Crew Log for June 21st – 23rd, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Port Hawkesbury - Barrachois
• Trip Distance of 105 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 5,729.9 NM
In hindsight, I was glad we didn’t get away on Monday. There were strong winds the past few days which would have made for a horrible experience going across St. George’s Bay. However, we were getting impatient and wanted to leave. Fortunately, the following day, we woke to sunny skies, warm temperatures, and lighter winds. We had just over 100 nautical miles left in our journey but given the tides we’d have to split it up into 3 hops, the first to Ballantynes Cove, then to Caribou and finally to Barrachois.
The passage through the Canso Lock was uneventful, although we always have this weird combination of emotions going through here. On one hand, we feel like “rock stars”, given they essentially close the busiest highway in eastern Nova Scotia to allow a single sailboat to pass through. But there is a tinge of guilt as we look back at the line of traffic backed up.
Once we entered the lock, given the calm conditions, we opted to hover in the middle of the lock, negating the need to tie up. The conditions heading across St. George’s Bay were equally benign, which we didn’t mind at all. We motored the entire 28 miles, content to watch for whales and of course lobster pots. Our new autopilot seemed to working well, and our replacement engine belts were fine. Good news. I decided to start a loaf of bread on the way over to help pass the time.
Ballantyne’s Cove is one of our favorite stops along the Strait. Located in a small cove at the north-western end of St. George's Bay, it is a working wharf, managed by a local Harbour Authority. It is home to a fleet of lobster boats and serves as the principal trading point for Japanese merchants looking for sushi-grade Atlantic bluefin tuna. In addition to showers, washrooms, laundry facilities, there is the Ballantyne's Cove Bluefin Tuna Interpretive Centre, and our favorites, the Ballantyne's Cove Beach and the "Fish and Ships" takeout restaurant.
The community and cove are named for one of its early settlers, David Ballantyne, a lowland Scotsman and British soldier who served in the 82nd regiment during the American Revolution and who received a grant for military service. He settled in the area around 1810, taking up 1000 acres of land on the south side of the cape. He died in 1840.
We usually visit here on route to and from the Bras d’Or Lake, after lobster season was over. There was about a week left in the season and the lobster co-op was in full swing. It is a small facility compared to those in Clark’s Harbour, but equally impressive. The facility includes a holding facility, where tubs holding 100 pounds of lobster are stored for 2-3 days. Ocean water is pumped into the facility, aerated, and circulated through the tubs.
Next to the holding facility, there is a grading station and long-term storage facility. Lobsters are taken from the short-term storage, inspected, and placed on a conveyor belt where they are weighed, sorted and prepared for shipment. In addition to servicing local markets, lobsters are also sold to other facilities who ship live lobsters internationally. Not surprising, China is the fastest growing export market.
While I was learning about lobster storage and grading, Judy was off on one of the hiking trails. Unfortunately, the directions aren’t great, and she found herself on the narrow, winding road that follows the coastline. Not the relaxing walk through the woods she was looking forward too.
“Fish and Ships”, is a small take away restaurant located right on the docks at Ballantynes Cove and serves up some of the best fish and chips we’ve ever had. It is very popular with the local community and other people out for a drive around the coast. Luckily for us they had opened for the season on Fathers’ Day Weekend, so we couldn’t resist the temptation. Afterwards, we strolled along the beach south of the cove to try and work off some of the calories.
Once lobster season is over, the Harbour Authority installs finger docks on the south side of the harbour for pleasure boaters. Luckily, there was room on the ends of the main docks for us and another boat and its crew of 5 people, doing a delivery run from St. John, N.B., to Charlottetown, PEI. We had a quiet night and slept well. So much so, we didn’t even hear the fishing boats leaving in the morning.
The forecast was for moderate winds out of the south-west, which meant we’d be beating our way down the Northumberland Strait to our next anchorage in Caribou. As always, the conditions off of Cape George were challenging, with strong winds and steep choppy waves.
Rather than beat straight into the waves, we set a course as close to the wind as we could comfortably sail, which had us pointed directly at Murray River, PEI. The winds were forecasted to shift in our favour later that afternoon, so we waited patiently, and eventually tacked and set course between the mainland of Nova Scotia and Pictou Island. By the time we reached the entrance to Caribou Harbour, the winds had lightened, and water was flat calm.
Located on the Northumberland Strait northwest of the town of Pictou, Caribou is named after the Woodland Caribou which used to live in Nova Scotia. Caribou became an important port after it was selected by the federal government in the late 1930s to be the Nova Scotia terminal for a seasonal ferry service to Wood Islands in eastern Prince Edward Island. The service, carries passenger, vehicle and truck traffic to Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island between May and December. There is also a small passenger-only seasonal ferry service to Pictou Island.
Caribou is also another of our favorite stops along the Strait. There is a well protected anchorage behind Munros Island which is accessible from the mainland along a beautiful sand beach off of Caribou Island Provincial Park. This leads me to question however, Munros’ geographical label as an island. The “island” is home to a number of shore birds and a healthy population of bald eagles. Despite arriving shortly after 1600 hours, I didn’t have the energy to lower the dinghy and head to shore, which likely wasn’t one of my more popular decisions, with my nature loving co-captain. It had been a long, challenging day, and my thoughts were on getting to Barrachois the next day.
We had another quiet night on anchor and woke to the gentle rocking of the boat resulting from the wakes of the passing lobster boats. The weather was warm and sunny and the winds were a bit more out of the south, which should be good for the final 30 nautical miles of our journey. Despite there being a few more days left in the lobster season, or so we thought, fishing boats were returning to Caribou loaded down with traps. We found out a few days later that the season had started a few days earlier than normal and so it ended before the end of the month.
Unlike the Atlantic Ocean, where swells can linger for days, the conditions on the Northumberland Strait, settle almost immediately once the winds lighten or shift direction. We were curious therefore, what was causing the uncomfortable, rolling waves from the north-west as we made our way towards Tatamagouche Bay. Again, I wondered if Neptune or some other force was determined to slow our trip home. Eventually, the sea state finally settled, and we enjoyed a nice sail into Tatamagouche Bay.
Every time we return to Tatamagouche Bay I am reminded of how beautiful it is and how great the sailing is. Protected from all directions, other than due north, with the warmest water north of the Carolinas, the shoreline is dotted with a modest array of colourful cottages. Unlike some of the places we visited in our travels, where the shoreline was dominated with lifeless ostentatious summer residences, the modest summer places around the Tatamagouche Bay had signs of life all around them. You could even hear the sound of lawns being mowed. As we entered the Bay, we started to see the first signs of damage caused by Hurricane Fiona.
While, it has a new Captain and crew, (Herb and Wendy), it seemed appropriate that the first boat we saw from our home port was sv Fly-by-Wire, a C&C30. When we owned Exploits, our previous boat, we had cruised with Fly-by-Wire’s previous owner a lot. We have many fond memories of those early years in our sailing lives. All the more appropriate then, that sv Second Wind, a Benneteau 35, was the second boat to greet us. Second Wind is skippered by our friend Doug, Fly-by-Wire's former owner. He and his twin brother Tony were out for an afternoon sail.
As we made our way in the channel, we heard calls from the BHYC gazebo. Don, who along with Herb, operates the marina, and fellow sailors Rick and Marlene from sv Scott Free a Hunter 34, and Nate, who has a C&C 30, were there to greet us. We were also thrilled to see Steve and Patti, from sv Ever After, an Aloha 27 that now calls St. Peter’s home.
Just as we made our way into our slip, we noticed Gloria, who Judy has known since her early days of teaching at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. There is a lot of history between Judy and Gloria, so its not surprising that she would make the trip over from Truro to greet us. Gloria handed Judy a beautiful bouquet of flowers as she stepped onto our dock for the first time since August 14, 2022, the day this all started. It was emotional being home, and all the more special that there were some familiar faces to greet us.
Logistically our “self inflicted adventure” was completed. We had a dream to take our boat to the Bahamas, and bring it back and Patti reminded us of the significance of the accomplishment. I am sure, in the days, weeks, months and years ahead, we will begin to better appreciate what an amazing adventure and lifetime of experiences we had. We also met an amazing group of people along the way who we promised ourselves we would stay in contact with.
While this is “our blog” not “my blog” I do want to exercise my administrative privilege over the keyboard to say a coupe of things. I had the most amazing co-captain I could have ever have possibly asked for. I always felt the perfect partner was someone who made me a better person and hopefully I did the same for Judy. This was not easy, but we worked our way through it together. We were a good team when we left, and we are a better team coming home. In the end, that perhaps is what made this whole adventure worth it. There is no way I could have done this, without Judy. And quite truthfully, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it without Judy anyway.
However, time to get off the boat, take a quick trip by the cottage and then head for home and squeeze the first 2 of 6 grandkids. And maybe their Dad and Mom! We can't wait to see the rest of the family later in July.
The total trip was just over 5,700 nautical miles and took us 10 months and 2 weeks. As cliché as it sounds, we have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Most of which we have documented through these Crew Logs. If we omitted detail, it wasn’t because we were trying to hide something, but rather the detail wasn’t important to our story. That said…
We are often asked, “Would we do it again?”, “How did you survive as a couple for 10+ months on a 33 foot boat?”, and “What would you do differently?”. We have been thinking about those questions, so we thought we’d try and answer them in our EpiBlog.
But more about that, next time.
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