Enetai - Nova Scotia Cruise, 2017
Part 2: July 27 to August 1, Cape Sable to Halifax, 190 nautical miles
We were past Cape Sable now, the rounding of which turned out to be a non-event. We are looking at Nova Scotia's South Shore. We are out of the big tides although there are still tidal currents influenced by the Bay of Fundy along the South Shore.
The anchorage at Cape Negro Island seemed exposed so we moved over to Ingomar (Northeast Harbour on the chart). Good anchorage with a very flat bottom. I thought the depth sounder had frozen at 12ft as we circled around for the best place to anchor.
We were sitting quietly when some kind of water police zoomed up in a big dark RIB from the other side of the spit. They may have been the RCMP but the markings on the boat were muted (sort of stealthy). They pulled up to ask for our paperwork. Pretty sure they tracked us down from our AIS beacon. They were friendlier after we pulled out our little blue permit and they took down the number. So glad to have got the right paperwork from the land side of Customs! But obviously, with the AIS on we clearly weren't trying to hide! After that it was a quiet night with a lovely sunset.
Thursday July 27, Ingomar to Port Mouton, 44.7nm.
Glorious sailing today. We have been motoring excessively and this was the antidote! Pulled up and headed out. The wind was moderate and steady from the South.
We'd read in our guidebook about Lockeport, so we stopped there. Took a nice walk, and had a nice lunch at the White Gull. It's a lovely town. The harbor is very protected. The waterfront is so much more relaxed when there is good protection and little tide. The guidebook said water was available on the dock, but it wasn't on.
We arrived at Port Mouton ("Port Meh-Toon") late in the afternoon, threaded our way through two narrow places to a beautiful anchorage off a white-blond sand beach. After a quick dinner, we rowed in for a long walk, first toward town up the road, but then back across the tidal streams and down the beach. This was a phenomenal fine, sandy, beach, crossed by a gentle stream of ebbing tidewater - Carters Beach. A lovely evening in July and just one other person on the beach.
There was only one other boat in the harbor we'd passed as we came in to anchor, "Radical Jack". Despite night was falling, we rowed past them on the way back to our boat to say hi. After finding that they were from Argyle River, who could it be but Peter Loveridge and his wife Heather! It is Peter's memory-stick guidebook we're using. They invited us aboard, and we had a beer and talked away. Very gracious (and they had a propane heater too!).
Friday July 28, Port Mouton to Lunenburg, 44nm.
We went the back way out of Port Mouton, a beautiful rainbow over the beach in the drizzle! A southerly breeze came up and drove us along the coast, but it was pretty rough out. We had to reef twice as the wind built.
We had another visit from the authorities, This time with RCMP logo on the side of the boat. Their RIB pulled up next to us long enough to verify that we had already been checked out. They peeled off and zoomed away.
I will point out here that this is what should be the height of the yachting season on Nova Scotia's South Shore. Yet there is nobody around except the guy who wrote the cruising guide, us and the RCMP.
We pulled in to Halibut Bay, a perfectly round little harbor, and anchored to get a break from the wind and have some lunch. Very refreshing (or, as Gina would put it, a much-needed break).
We passed rusty West Ironbound Island, one of two rusty looking islands off the coast, the other being East Ironbound Island further along. It's easy to see how they got named.
Around the corner, and past Point Enrage, Rose Point and Rose Bay (considered anchoring there) the strong wind rushed us up the estuary to Lunenburg Harbor, getting up to 7 knots. It was unclear how the moorings worked, they had no pennants, so we, with our very little draft, anchored on the edge of the innermost harbor.
Ashore, we walked around town and over the hill to the back bay. We were here in 1991 - we'd come in to Back Harbour (which is utterly beautiful) from Mahone Bay on our little sailboat 'Sanderling'. Lunenburg is a really nice town, with creative street art, sculptures from the street signs and such! There's an RV park on top of the hill in town. Picked up some groceries from the Foodland store at the south end.
Saturday July 29, Lunenburg to Chester, 19nm.
We woke to a crystal clear day with the red Fisheries Museum building (originally a fish processing plant) perfectly reflected in the calm water, and by the time (Gina) was dressed, the fog had rolled in and the museum was almost obscured! We rowed our dinghy across the channel and over to Zwicker's dinghy dock and walked up to Montague Street and the Old Town Restaurant (the Dockside on the map) for a wonderful breakfast on the deck overlooking the harbor. We watched a horse and buggy: the whole time we were at the restaurant the driver was decorating the mane, forelock and finally the tail! with carnations! Overheard her tell someone that she had a wedding later that day.
We wandered about, looking for a spigot where we might fill our water tank. Turned out, the wharf we had landed the dinghy at had a long hose we could use. We up-anchored and motored Enetai over and watered up. Arrgh, the hose was brand new and the water stank! While waiting for the young man to find and uncoil the hose, we were approached by a mother and her two sons, asking if we'd take them out to their boat, 'Oobleck' (means goo, what a name for a boat! but it was named that when she bought it). It was unclear how they were going to get back, but they asked and we dropped them off.
Chester is not that far as the crow flies but we had to sail out around East Point and Little Duck Island to get into Mahone Bay. I would have loved to explore the intriguing archipelago of Eastern Points and run the East Point Gut but we had more or less fog the whole way. We elected to stay clear of all the rocks. Loveridge writes about Cross Island and its beautiful harbor, very narrow channel, not something we could visit in the fog. I thought the visibility was not that bad; we could see maybe a hundred yards, far enough to avoid a collision. But Gina did NOT like the fog! She was not so sure we could see far enough to avoid a collision. She also worried that mildew would get a foothold in the cabin. Eventually, the fog thinned as we got further into the harbor, and we could see the islands on either side, and it cleared as we approached Chester. We picked up a mooring ("MAB") in the back bay (west side).
First impression of Chester was not good; the shoreline is lined with private piers with precious little hand carved "private" signs. But, once we found the public wharf for the dinghy and went ashore (at the Lido), everybody seemed friendly and welcoming. We walked into town and had a marvelous dinner at the Fo'c'sle (recommended by Loveridge's book). We walked over the hill to the highway, looking for the visitor center (not open). There are boats everywhere in Chester, but particularly on the South Shore by the yacht club.
Sunday July 30, Chester to Bayswater to Aspotogan, 14nm.
We were waiting for the wind to abate, so went in to the Lido and used the wifi (which worked as long as we were right next to the building, even for facetime)! Then walked around town again, finding several footpaths between roads. We had brunch/lunch at the Kiwi Café. We found a map showing SAM locations, the Swiss Air Memorial, which we wanted to visit. Back at Enetai, we saw some kids swimming, checked the water temperature (63F/17C wow!) and so decided to jump in too. (Too long without showers!) Felt great in the afternoon sun.
In the evening we sailed over to Bayswater to visit the Swissair Memorial and anchored off the beach. There was a little surf but we managed to land dry-shod in the dinghy. Gina had guided our landing to within 200 feet of the Memorial using maps and charts and cell phone navigation. This is the first time we have been to the Memorial. My cousin, Matthew Scott, died in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 September 2nd, 1998.
The memorial is very moving. The location, along with the Peggy's Cove (Whalesback) memorial site, triangulate on the location of the crash allowing visitors to get a sense of where it is, 5 miles offshore. This memorial site, tucked in the trees and on a quiet stretch of road, feels more private than the one near Peggy's Cove. This seems appropriate as the remains that were not identified are interred here. Memorial panels list the crew and passengers that were lost.
Grooves criss-cross the granite pavement, with one set lining up with the crash site, and another set lining up with the Peggy's Cove site.
We spoke briefly at the beach on the way back with a fellow admiring our dinghy. From him we found out that the Tall Ships were in Halifax! Who knew!?!
With the surf, a little salt water and some very fine beach sand got in the dinghy while launching through the wavelets. The sand plagued us for days. It got everywhere.
We had intended to anchor behind Saddle Island but a large aquaculture operation filled the anchorage. We moved on through the rapidly fading light to Aspotogan. This is a tiny fishing harbor. We ended up mooring to a floating dock recommended by a couple of people fishing from a broken-down wharf. The little floating dock with its wharf seemed to have no connection to anything. There was no vehicular access from the land side, altho' the road was nearby. As darkness fell and tide rose, Bo had to wrap the metal dock 'sliders' with duct tape, they absolutely squealed with the slightest motion of the water and tide.
Monday July 31, Aspotogan to Whales Back to Halifax, 44nm.
Aspotogan was beautiful in the morning light, the buildings which had looked so run down and drab in the evening reflected beautifully in the early sun on the calm little inlet.
Our goal this morning was to find the other memorial, which we could see wasn't actually in Peggy's Cove itself, which is a tiny cove filled to the brim with tourists. Turns out it's at Whalesback, a couple miles northwest of Peggy's Cove. We motored across St Margaret's Bay to Indian Harbor. This seemed to be the closest approach to the memorial by boat, about 2 miles by road. We went ashore at what was marked as a government wharf on the chart - and was, formerly - but turned out to be private property. No one bothered us about that. We started walking but didn't have a good idea how far it was to the Memorial, and were worried about leaving Enetai anchored for too long in the small cove. The hostess at the Rhubarb Restaurant (who seemed incredulous that we didn't think it was an easy, 20 minute walk) gave us a ride about 1-1/2 miles to the Memorial. We'd already walked more than half mile on a highway with no sidewalks, and we walked back, so we got a good workout in and appreciated the break.
This is a beautiful memorial in a dramatic location, Whalesback. On this bright sunny day looking over the undulating granite fore-shore we tried to imagine the crash and the recovery effort 19 years ago. The path out over the granite is longer, and has been left much more wild and natural than at Bayswater. The Granite memorial is more understated in line with the natural setting.
We walked all the way back to the boat and set off for Halifax. We passed Peggy's Cove with its swarm of tourists and the salt spray rocketing off the shore, and then had a long slog through the forever Sambro Ledges, paying very close attention to the buoys and the GPS. The water surged and spouted in unexpected places as we threaded the buoyed channel.
As we approached Halifax, a beautiful wind came up and we blasted through Halifax Harbor on a reach. Halifax Traffic, running on the radio, had lots of communication. AIS beacons so thick on shoreline that the GPS was a sea of red. A supremely blunt and high ro/ro (roll on/roll off car carrier) went by the other way. A huge cruise ship backed out of a dock almost blocking the harbor and thrustered its way around to leave port. Then, downtown, Tall Ships! Lots of them. We had seen them in Boston in mid-June. We'd had no idea they would be here In Halifax more than a month later.
We had called in a reservation with Dartmouth Yacht Club. Dartmouth is across the harbor from Halifax so we assumed the yacht club was too, but no, it was through the narrows, under the bridges, and up in Bedford Basin, across the water from the north end of Halifax. The docks are beyond two islands and a mooring field and seemed nearly brand new. There was a lot of activity at the club (for the Tall Ships celebration). We headed across the hot parking lot to find some supplies and came upon the Pita Pit up the hill along the busy street. Great selection of veggies and such for what seemed a healthy dinner! Then showers, behind the bar at the club. Yay! And we could see some of the fireworks for the Tall Ships celebration (those that were high enough over the hill) from our dock.
Tuesday August 1, in Halifax (& Dartmouth)
We had a fabulous but exhausting, hot, sunny, day in Halifax. The yacht club is too far from Halifax to walk. We caught a bus, and then switched to another (express) bus at the driver's recommendation into town. Tall Ships were moored all up and down the waterfront, with a floating walkway to complete the promenade.
We stopped at the Halifax explosion memorial, which explains the tragedy and how Boston sent a train of supplies to help. It was especially interesting to see this historic sign, as Nova Scotia commemorates it with sending a beautiful evergreen tree to Boston each Christmas.
We ate a delicious lunch in air conditioned comfort at the Waterfront Restaurant. Then we positioned ourselves on the deck of the Tourist Information Centre to watch the tall ships parade past the waterfront. A Platoon of Highlanders in kilts and beaver hats saluted each ship with a cannon as it passed. Some of the ships shot cannon back and on some the sailors did a chant. It was an amazing scene, just a beautiful celebration, and had way less security checkpoints (as in, none) compared to Boston's in June.
And then, there was this guy:
We hope he is successful in getting bus service to Sambro
We started walking up the hill in the bright sunshine to the Citadel, with yet more highlanders and a very detailed war museum (with AC!!) and a superb view. As we left, we went in search of a Melita filter (never found the hardware store). Gina realized we were just about at the bridge that we'd gone under. It was a long walk across bridge to the grocery store (with AC!!!) at the other side. Then, a long walk with groceries to bus stop. Long wait at bus stop for the bus to nowhere - turns out the route back to the marina only runs until 5, and by now it was 6, so it didn't go that far. (The driver suggested we should go all the way back past where we started so we could get another bus, No). We got off the bus to nowhere and walked a Very Long Way carrying groceries back to the boat. We were hot, tired and hungry, so stopped at the PITA-PIT again and had Pita pockets for dinner (it's really the only place near the marina to get some food). Gina had to slide under the gate on her back to unlock it so we could get into the marina. But, there were showers on the other side!!
We were pretty exhausted after a long, hot, exciting day. Gina did not appreciate having to slide under the gate to get in (they had not given us a gate pass because they didn't have enough and we thought the key pad worked like the one to get onto the docks, No). The yacht club is planning to re-do their parking lot and club house - construction outlines were already being marked out the next morning - so things will probably improve in the next year or so.