A Rough Sail from Halifax to Shelburne, Nova Scotia

8/8/19
While enjoying Halifax, we continued to watch for a weather window to make the passage to Mount Desert Island, Maine. The prevailing winds along the east coast of Nova Scotia are out of the southwest. All of our jumps along the coast so far have been on the nose since we are sailing SW down the coast. From Halifax, it is about 130 NM southwest to the southern tip of Nova Scotia and then 125 NM northwest across the Gulf of Maine to Mount Desert Island. A low-pressure system was predicted to provide some westerly direction to the wind, so we decided the best time to leave was early Thursday morning, 8/8/19. Bryan was up at 5:15 for his shower and we were off our dock at Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron at 5:50 am.  It was cool, cloudy/foggy with a light breeze.  As we motored out the channel towards the ocean, the waves were stacking up and by the time we reached the ocean, they were 10 feet and very close together. Yikes!!  It helped stabilize our motion a little when we turned along the shore and unrolled our jib but the waves were averaging 10 -12 feet with a 15-footer thrown in every once in a while. It was also cold and gray - NOT a pleasant day on the water. After several hours, Bryan looked for a spot towards the southern tip of Nova Scotia that we could pull in to rather than going the whole way to Maine. We decided to go to Shelburne, which looked like a great harbor and a good spot to make the jump into Maine. By afternoon, the wind had built to 20 knots and we we going steady 10 knots so we switched to the “Cute Little Jib” (CLJ) on the inner forestay. We made it up into Shelburne Harbor by evening and anchored in the dark at 9:15.

We spent the next three days in Shelburne and really enjoyed it.  The people at the Shelburne Yacht Club were friendly and welcoming.  We were anchored off the yacht club marina and for a small fee we could use the yacht club facilities.  Unfortunately, they had a fire in their main building several months ago, but there were showers in the "learn to sail" building and they had a trailer set up for their bar.  We joined several members two times for happy hour and it was fun hearing about fishing and other local activities from them.

We watched the junior race team, or maybe "learn to sail" kids have a fun race on Friday afternoon.  We had a traditional Salt Cod Dinner (Salt Cod, mashed potatoes and turnips with bacon & onions over all) at the Sea Dog Tavern and celebrated our anniversary on Saturday night with a very delicious dinner at Charlotte Lane Cafe.  We also took a hike to the Boxing Rock Brewery and walked back to the marina with 2 12-packs of beer.  We had met the owner of the brewery at the yacht club, where they served Boxing Rock Red Beer which was quite tasty.

Fun race for the juniors on Friday

Joli looking tres joli in Shelburne Harbor 

Surf & Turf for Bryan and Lobster & Scallops for me at Charlotte Lane Cafe

Liquid desert (scotch sampler) and chocolate/carmel cake

The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore was filmed in Shelburne, Nova Scotia in the 1990's.  A steeple was added to this building to make it the church in the movie.

Sign from Boxing Rock Brewery

Halifax, 8/5/19 through 8/8/19

Monday, 8/5/19 Owl’s Head Bay to Halifax

We left Owl’s Head Bay at 8:30 and the poor engine blower sounded like it was on it’s last leg.  After stopping and starting it a few times, it sounded OK enough to run it.  Rather than beat into the wind the whole way, we decided to take a long tack out onto the ocean and a long tack into Halifax.  The strategy was partially successful but we still had to motor into the wind and waves along the shoreline for the last 7 miles.  We were docked at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron by 5:30 pm.  It was a beautiful part of the city, with large homes lining both sides of the channel.

In Halifax, we rented a pick-up truck since that was the only thing available on short notice.  We ran errands, including a stop at the Binnacle where we bought a new engine blower, some hardware and some line; the grocery store; liquor store; and Wal-Mart and we both got much-needed haircuts at First Choice.  We walked along the waterfront and through downtown a couple different times and visited the maritime museum which we really enjoyed.  Reading about the Halifax explosion of 1917 brought tears to my eyes.  Over 2000 people were killed and the north part of the city was leveled when a ship carrying explosives collided with another ship in a narrow part of the river.  Such devastation!  I also learned that Halifax was the closest port to the Titanic disaster and the Halifax people were very active in rescue efforts and body recovery.

We enjoyed watching the boats leave from RNSYS for their Wednesday night race.  They have a large racing fleet, including lots of J’s, Farrs, Mumms, and other “fancy racing sailboats”.  There was a very large catamaran at the dock behind us, with a crew of 2 young men and 2 young women.  We assumed the owner was coming soon because the crew was very busy on Tuesday getting fuel and cleaning the boat and Tuesday evening they had the boat, Namaste, all lit up.  The RNSYS facilities were very nice and I did 3 loads of laundry.  I met Shirsten and Steve from Dragonfly while doing laundry one morning.  They live on their boat with 2 daughters and a dog and they plan on doing the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean.  So fun!

We continued to watch the weather to identify the best window to make the jump to Maine and it looked like the right time was to leave early Thursday morning.  Wednesday was spent doing boat work, including replacing the engine blower, fueling up, rinsing off the salt and filling up the water tank.  On Weds. evening, we had a couple visitors, Jill and Graham, who Bryan knew from Sailing Anarchy.  They were very nice and brought us a Daily Rum Ration from Graham’s distillery, Compass Distillers.  I thought it was funny that Jill commented, “It’s great that Graham finally met one of his imaginary (Internet) friends”.  It was a fun close to our visit to Halifax.

Owl's Head Bay, NS

Dreaming of the Caribbean - the Atlantic has been very cold

Model of the RMS Mauretania, sister ship to the Lusitania. What a ship it was!

The old and the new - St. Paul's Church built in 1750

St. Mary's Basilica

Namaste, docked behind us at Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron

Entrance to Owl's Head Bay

View from Halifax waterfront

Fog rolling in at Owl's Head Bay

It cleared enough for a nice sunset in Owl's Head Bay

One other sailboat in the anchorage at Owl's Head Bay

The yellow line shows our track from Owl's Head Bay to Halifax

Looking a little scruffy

We're not at Put-in-Bay!!

After More Than 1400 Nautical Miles, We Reach the Atlantic Ocean

7/25 - 7/28/19 Gaspe

We spent 2 nights anchored off the Gaspe Marina and 2 nights at the dock.  We had a good balance of time relaxing, doing boat work and running some errands.  At the dock, we met Guy and Mary who were sailing their new boat from Long Island where they had purchased it, to Quebec where they lived.  We also talked to a couple from Alabama who were doing the Loop on a trawler.  On Saturday night, the Harbor Master asked us to move down the dock by half a boat length to make room for a large motor yacht, Princess Ashita from Texas, which docked next to us at 9 pm.  They were off early the next morning.  At anchor, we enjoyed watching the Northern Gannets dive for their dinner and we had front row seats for a Sunday afternoon sailboat race out of the Gaspe Marina.  The restaurant/bar at the marina served a tasty Red Ale from Pit Caribou Brewery and the people were very friendly.  Nice facilities! 

On Friday, we walked to the IGA for provisions and stopped at the Canadian Tire store next door for some electrical and plumbing supplies.  Alas, they had limited boat parts and no engine blower and only a kinda wimpy fly swatter which we bought anyway.  Bryan was able to finish modifications to the forward head with the plumbing parts and he worked on the engine blower which had started squealing on the way from Quebec.  We walked over the bridge into town on Friday evening for a good dinner at the Artists Cafe.  On Saturday morning, we walked back into town only to find that the post office did not have Saturday hours.  We stopped at a specialty foods/deli/bakery and bought some French bread, tomato pesto, Buerre de framboises, Gruyere cheese and a pastry for my breakfast.  We walked through a small indoor shopping center where we found a better fly swatter (actually a set of two fly swatters so now we have three!!!) and a fish market where we bought some seafood broquettes which made a delicious lunch the next day.  Monday morning, we dinghied in to the marina for fuel and I went to the post office.  We were on our way, headed out Gaspe Bay by noon.  Our plan was to go to either Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, or somewhere on Cape Breton Island, depending on the wind.

7/29/19 - 7/30/19 Gaspe to Port Hood, Cape Breton Island

It started out with a nice close reach but the wind quickly died and we had to motor.  Then, as we rounded Ile Bonaventure and headed towards the north west point of Prince Edward Island, we ran into 6 to 8 foot swells head on.  Not good!  We decided the better option was to head toward Cape Breton Island instead of Charlottetown.  The only good thing passing Ile Bonaventure was the flocks of “flying penguins”.  I believe these birds were Razorbills, a kind of Auk.  They mostly swam and dove through the waves but they also flew along the wave tops and looked just like small, flying penguins.  They were so cute!

By evening, the wind became favorable and we sailed at 8 knots with just the jib.  It turned into an absolutely gorgeous night sail.  When I got up for my midnight to 3 am watch, the Big Dipper was low in the sky directly behind us and the Milky Way arched above from horizon to horizon. I even saw a couple shooting stars!  The night sky was quite spectacular.  A small sliver of a moon was just rising as Bryan took over at 3 am.  By the time I got up at 6, the wind was dying.  We had to motor most of the day Tuesday and by late afternoon, it was glassy and hazy.  We rounded Henri Island and anchored off Port Hood Island by 8:30.  It was a very beautiful anchorage with lots of seals sticking their heads up out of the water to check us out.  We had a good night’s sleep after the 250 mile sail.

July 31, 2019 - August 1 Port Hood to Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton and Canso, Nova Scotia

We’re on Halifax time now!  It’s an hour later than EST.  We had the anchor up and were under way at 11:25 on Weds, 7/31/19.  There was not much wind (again!) but it was a sunny, warm day and we motored all the way along Cape Breton Island to the Canso Strait and through the Canso Lock.  The lock was only about a foot drop and we did not have to tie up; we just had to stay in the center of the lock as the water level was lowered - very easy after all the practice with the Welland Canal and the other locks we’ve been through.  The line handler on shore was very friendly and talkative.  We were happy to be back in the land of the English speakers.  We anchored at Port Hawkesbury which turned out to be a small, rather unattractive, industrial harbor.  There is a yacht club marina at one end which was too shallow for us to dock but we planned on getting fuel by dinghy.  We also found out, too late, that you could shower at their club house for $5.00/shower.  Thursday morning, I was able to get 2 dinghy trips in for 36 gallons of fuel while Bryan worked (unsuccessfully) on the battery to battery charger, but no time for showers as the wind had picked up and we decided it was time to get the heck outta there.  We motored out of Port Hawkesbury and across Chedabucto Bay with dark storm clouds behind us all the way.  There were a lot of whale spouts on all sides of us but they were too far away to see the whales.  We made it to Canso, Nova Scotia without much rain or other impact from the storm.  

Friday, 8/2/19 

We were up early to get on the road.  I put the water on to boil for coffee, looked out the hatch and it was FOGGY!  Oh nooo, no early start today!  The exit from the harbor out to the Atlantic was narrow and rocky so we didn’t want to leave in the fog.  We waited a couple hours and by 8:30, the fog had cleared enough that we felt comfortable leaving.  We are now on the Atlantic!!

Shortly after getting out onto the ocean, we both heard a strange sound.  We looked behind us and a humpback whale had surfaced about 100 feet from the transom.  WOW!!! It was as big as the boat.  It swam along the surface for a bit, then the classic whale tail came out of the water as it dove down.  WOW! It was thrilling!

We threaded our way through the rocks to get into Marie Joseph Harbour and were anchored by 6:30 pm.  This harbour is protected on all sides and is very pretty, but it is remote and rugged and there is no fuel dock nor grocery store, in spite of what the cruising guide says.  I guess it is too out of date with a copyright date of 1997. 

Ile Bonaventure - Bird Sanctuary

Ile de Henri Light House

Round Island at the entrance to Marie Joseph Harbor

The North East Tip of Prince Edward Island

The first morning on the Atlantic Ocean

Rocks, rocky shorelines and rocky islands everywhere - even out in the middle of nowhere!

Wedge Island - Bryan thought it was nice of them to put a green out in the ocean

Sunday afternoon race in Gaspe Bay

Joli anchored in Marie Joseph Harbor, Nova Scotia - Round Island just past our bow