for a trip into downtown where we met Bob & Jan from Wings for a lovely lunch at the Bicycle Thief restaurant on the waterfront. After that, we did a tour of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. This wonderful museum included presentations/displays on:

• Days of Sail - stories of Nova Scotia’s magnificent sailing vessels
• Shipwreck Treasures - Nova Scotia has well over 10,000 wrecks (possibly up to 25,000) and an immense amount of underwater archaeology as a result
• Convoy Exhibit - tells how Nova Scotia helped in the struggle to supply Europe in the face of submarine attacks during World War II
• Halifax Explosion - a moving exhibit on the 1917 Halifax explosion from the collision of two ships, one loaded with explosives, that levelled a large part of the city instantly killing about 2,000 and injuring more than 9,000 residents
• Navy - an exhibit explaining the early hears of Halifax as a British naval power

and much more. One comes away from this museum with a deeper understanding of the immense seafaring history of Nova Scotia.

Lunch with Bob & Jan at the Bicycle Thief

One of many model ships at Maritime Museum


Canadian Hydrographic Society ship Acadia in service
from 1913 to 1969. Also served in Canadian Navy in
two world wars


Models of complete Canadian Navy (13 vessels) at
the start of WWII. By the end of the war the Canadian
Navy had 452 ships

On Wednesday, after a morning of washing and wiping the boat hull (removing all the salt crystals) we were picked up by Denis for a lunch with he and Denise at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. Their club is sensational, situated on the south side of the Northwest Arm. The club relocated here in the early 1960’s, converting a former lovely residence into a club house, digging out a basin, adding docks, moorings, two swimming pools, a junior sailing school and more. We had lunch out on their patio under a large awning overlooking the boats and the water and had a wonderful time catching up with Denis and Denise. The last time we’d had a get together was about 18 years ago in Oakville.

After lunch, Denis dropped us off at Pier 21.

Fran & I with Denise & Denis

Pier 21 - The Building of Canada

This is another wonderful museum managed by Parks Canada. Pier 21 was the gateway for over 1 million immigrants from Europe from 1928 to 1971. They all arrived by ship and were processed (medical, immigration, customs, temporary housing and for those headed beyond Halifax they would board the train right beside the warehouse for points west). 

We were particularly impressed that the museum told the whole story, acknowledging what an enormous impact European immigration had on the First Nations population, who had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years before. Additional and notable components of the museum included:

• A video made up of interviews with immigrants to Canada covering where they came from, why they came to Canada, how they got to Canada, what their first impressions were, how they landed on their feet and what they are doing today. The stories were very personal and some made you laugh out loud and some made you cry tears of joy and sorrow
• Explanation and acknowledgement of the abuse of Chinese immigrants brought here to build the railway across Canada and once completed, charging a head tax if they wanted to stay & refusing to give them citizenship or rights
• Explanation and acknowledgement of the internment of Japanese Canadians during the second world war, confiscating their property and assets and denying them their rights as Canadian citizens
• Acknowledgement of a variety of exclusionary immigration policies that barred immigration from many countries 
• Explanation and acknowledgement of racially charged events such as the Christie Pits Riots that pitted Jewish and Italian immigrants against anti immigrant white thugs
• Detailed explanations of how Canada’s immigration policies evolved over the last 400 years to today’s far more enlightened and equitable policies. 
• Many examples of how immigrants helped build this country - Canadian Railroads (Chinese and Irish immigrants); Canada’s first subway in Toronto and the Rideau Canal built by Irish immigrants etc
• Tour guides walked visitors through the process an immigrant would go through and what it was like arriving at Pier 21

In the end, we felt very proud of the Canada we have today and the leadership it is showing with its immigration policies and the contribution immigrants have made to Canada’s rich culture, economy and way of life. 

The sign immigrants to Canada would see upon entry
into Pier 21. Language was a big challenge for the
staff and volunteers


An historical photo of immigrants getting an explanation
on what the process at Pier 21 would be

Thursday August 25, 2016

Today’s main event was touring the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. The site was originally founded in 1749 as a strategic base for the British Royal Navy and a strong counterbalance to the French stronghold in Louisbourg on Cape Breton. The site has been home to four citadels, all built on the same high ground above the original town plot. The first three forts were built of earth and logs and served through the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. But after 1815 the British authorities decided that the old wooden forts defending Canada’s strategic strong points should be more powerful and permanent and built of stone. The new and current Citadel was built between 1828 and 1856. The star shaped fortress is formally known as Fort George and its massive masonry construction was designed to repel a land-based attack by Unites States as well as having a clear harbour view. It was inspired by designs during Louis XIV’s time. 

In 1867 British North America became the Dominion of Canada, but the continuing importance of Halifax as a port for the Royal Navy saw British troops remain there until 1906. After that, the Citadel was occupied by the Canadian military and it remained active through two World Wars until 1951 when it was transferred to Parks Canada. Today, as a museum, it is staffed and organized as it would have been in 1869 when Queen Victoria reigned and the new Nation of Canada was just two years old. Exploring the ramparts and tunnels, talking with staff in period clothes and using the interactive tools one gains an understanding of what life was like in this bygone era. 

The combination of visits to the Citadel, the Immigration Museum and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic really gives one great insight into the extremely important role Halifax and Nova Scotia have played in Canada’s history. Each site does a wonderful job of presenting the history and we’ve had a great time enjoying the hospitality of Halifax. 

The adventure continues.

Fran and Judy at entrance to Halifax Citadel


Courtyard inside the Halifax Citadel


Display of WW1 trenches in France


Posing for photo after noon firing of the canon

BRAS D'OR LAKES - AUGUST 8 TO 19, 2016

Here are the places we travelled during this blog

Monday August 8, 2016

After five days at the St Peters Marina, we were all more than ready to go anchoring and exploring the Bras d’Or Lakes. As you’ll see from the photo below, the Bras d’Or Lakes have a southwest to northeast orientation in valleys carved by the glaciers. While the surrounding oceans of the Atlantic Maritimes have big seas, fog, tides, currents and other navigational challenges, the Bras d’Or Lakes have barely 6” of tide, next to no fog, moderate seas and easy navigation. We’d all been gathering local knowledge from other boaters we’d met at the marina and gradually sifted through the many recommendations to come up with a manageable list of anchorages to choose from. 

Our first anchorage was at Cape George Harbour in St. Peters Inlet, an anchorage favoured by local boaters. It was not particularly attractive and it had a steady stream of boats passing through, so we here happy enough to move on the next day to Little Harbour along the north shore of West Bay. It is a larger anchorage with a narrow entrance providing good protection from all directions. On our first night we were the only four boats in the anchorage. The second night we shared it with a ~55’ Selene trawler and a 90’ Burger yacht, among others. We’ve been surprised by the number of very, very large yachts that come to cruise Cape Breton’s Bras D’Or Lakes. It was delightful to be anchoring again and we kept ourselves busy with a few boat chores/projects and doing some exploring by dinghy as well as happy hours for board games with our gang.

On Thursday August 10th we moved a short distance to explore Malagawatch Harbour, eventually anchoring in River Cove. While it was pretty enough, we woke up the next morning to a deck covered with microscopic bugs the size of finely ground black pepper that were tough to wash away. Also, when raising the anchor we hauled up some sort of large, abandoned aquaculture container for muscles or oysters, which thankfully proved simple to remove. Our next stop for Friday and Saturday was through the Barra Strait into Great Bras d’Or Lake and into  Maskells Harbour. It is a snug, well-sheltered harbour surrounded by high rolling hills with a long, low-lying sand and rock spit almost closing off the entrance. So far, this is about the prettiest anchorage we’ve seen. The water was clear and about 20 degrees C, the sun was bright and warm and the wind was light, making it irresistible, so I gave in an enjoyed my first salt water swim of the summer. Various boats came and when during our two day stay. We were intrigued by a local practice of both sail and power boats to run them up on shore (power boats) or run the keel into the sandy bottom (sail) for a few hours, then back off and head home. An added bonus at Maskells Harbour were the two resident bald eagles who spent hours watching for fish and swooping low over the water to attempt making a catch. They failed to complete a catch while we watched, but based on their healthy glow, we assumed they'd enjoyed reasonable success. 

Tug'n at anchor in Maskells Harbour

Beach combing in Maskells Harbour


Lovely rolling hills in Maskells Harbour. Tug'n,
Encore & Wings in background

On Sunday we made our way to Baddeck for a few days to enjoy this most charming waterfront village and boating centre. Approaching Baddeck one can’t help by notice the lovely large estate on the hill above a point of land called Red Head. It is Beinn Bhreag, the old home of Alexander and Mabel Bell. Baddeck residents are justifiably proud of their former resident whom most know is responsible for inventing the telephone. 

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Due to health issues experienced by Alex and his brother, the family moved to Brantford, Ontario in 1870 and shortly afterwards Alex moved to Boston to teach. Five years later, he had his telephone invention patented and then spend the next 18 years successfully fighting about 600 lawsuits over his patent. While on holidays in 1885, the Bell family visited Baddeck to see if it was as idyllic as advertised. Falling in love with it, they bought property and built their home and this became Alex’s base for a vast array of inventions over the remaining 37 years of his life. In 1952, some thirty years after his death, his family decided there was so much more to Bell’s life that the public should know, so they donated the bulk of his photos, mementos, gadgets and gizmos to the Canadian Federal Government, who agreed to set up a museum in his honour. 

Parks Canada established the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in 1952. The museum is wonderfully done and contains exhibits and explanations of Bell’s many inventions and experiments, including:

• Silver Dart - the first controlled powered flight in Canada
• HD-4 - the hydrofoil that broke a marine speed record
• experiments in sheep breeding
• experiments with kite flying 
• world recognized work in the field of deaf education, Both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing his life’s work. 
• Bell’s most famous patient was Helen Keller, who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear or speak. She credits Bell with turning her darkness into light
• Bell strongly believed that with resources and effort, they could teach the deaf to speak and avoid the use of sign language, thus enabling their integration within the wider society from which many were excluded
• Alex and Mabel Bell’s own grandchildren did not know their grandmother was deaf until after she had died. They all assumed a family practice of taping the table when one was to speak was normal. That tapping action allowed Mabel Bell to know who to watch so she could lip read what they were saying.
• National Geographic Society - while Bell was not one of the 33 founders, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as its second president from January 7, 1898 to 1903

The Museum reveals the extraordinary heart and mind of a world-famous inventor whose genius helped shape the modern world. You can feel his legacy as you explore the remarkable artifacts, photos and full-scale replicas that mark his masterful career as an engineer, inventor, scientist and humanitarian. The Bell’s employed many Baddeck residents and stories still abound in the community from their descendants. Our tour guide’s great uncle worked with Bell in his laboratory at Beinn Bhreag. 

In Baddeck at Alexander Graham Bell National Historic
Site Museum. Fran & a working model of Bell's
Silver Dart aircraft


Model of Bell's HD-4 Hydrofoil


Fran meeting up with Mabel and Alec Bell


The Bell Estate on Beinn Bhreag


One of many lovely  homes in Baddeck

Ceilidh: (pronounced kay-lee) A Traditional Gaelic social gathering with usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Scotland and Ireland

When visiting Cape Breton, its Scottish heritage the Gaelic influence is impossible to miss. The Royal Cape Breton Gaelic College was founded in 1938 and it is dedicated to perpetuation of the Highland Scottish Gaelic culture. Its curriculum includes Gaelic language, Gaelic song, Gaelic history, Gaelic storytelling, Gaelic drama, Traditional bagpiping, Cape Breton fiddling, Cape Breton step dance, Highland dance, Bodhran, Harp, Whistle and weaving. The Gaelic heritage is a source of great pride for the Cape Breton residents of Scottish heritage.  

We attended a Ceilidh in Baddeck. Nancy, a local resident has organized Ceilidh’s at the local parish hall, seven nights a week during the summer months for the past 16 years. The hall only holds 100 people and it is sold out every night. On the evening we attended, we had a fiddler and a piano player, both in their mid 30’s and they entertained us with a broad mix of Cape Breton and Scottish tunes, modern and traditional, ballads, jigs, reels and more. They are both teachers at the Gaelic College and perform regularly in Cape Breton and many other venues across the country. Both performers grew up on Cape Breton and were immersed in the Gaelic culture and Ceilidh gatherings since their youth. It was a great treat to experience this music and appreciate that this music’s roots in Cape Breton go back to the early 18th century and have changed very little since then.

The Ceilidh at Baddeck Parrish Hall

Baddeck Marine was the first time we’d ever used a mooring ball. When we first approached the “mooring field” it was alarming how close the boats are to each other. Each mooring ball is chained to a great block of concrete on the bottom and it has a large ~ 20” float on the surface of the water with two long pendants (ropes) that you pick up with a boat hook and tie to your bow cleats. In the rain we managed to tie up to the mooring ball and then we began to watch closely as the boats all swung on their mooring. We were nervous at first, watching the boats move to and fro, with different timing and you’d swear there would be collisions, but they all stayed in order and no bumps were witnessed. The closest we came to a collision was during a period with no wind and Tug’n just missed the boat in front of us, by less than 3 feet. We’ve been told there will be many more mooring fields in our future as we head further down the east coast.

Tug'n on right - in mooring field in Baddeck

While in Baddeck we had a day of heavy rain day and found a small leak in our forward hatch over our bed. Temporarily I taped the perimeter of the hatch to stop any further leaking, while I collected the materials I needed to fix it when the weather allowed. After two great days visiting Baddeck, we headed off on Monday August 15 for an anchorage on Boularderie Island called Island Point Harbour. It was a beautiful sunny day allowing us to snap a few photos of the Bell estate as we left Baddeck. Travelling up St. Andrews Channel to our anchorage we passed many outcroppings of gypsum. The soft white rock is easily carved by the wind, rain and waves into various shapes allowing one to see faces, animals, angels and more. Our anchorage was lovely and well protected, but with the good weather I was more focussed on getting the hatch repair completed than enjoying the scenery. Removal of the hatch and frame went very smoothly with the two thin paint scrapers and wooden wedges Dave (from Sir Tugley Blue) loaned me. Removing all the old caulking from the deck and frame was another matter. Four hours later the clean up was done. Dave kindly joined me and took the lead on re-bedding the hatch frame in a most expert fashion and now, thankfully, our bed is no longer vulnerable in the rain. Wednesday turned out to be another 18 hour rain day, so the re-bedded hatch got a good work out and survived the test.

Sculptured gypsum rock in Island Point Harbour
Click on this pic. What do you see?

Thursday, we headed to one of the anchorages recommended by my sailing friend and former colleague Denis, who lives and sails out of Halifax. It’s called Marble Mountain and/or Clark Cove. Marble Mountain is the name of a small village on Bras D’Or Lake. The name of the mountain that was mined for marble from 1869 to 1921 is North Mountain. The enormous scar on the side of North Mountain can be see from miles around. In the early 1900’s, the mine employed over 1,000 men and supplied marble all over North America for flooring, counter tops and high end furniture. The town even had a power plant, built to supply electricity to the mine and local homes, while the rest of Cape Breton was still using candles and lamps for lighting. The area has many spots for anchoring and no visit is complete without a hike to the top of the marble quarry to soak up spectacular views of Bras D’Or Lake.

Views from top of marble quarry on North Mountain


Click on these for a bigger picture

Friday August 19th was the end of our visit to the Bras D’Or Lakes. We were up early and off to St. Peters to do some chores and then commence our journey down the south east shore of Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on this adventure. Stay tuned!