Damions Cove – July 16 – 17, 2014

Damions Cove was a short sail from St. Peter’s Marina.  The winds were soft to start but as a front was moving in they increased quite a bit making for a fun sail.  We stayed in Damions Cove for two nights.   We took Shamus to shore on McNabs Island.  It is a small island with a thick interior so we only walked the perimeter of the island.   We were the only boat there so perhaps that is why the bugs seemed to concentrate on us.   There were some mosquitoes and deer flies but there was another bug that looked similar to a mosquito but obviously wasn’t as it was larger and didn’t seem to have any interest in biting us.  Still they were very attracted to our boat.  The first night there we left the back of the enclosure open and in the morning there must have been a hundred of them (not including the dead ones) in our cockpit and all over the transom. The second night we closed the cockpit up entirely but there were still bugs all over the transom in the morning. They left a mess between dead bugs and what I can only imagine is ALOT of bug poop!  Yuck.

Little Harbour – July 18, 2014

We left Damion’s Cove under sail and after about three hours chose to anchor in Little Harbour because it was convenient to do so.  The winds were shifty at first but by the time we entered Little Harbour they were blowing at a steady 18 knots gusting up to 22.  The entrance to Little Harbour is narrow but once inside it is a large and well protected harbor.  It was a hot day and the deer flies started to find us while we anchored.  We quickly took down the plastic panels of the cockpit enclosure and put up the screens and armed ourselves with fly swatters to kill any deer flies that were captured inside during this process.  It cooled off beautifully at night and it was the first time on our trip that we have been able to sleep with the boat opened up to let in the breeze - screens closed of course! 

Clarke Cove / Marble Mountain – July 19, 2014

We enjoyed a slow morning at Little Harbour and then motored over to Marble Mountain.  This anchorage isn’t a private location as there were houses on shore, lots of motor boat traffic and a couple other sail boats at anchor.   We just lazed around on the boat after anchoring and rowed over to a spit of land and sand bar to swim and play with Shamus.   We had another “Oh No!” moment when we got to shore.  I was getting something out of the dinghy and turned just in time to see Shamus lift his leg and pee on a golden retriever who we later found out is named Bruin!  First time I have ever seen Shamus do this.    Once again we are thankful that Bruin’s owners laughed it off and that Bruin being a water dog was swimming around the rest of the afternoon getting a good rinse!

One of the more interesting things about the Bras D’or lakes is that there are sand bars or spits in a lot of anchorages and they shoal up very steeply at the shoreline.  Tim was able to dive into the water off the bar at Marble Mountain.  He estimated the slope in the water to be about 45 degrees.  Most powerboats and even some sailboats simply pull up to the beach bow first and set their anchors on shore.  I must say it is very unnerving to see a sailboat with a six foot keel motor right up to the beach and not touch bottom.

We haven’t gotten very far into the Bras D’Or Lakes just yet.  There is a large race called “Race the Cape” that started today.  It is a 5 day point-to-point sailing race along Cape Breton Island’s coast and into and through the Bras D’Ors Lakes.  Each day of the race ends with a catered meal and some evening entertainment.  We want to make sure the race has passed through Baddeck before we get there sometime next week.

Denys Basin / Seal Cove – July 20, 2014

In the morning we got some exercise walking up Marble Mountain Road.  We were looking for the hiking trail that overlooks the old marble quarry but didn’t find it.   Marble Mountain Road is long and very steep so we definitely got some good exercise.

After returning to the boat we decided to go to Denys Basin which is essentially located on the other side of Marble Mountain about 17 nautical miles (nm) by boat – which would take us roughly 3 hours at 6 knots.  We left around 11:30 a.m. and there wasn’t a wisp of wind.  That changed somewhere between 1 and 2 p.m. when the wind picked up to about 13 knots so we pulled out the head sail and shut the engine down!  Yay!!! The sail into Denys Basin was beautiful!  We wound our way between several small islands and the mainland of Cape Breton Island.  The shoreline is relatively undeveloped and other than one or two motor boats we were on the water by ourselves. 

When we arrived at Denys Basin we found a large house and some sort of industrial looking building built on the shoreline of the basin.  After such a beautiful sail that felt so remote it was a bit of a disappointment to have to spend the night looking at the buildings so we motored a very short distance over to Seal Cove.   Once again we found the depths on the chart plotter and the description in the cruising guides for Seal Cove differed so we entered the cove cautiously. The chart plotter showed a depth of 7.2’ in the anchorage but our depth sounder didn’t drop below 12’ which was more in line with the cruising guide’s description.    We arrived late in the afternoon so we relaxed before taking Shamus to shore, eating dinner and calling it a night!

Maskells Harbour – July 21 – July 22, 2014

The next morning we left Seal Cove and motored to Maskells Harbour.  We passed through the Barra Strait and the draw bridge at Grand Narrows into the Upper Bras D’Ors Lakes.  Maskells Harbour is about 6 miles southwest of Baddeck and we thought it would be a good a place to spend a couple days until the “Race the Cape” leaves Baddeck Wednesday morning. 

Maskells is by far the prettiest anchorage we have found in the Bras D’Or Lakes so far.   The harbor is surrounded by steep, tall hills and thankfully the property owners have decided to leave the shoreline undeveloped. On top of one of the hills there is a rolling green field where a pretty little lighthouse overlooks the lake.   At the other end of the field from the lighthouse sits a beautiful barn and farmhouse that we could just barely see from the boat.   There is a small spit of rocky shoreline that juts out into the harbor that has a little dock and boathouse.   The property owners encourage yachters to visit the shore and the lighthouse.   We really enjoyed poking around this little harbor.  Shamus especially enjoyed sunning himself in the grass by the lighthouse!

Tuesday, was a rest day in Baddeck for the sailboats participating in “Race the Cape”.   Baddeck is less than an hour from Maskells Harbour.  A few of the race boats and one motor boat full of racers came down and whooped it up for bit but other than that both nights were quiet.

We really enjoyed this spot!  For you oyster lovers, the beach was full of them.

Baddeck – July, 23, 2014

This morning we had a beautiful downwind sail to Baddeck from Maskells Harbour.  It was nice to see all the sailboats in the “Race the Cape” under sail as we approached Baddeck.

Tomorrow and Friday the weather forecast is calling for rain.  We will grab a shuttle bus to Halifax to get the truck and then spend the next several days exploring the interior of Cape Breton Island.

 

Liscomb Lodge – July 10 -11, 2014

On Thursday, July 10, we left Hartling’s Island on and headed for an anchorage up the Liscomb River.   The fog was still thick and while the sea conditions had improved the swells were still fairly large - maybe 6 ft – but fairly well spaced and they weren’t breaking.

We anchored in the river just west of Riley Island and southeast of the Liscomb Lodge.   The lodge has quite a bit of rustic charm.   There is a nice main lodge with a restaurant and bar, a small hotel, and several charming little cabins.   For $20 we had full access to the lodge’s amenities including showers, laundry, a swimming pool and hot tub, kayaks, canoes, and bicycles.

There were three other sailboats anchored at Liscomb Lodge when we arrived. Franz and Mary who own a beautiful Hinckley 59’ named Remedios invited all of us to their boat for cocktails.  We had a lovely time and enjoyed getting to know everyone and sharing stories of our travels!   Thank you Franz and Mary!

There is a pretty hiking trail that starts at the Lodge and winds up and down both sides of the Liscomb River for a total of 6 miles.  The sun was out for the first time in days and once you were away from the anchorage and the breeze it became quite humid as all the moisture from the past few days started to evaporate.  So although it was a sticky and damp hike it was worth it to see the pretty waterfall and the fish ladders located at the head of the trail. Shamus was able to cool off in the Liscomb River as we hiked along but as hot and sweaty as Tim and I were from hiking we really didn’t consider joining him for a dip – the water was an ankle biting 42 degrees!

Yankee Cove

We stayed two nights in Liscomb and then decided to make a push to get to the Bras D’Or Lakes. It is supposed to be incredibly scenic with some beautiful and remote anchorages.   We motor sailed east to Yankee Cove – about 40 miles east of Liscomb.  We had blue skies and the seas had calmed considerably so it was a rather easy but long day.  Yankee Cove is beautiful and reminded us a lot of Rogues Roost.  There is a narrow passage that leads to a basin behind Yankee Cove.  We explored it in the dinghy.  The current in the passage to basin is extremely swift.  When we were returning to the boat we had to give our engine about half throttle just to make headway in the current.   Yankee Cove and the basin behind have been used for aquaculture for several years to cultivate mussels.   There were no longer any aquaculture pens in the anchorage in Yankee Cove but there were some in the basin and they are now farming oysters instead of mussels. 

St. Peters Lock

On Sunday, July 13, we completed another long leg to reach the Bras d’Or Lakes – about 38 nm.  The skies were clear and seas calm.   The winds were downwind and relatively light to start but they built throughout the day so we were able to cut the engine and had a beautiful sail for the last couple hours of the day.  We were having such a nice sail we waited until we were just outside the entrance to the St. Peters Lock to drop the main sail and furl the genoa.  

Enroute we caught up with Moonlight Maid and Lagniappe - two of the boats that had been anchored with us at Liscomb Lodge but had left the day before us.  We all entered the lock within minutes of each other along with a fourth boat called Gorgeous Girl whose homeport is Belfast , Maine.   Two boats tied up on the port side of the lock and two of us on the starboard side of the lock.  Once the lock was full we all transited through single file and made our way around the corner to the St. Peters Marina.  The lock is unique as it lead from the Atlantic ocean which is tidal to the Bras D’or lakes which are also tidal as they have a small passage that is open to the ocean at the other end of the lakes which requires no lock.  Because of this the lock needs to have doors that open outwards on both ends.  Most locks have doors that face the same way(towards the higher of the two bodies of water).  This is supposed to be the oldest lock of this kind in North America.

St. Peters Marina is a great facility with a very comfortable cruisers lounge that includes a full kitchen, laundry, several showers and a TV.   We gathered there on Sunday night to watch the final game of the world cup!

There are only a few places on the lake where you have access to groceries, post offices and hardware stores and St. Peters is one of them.  So we stayed put on Monday and restocked the pantry and fridge, and did some laundry.  Tim changed the engine oil and spent a good portion of the rest of the day troubleshooting what is wrong with our engine driven generator. It had started giving us trouble a couple days after leaving Halifax.   After running some diagnostics and checking all the connections Tim concluded the issue seems to be with the alternator itself which means it needs to be shipped back to the manufacturer in Texas.  Let’s hope it can be repaired or we will be shelling out for a new one.   We will know in a couple weeks.

Tuesday, July 15, we thought we might head out to another anchorage after hauling the generator up to the post office but Tim ran into some frustrating technical difficulties updating our Garmin GPS to the most recent version.  A 20 minute update ended up taking a couple hours.  By then we decided to stay put and Tim spent the remainder of the afternoon hardwiring in a new inverter that we could use to recharge some of our electronics that require a 110 volt outlet.

Tomorrow we start our exploration of the Bras D’Or Lakes! 

Happy 50th Birthday to my big brother Kevin! Love ya!

More fun on Round Island!

We left Mahone Bay with the intent of anchoring at Mason Island but the anchorage was exposed to the wind and fetch so we decided to head back to Round Island.   During our first visit to Round Island we met three men named Steve at the turkey bake.  The Steve with the big motor yacht “Trinity” had also returned to the island with a few of his buddies.  We had fun drinking a few beers with them.  They insisted we try “Solomon Gundy” which is pickled herring.   I didn’t care for it but Tim liked it.  Maybe I just needed something stronger than beer to wash it down with! Shamus also liked it (hard to find something he doesn’t gobble down) but it left his whiskers smelling a little fishy –yuck!

We stayed at Round Island until late afternoon on Tuesday and then decided to head over to South Shore Marina for the night. The winds were from the south at about 14 knots when we dropped the mooring but increased to a steady 20 knots en-route.  You know the wind is strong when you can feel it in the cockpit sailing downwind!  It was a fast and fun sail.

South Shore Marina

South Shore Marina is full service marina and there is also a restaurant there. The mooring cost $35 per night.  The most expensive price for a mooring we have paid in Nova Scotia so far.   We chose this yard because we wanted to re-fill our water tanks and shower.  The yard is still busy launching and doing other maintenance on boats to get them ready for their owners to use for the season. The next morning when we went in to fill our tanks the yard had boats lined up almost the entire length of the face dock where the water is located.  Tim masterfully docked “Carina” in the only available spot on the end of the dock.  It was a tight squeeze made even more challenging because there are no cleats on the dock to help stop and position the boat.  Curiously, except for one motor boat all the boats lined up on the dock were all Nonsuch’s.  Nonsuch’s must be a popular boat at this marina because there were several moored throughout the anchorage and more waiting to be launched. 

Chester & Big Tancook Island

After topping off our water tanks at South Shore Marina we motored the short distance to Chester’s Front Harbor and picked up a mooring for two nights at the Chester Yacht Club.   The club is very pretty but doesn’t offer any amenities such as showers or laundry.   Interestingly our friend Chris Allen’s grandfather, Capitan James Allen was a founding member of the yacht club and his house called the “Captains House” is located just across the street from the club.  It is now a rental that can be used for events such as weddings or for vacations.

There is a ferry that runs several times a day between Chester and Big Tancook Island.  We had read and been told that a trip to Big Tancook is like stepping back in time and that there are hiking trails around the island.   Tim and I were excited to visit there as we often use this same description to describe Monhegan Island – one of our favorite islands in Maine.   It turned out there were no trails on Big Tancook – what ones there are are private and not available to the public. The island has had full time residents dating well back to the 1800s, maybe even earlier, but unlike other places we visited there weren’t many historic homes or buildings.   Still it was a nice little day trip.  We finally had some ice cream and met a cute little pig in the gift shop named Ruby!  The ferry stopped at Little Tancook on the way back to Chester and from what we could see from the ferry it seemed to have more of the “step back in time” appeal than Big Tankcook did.

We spent our third night in Chester at the docks owned by a restaurant called the Rope Loft.  Dockage is free if you buy a meal there and there is water available on their dock.

Rogue’s Roost

We skipped over St. Margaret’s Bay as we intend to visit there on our return trip back to Maine.   We took Bruce and Diane Jardine’s advice and went to Rogue’s Roost.   It is the most beautiful anchorage we have visited in Nova Scotia.   The entrance is narrow and a little intimidating as there is a huge rock right in the middle of the entrance.   We entered the Roost on a falling tide so the rock was visible.  Still we felt it prudent for me to go out to the bowsprit to keep a look out for rocks.

Apparently Rogue’s Roost was a hideaway for rum runners and perhaps privateers and it is a good one.  We anchored as far back as we could in the North end of the anchorage and you could not see our roughly 60’ mast (including the antennas on top) from Hearn’s Island which is just outside the entrance to Rogue’s Roost.

It is hard to describe the beauty of this location and I don’t think our pictures will do it justice.   Roost Island has rolling green hills covered with low vibrant green brush (perhaps low bush blueberrys) and evergreen trees.   There are huge erratics that were deposited on the hilltops by receding glaciers that seem to be teetering on the edge of rolling down to the sea crushing everything in their path. 

Hearn Island is just outside the entrance to Rogues Roost and has a lovely little beach and picnic area.  There is a short but scenic walking trail that takes you across the island.  It is just a stunning place.  While there we ran into Rob and Karen and their dog Duke and some friends having a pancake breakfast on the beach.  We had met them at the Armdale Yacht Club when we dropped our truck off there.  It was very nice to run into them again.

We spent two nights there enjoying the scenery and an Osprey that was fishing right next to the boat and once again meeting and having some beers with folks who invited us on board as we motored by in the dinghy.  Who are we to pass up an offer for a beer!

Wrandees Trails - Wait! Haven’t We Been Here Already!

We arrived at the Armdale Yacht Club and reunited with our truck on Monday, June 30.  The next day we decided to go for a bike ride rather than explore the city as it was Canada Day (their version of our July 4th) and we had been told that Halifax’s downtown and historic waterfront would be a mob scene.   There are a lot of places to mountain bike in the Halifax area but there is very little information available about them other than connecting with someone who knows them – in other words find a bike shop – but they were all closed for “Canada Day.” A book we have about mountain biking in Nova Scotia and some information we gleaned from the internet mentioned a trail system located in one of the provincial parks not far from the yacht club called Wrandees. The book and what little information we found on the internet described the Wrandees trails as technical single track with some roots and rocks! I am a decent technical rider and Tim in an excellent technical rider so the description didn’t bother us much. There were also no maps that we could find of the trails so we knew we would be doing some exploring.   So we set off for a nice little afternoon adventure with our bikes and our pup!  Hmmmm….we discovered:

·         Wrandees is a very complex trail system.  You would never know this from the map located in the lot where we parked the truck.  Other than the spot marked “You Are Here” the map was pretty vague. It showed a few big trails that circled the lake.  None of which were single track.  So we rode around and finally came across a single track trail and off we went.

·         Some of the worse trails for mountain biking we have ever encountered. “Some rocks and roots” is a gross understatement. There are so many rocks and roots it was difficult just to start pedaling before having to dismount - sometimes voluntarily sometimes not!  I knew I was in for a difficult day when Tim had to get off his bike a few times!  He rarely gets off his bike!  Still we persisted…maybe we just hadn’t found the right trail!  NOT!

·         That Shamus is no Lassie!  Lassie never failed to rescue “little Timmy” whenever he got himself in trouble.   After a couple hours abusing ourselves and our bikes on the rocks and roots we decided to head home.  Beers back at the boat seemed much more appealing than more bruises.  Somehow we kept circling back to the same set of boulders and one particular mud puddle that we had obviously ridden through more than once.   Finally after about the 5th time one or both of said “Damn! we were just here” we decided to pull out our phones to view the apps we use to track our ride.  We could use the information provided by the apps to backtrack the way we came.  Unfortunately my phone was dead (it had been almost fully charged when we left) and Tim’s app locked up and wouldn’t bring up our track- so much for technology! Shamus was no help! We jokingly told him to “go to the truck” but he was content to just sniff around in the woods where we stopped or follow us blindly in whatever apparent misdirection we set off on!  If Lassie had been with us she would have led the way home to safety and our cold beers!

No worries though!  My ever prepared husband whipped out his compass and got us headed in the right direction.  We rode as frequently as the trail permitted and hiked our bikes the rest of the way.   Tim was able to ride more than me and at one point I came around a blind corner to see that he had done an endo (an involuntary dismount directly over the handlebars)!  I was quite concerned but again Shamus trotted right past Tim on way to smell something or other in the bushes ahead of us.  He didn’t even stop for a sniff!   Very un-Lassie-like!

Since I am writing this blog it is obvious we made our way back to our boat and our beers which we felt we deserved and enjoyed immensely!  Tim hurt some ribs when he did his endo so he will be sore for a few weeks but he hasn’t let that slow him down!

We also enjoyed reconnecting with Andrew and Heather Powell.   We had met them in Portland, Maine last year when they were sailing the Hunter they had just bought here in the U.S. back to Halifax.  We exchanged information and promised to look them up if we were ever in Halifax.  Coincidentally they are members of the Armdale Yacht Club so reconnecting with them was rather easy.  It was great to get reacquainted with them again.

Batten Down the Hatches!  Hurricane Arthur!

We spent the next couple days exploring Halifax and the town just across the river called Dartmouth where we found a fantastic bike shop called the “Bike Pedaler”.   We had them complete a minor repair on Tim’s bike and found them to be a great source of information for bike trails in the area.  So we did actually end up finding and enjoying a bike ride at decent trail system at Spider Lake that is a short distance outside Darmouth in the town of Waverly.   Tim just had to ride a little more conservatively than usual due to his rib injury.

We had planned on leaving Halifax about mid-week but with Hurricane Arthur heading in our direction we thought it prudent to stay put.  We were on a strong mooring in a well-protected harbor so there was really no better place to be to ride out the storm.   Tim and I prepared the boat for the storm by removing the dodger and cockpit enclosure, tying down the main sail, removing our anchors etc…   and then checked into a hotel Friday night to ride out the storm in comfort.  We were worried but not greatly concerned about the boat but we knew it would be more comfortable off of it and more importantly we didn’t want to deal with getting Shamus on and off the boat while it was bouncing around in the storm.     We stayed at the Atlantica which is very nice hotel that also happens to be pet friendly.  They brought Shamus up a massive dog bed that he absolutely loved sleeping in! H. Arthur arrived on Saturday with strong winds but thankfully not as strong as predicted.  There was no rain and in fact part of the day was sunny.  We spent the day exploring the Citadel which is a historic site that overlooks Halifax Harbor.   While inside its thick walls you would never know how strong the winds were. However, when we crossed the parade grounds to get from one part of the citadel to another we got sandblasted! 

We had an absolutely fabulous dinner Saturday night at a restaurant called the Bike Thief downtown Halifax.  It was recommended by several people and I am so glad we took their advice. Tim and I agreed it is one of the best meals we have ever had.  DELICIOUS!!!

Sunday we headed back to the boat and spent the day getting the boat put back together.  Later in the evening we joined Heather Powell and her friends Liz and Kate for a relaxing and very fun evening.  Thanks again ladies!  It was great fun and the dinner Kate whipped up for us all was fantastic!

On Monday, July, 7th we left Halifax for Shelter Cover - our first stop along eastern shore of Nova Scotia on our way to the Bras D’ors Lakes. 

The next 3 days we were shrouded in fog as we visited Shelter cove, Malagash cove and Hartlings island.  We saw no other boats or people during this time.