August 30:  Down East Circle Route Completed.

     101 days, 3,000 miles, 5 states, and 5 provinces later, we are back in Camden.  Today dawned a little gray, and I worried about the possibility of rain (and it did sprinkle, right after Dan said there was nothing in the forecast) but by the time we hauled anchor, it was sunny and hot.
     We picked up Dan's folks Al and Marnie, and our sons Joe, and Billy, as well as Billy's girlfriend Tam, at Lincolnville Beach.  We headed out into the Bay to cruise around and have lunch.  The sea was calm, the winds were light, it was the perfect day and the perfect conclusion to our adventure.

Heading into Camden Harbor

     We came into busy Camden Harbor about one pm, dropped our guests off at the town dock, and posed for a picture, courtesy of the harbormaster assistant.

     We're in town for a couple of weeks - Dan has projects to do, I intend to do some cleaning and major provisioning, before we head out again and down the ICW to the Bahamas.  This has been a great experience.  We met so many nice people, and hope to see some of them again as we journey South.  We'll continue to blog once we set out again.  

~Dan & Kathy, m/v Willie Dawes

26-29 August, 2015 Lubec-Jonesport-Southwest Harbor-Cradle Cove, Islesboro

      Starting in Portland Maine, we realized we would be learning to tolerate some city noises, like traffic on bridges, then in Southern New England we started getting used to Trains, sometimes close, sometimes in the distance, sometimes very close! While at anchor we were in earshot of trains from Mystic CT all the way thru to Quebec City, and even almost at Tadoussac and Saguenay.

      Somewhere after that the noises faded out and anchorages became more peaceful, and except for the occasional Harley Davidson, around the Gaspe Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, Bras D'Or Lake, and the coast of Nova Scotia, things were pretty quiet.

      Then comes Sou'West Harbor, Maine, and very early in the morning, Oh I remember this, BIG un-muffled engines start their day. Introducing the Maine Lobsterman, getting ready for a day on the water.

      Almost equally shocking is that now we are back into lobster pot country, in a big way. Dodging traps is a full time navigation job. I've heard others complain about it, but until you have been away from it, and almost our whole trip has been buoy free, you really can't appreciate it.

      Rant over. Today was clear and calm and we were off the hook at 0810, just after reveille at the SW Harbor Coast Guard Base. We joined in a pack of 5 or 6 motoring sloops heading out the Western Way and to the Bass Harbor Bar. Not surprisingly, by the time we headed for the Eggemoggin Reach, all had gone their own direction.

      Its fun to be in familiar waters, and interesting how small the area between Schoodic and Rockland, a place we've always called home, has become. 

Pumpkin Island & Light, with Camden Hills in the background.

     We wandered our way along, by Pumpkin Island, Great and Little Spruce Head, and across to Brackets Channel and finally to anchor in an old favorite, Cradle Cove, at 700 Acre Island.

     During the day I had been covertly texting sons Joe and Bill, and my folks, Al and Marnie, to make a rendezvous on Sunday morning at Lincolnville Beach, so they could return to Camden with us on the final day of our Down East Circle Trip. Preparations made, secret shared with Kathy, preparations for guests to come aboard, a little cleaning up, baking some cookies, making bread, made for a busy afternoon.  Ending the day, we had a great red full moon rise in a quiet Harbor. 100 days aboard the Willie Dawes.

25 August 2015:   More fog!

      Another foggy morning, but the bright sun promises that it will soon burn off the fog. At least in Passamaquoddy Bay. No need to rush as we will wait for the tide to turn to head down the bay, why fight it. Barely a breath of wind as we steam across to the South of Saint Andrews and join in the St. Croix River and down to Eastport where we see a fuel sign. Next fuel opportunity might not be until Jonesport or SW Harbor, so raising our quarantine flag we swung in to meet the US Customs Agent to clear back into the States.

      Traditionally the Captain meets with the customs agent and clears the whole boat in, but things change. Now everyone on board must be seen by the man, and he is a one man show in Eastport. So after I hiked up to the Customs Office and checked in, the friendly agent came down to see Kathy and the Willie. We had no issues and were cleared right away. It turned out to be a busy day for Customs, as we saw numerous other boats clearing in, mostly s ail vessels from Canada.

      After our customs stop, we backtracked to the Eastport Fuel Dock and filled up. Bob, the retired Coastie who owns the marina and gas dock was very nice, and no charge for ice!

      We were soon on our way, and owing to the SE wind in the tomorrow's weather forecast, we will wait a day before re-entering the Grand Manan Channel, so we headed up between Eastport and Lubec to Federal Harbor to anchor, about the quietest Harbor you are going to find, not a house in sight. It had turned cooler, but we dined in the cockpit, while Tommy the cat tried to sleep.

August 24, 2015:  Grand Manan to Oven Head, Passamaquoddy Bay

      After breakfast we dropped our mooring and slid into the dock again to make a foray for some ice. After the ice was secured and owing to the fact that the tide had not changed yet, we had a couple hours to kill, so we gathered up all our remaining Canadian cash and headed to the diner for lunch. Reading from right to left, we decided to split the plate of fish cakes and have a side of fries, but what? No fish cakes available? Okay, two burger plates will have to do. When the check came we plunked down our $22.78 and told the waitress that was all we had. She smiled as she scooped up the change.

      We headed out just after noon, once again in a near calm sea, and of course thick fog. We took a swing in by Swallow Tail to see if I could lure the Lighthouse gal to come along, but only heard the blare of their fog horn. I guess our girl maybe had hearing protection on so didn't hear my invite.

      About halfway across the bay we were greeted by clear sky and visibility. Our intention was to go right to Head Harbor on Campobello Island, but the day was still young and the call of Passamaquoddy Bay to strong for us to stop. We passed thru the seven commercial whale watch boats that were all CHASING one finback whale. Risking an international incident I chastised the whale watcher skippers on the radio, and was paid back by one of them challenging us by making a close pass at us. Look for my next book,  "How to win friends and influence people", by Dan Pease.

They literally corralled one whale, pinning him between them.

      We continued on up thru the islands and up Letete Passage with a favorable tide, at times making 9.5 knots. Once in the open bay the current subsided and we took a tour of the muffin shaped rack formations on the East side of the bay. A nice little downpour provided a great rainbow. Even tho it rained quite hard for 5 minutes we were never out of the sunshine!

      Our destination was the harbor way up into Digdeguash Bay, and the cruising guides say to take the Western Passage in, so naturally I chose the Eastern passage, and halfway in it looked so good that we decided to stop right there.

      As we ate our grilled stuffed pork and fresh beets, we were treated to the company of Osprey, Bald Eagle, Loons, Surf Scoter, a Red Phalarope (that elusive little bird!  We figured out what it was!) , and on a nearby island, a WhiteTail deer wandering around.

August 22-23: Yarmouth to Grand Manan

     We left Yarmouth to make the passage across the Bay of Fundy after a busy and yet leisurely morning.  We were up early and Dan ferried me over to the yacht club for one last load of laundry while he spent the time readying the Willie Dawes for our first guests!  Our friends Jon and Ann from the Volunteer came over for pancakes.  Dan makes great pancakes.  Ann brought fresh strawberries, which were just the right topping.  They too are crossing over to Maine, but they had plans to stay in Nova Scotia for a few more days and so the table talk was mostly about judging the right tide and planning the right time to leave for the crossing.  It’s 65 miles or so to Grand Manan.  We left around ten am;  they decided to rent a car and see a few more sights, maybe do some hiking.

Leaving Yarmouth - back into the fog...

    Our crossing couldn’t have been smoother.  The sea was like glass at times, like gently ripply satin at others.  It was very thick of fog, though, and we saw a few seabirds but nothing else.  (One of those birds was a tiny thing and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it was - a dovekie?  A sandpiper?  Some kind of tern our book didn’t list?  We never did figure it out.)  We timed the crossing pretty well, and got a boost from the various currents and tides as we crossed.

     About seven pm we were close enough to Grand Manan to hear the fog horns, but we didn’t see anything until we were literally right next to it.   We decided to skip the southerly Seal Harbor and headed right for Grand Harbor, where there is a small protected fishing harbor at Ingall’s Head.  Dan had been wanting to tie up to a fishing boat, and here is where we finally did.  We tied alongside the Plain Jane 1 for the night, and Tommie the cat was entertained by seagulls landing on the boats all around us.

    We were in no hurry in the morning.  I baked toffee squares and Dan toyed with changing the oil, but happily set aside that task to chat with the captain of the Plain Jane 1 who came by to see us.  The two of them had a friendly discussion about Grand Manan, the fishing industry, and football for a couple hours.  

    We set off for North Head Harbour (Grand Manan) just after lunch, once again traveling in the fog and bursting into the clear to tie up at another fishing wharf.  This is where the ferry runs to and from St. John’s, and it is a short walk down the road to Swallowtail Lighthouse, which is a beautifully done, newly opened museum.  We walked down the brand new boardwalk to the lighthouse which was perched on a rocky cliff  and went in to read about lighthouse families and their experiences.  You can go all the way up to the lens.  Dan and I had a long talk with the young volunteer there, a local high school student, while we waited out a passing shower.  She filled us in about the efforts to preserve the lighthouse as well as life on Grand Manan and answered our questions about where to get ice (at a local cafe) and where the grocery store was (in another town.)  Dan wanted to take her home with us and introduce her to our older son.  

     We were told by the owner of the ketch that took people out whale watching that all the moorings just outside the wharf were privately owned, but free to use if unoccupied, so we moved the Willie Dawes over to an empty mooring and settled in for the night as the fog drifted back in around us.  

North Head Harbor, before we moved to the mooring.

20 -21 August, 2015:  to Yarmouth

      In order to make the trip from Shelburne to Yarmouth in one daylite, in a 6 knot boat, one must use the tide to advantage. Our cruising guide told us to leave Shelburne one hour before high tide, but that made all the currents against us. After much discussion, the plan was to leave at Low tide, to catch slack water at Cape Sable Island, but that meant departing Shelburne at 0500. We decided to leave the night before and do a couple hours so we would have a shorter haul the next day.

      We left Shelburne about 1630 and headed for Cape Negro Island where there is a small cove. The conditions in the river were fine, but as soon as we got to the mouth we had some swell to deal with, and fog. We carried on and made Cape Negro by about 1930 and anchored in a harbor North of the island.  Never really saw shore, just the loom of lights at the man-made fisherman's harbor.

      0700 Underway, into a steep chop for about an hour til we get off shore a ways. We made contact with our buddy boat, the Volunteer, and were in the same vicinity most of the day, altho we never once saw them. Thick Fog. We rounded the vaunted Cape Sable Island and enjoyed some favorable currents, but not like the charts described. The saving grace was that there was no wind all day long and the sea state was calm. After rounding the Cape and passing Murray Cove, (Murray my middle name and my Mom's maiden name) we couldn't pass up the chance to give Peases Island a look, so we  took the inside route North thru Schooner Passage, where we had clear visibility. Peases has a small light house, but not much else.  

      As we approached Yarmouth the fog shut in again. Yarmouth is a deep harbor as tho it were a river, a long way in. The channel winds its way between mudflats, but is easily navigated for us considering the Maine-Nova Scotia Ferries have run in here for years.

      Yarmouth was warm, and sadly a little dirty and gull infested. We picked up a marina mooring. There was a battle of the bands on the waterfront that evening, so a mooring turned out to be just the ticket, as it gave us just the right distance for our listening pleasure. Before supper we went ashore for hot showers and laundry. Kathy and I visited the marine supply house, (what a treat!) and then walked the length of town to get a couple bags of ice. A good hike, and on the way back we got all the history of the town along the harbor side town park, that even though it is well laid out, seems to see very little use.

August 19:  Shelburne

     Shelburne is pretty neat small town reminiscent of a colonial New England town.  When the American Revolution fell to the Americans, the colonial British Loyalists fled and many of them settled here in Shelburne.  In 1994 Hollywood invested in a make-over of the waterfront houses for the remake of The Scarlett Letter, which helped keep the historical homes alive.  We arrived here from Carter's Beach mid-afternoon and had a very nice time walking around.

     Dan got his towing fix here - twice!  On the way into the harbor, we heard the Halifax Coast Guard talking with a distressed boater.  Some fisherman were out for the afternoon and their engine had quit, stranding them about a mile from us and about three miles from town.  While we had them undertow to the town dock, they managed to fix their engine and we cast them off to finish their planned afternoon.

      After we dropped the anchor, some local teens took a swim from the town landing out to one of the harbor buoys.  The water was very warm - 75 degrees! - but the buoy was a little too far out for some of them, and when they'd made their goal, they came over to hang on Sybil, our dinghy, and asked for a tow back to the dock.   Dan was happy to oblige them.

     We met up with our friends from the Volunteer for dinner at a waterfront restaurant where the waitress warned us of a rogue seagull that was swooping in to snatch food off the tables and leave unwanted deposits of his own.  We took our chances on the patio anyway and enjoyed a good meal with good company.

    One of our highlights in Shelburne was this little cutie who happily agreed to pose for a picture with us while Grammy took our picture.  She then invited us back to her place to swim in her pool.  It was hot, and we were tempted!

August 18:  Liverpool to Carter's Beach

     We had talked about visiting Lunenburg on Tuesday, but instead we decided to leave Mahone Bay and continue on our journey along the South Shore.  We're starting to feel the push to get back, I think, both of us look at the map and think "Wow, we're not that far from Maine."  Dan has several projects he wants to get done before we head South along the Intracoastal Waterway, and we have been told not to delay our departure for that, but to get going before the end of September.  Hard to think about September when it's August!!
     So we again got an early start and headed out toward the fog and the prevailing Southwest winds that promised to kick up the seas at us.  The Volunteer had told us they were in Carter's Beach, which the guide book mentioned as spectacularly scenic, and they planned to spend another night there.  We looked at the chart and decided to try for it.  As the morning wore on, however, we decided to go up into Liverpool and get out of the fog and the choppy seas.
     Liverpool is mentioned and not at all scenic, and we found this to be true.  It appeared also not to be very cruiser-friendly, as there is a fixed bridge which precludes taking your boat into the town harbor.  There is a small marina in nearby Brooklyn, which offers day dockage (for $35) and it's a taxi ride or a very long walk to Liverpool from there, so we decided to anchor outside the bridge and take the dinghy in.  There's a strong current there, but our anchor was up to the task.  We took the dinghy into town and tied at the tiny, little-used (falling apart?) town dock.

Irving Shipyard in front of the fixed bridge to Liverpool.

     I was ecstatic to find a farmer's market!!  I walked through rows displaying baskets of just about every kind of fresh produce available and Dan took one look at my face and said he'd go find some ice.  I found, among other things, fresh local peaches and ripe cantaloup.  We loaded up our provisioning cooler and took everything back to the boat and then returned to town to make a run to the supermarket for meats.  There was a small VFW-type of building offering hamburgers and fish chowder all day for $3 so we decided to have supper there.  Turns out they were offering hamburger soup, not hamburgers, and they were out of fish chowder, but they had turkey soup.  So Dan had that and I had the hamburger soup, and we were amused to see the woman take styrofoam cups out of the fridge and place them in the microwave for us.  Still, it was only $3, and the soup was very tasty.
    When we got back to the boat, Dan admitted he was not comfortable with our anchorage and he suggested we leave and continue on to Carter's Beach.  The winds died down in the evening, so if the seas were calm, all we'd have to contend with was the fog.  It would take us about two and a half hours, we'd probably arrive just after sunset.  So that's what we did, and though there wasn't any wind, the sea was still a bit choppy and it was foggy.  The spectacular scenery of Carter's Beach eluded us - it was quite foggy there too - but the foggy sunset made up for it.

August 16 - 17:  Mahone Bay

     We left Herring Cove just after dawn on Sunday.  We have learned that the prevailing Southwest wind really starts to pick up around noon, and it's best for us to take advantage of the calm mornings and do the bulk of our traveling then.  The day was sunny for now (a fog bank was out there, waiting for us) and we ate breakfast as we motored out of Halifax harbor.  Dan said "Oh there's a Navy ship coming in" and reached for the camera.  Then he reached for the binoculars.  "There's a submarine!!"

     The rest of our way to Mahone Bay wasn't nearly as exciting.
     When Dan was mate on the schooner Roseway, Capt. Jim Sharp had taken the helm for a trip to Halifax.  Dan remembered him piloting the boat, almost on a whim, into a pretty little anchorage in Mahone Bay and it was there we were headed.  Deep Cove has a narrow winding entrance along the steep cliffs of Deep Cove Mountain, and opens up into a small basin that could be a hurricane hole.  We were the first boat to drop anchor in there, and it wasn't too long before others came.  Some were people out for a Sunday afternoon - one of them had a boatful of youngsters who spent most of their time in the water - and a few were overnighters like us.  It was pretty and quiet once the picnic boats left, and we spent a very quiet night.

   
     Monday we set off at a leisurely pace.  We had plans to meet up with Ed and Lainie Porter on the other side of the bay.  They have a small place on Heckman's Island, kind of on the back side of Lunenburg.  On the way, we touched base with our friends on the Volunteer, who were also sailing around Mahone Bay, making tentative plans to have dinner together somewhere on the route.  They are also headed to Maine in the same time frame we are, and chances are we will spend some of the same nights in the same places.

     We got to the Porters' around three-thirty, anchoring in a pretty little spot between Heckman's Island and Fifty Acre Island (which our chart called Fifty Arce, Dan pronouncing it "Arse") and spent a few hours enjoying their hospitality in their livingroom.  They were in the process of packing up for a month's vacation in Maine, and Lainie happily offered us corn, broccoli, and oranges from her fridge.  They have a beautiful Murray-Peterson schooner named Concertina and I got some nice shots of her as the sun went down that night.

   
   

August 13 - 15:  Halifax

     We had a very nice cruise from Jeddore to Halifax, though much of it was in the famous Nova Scotia fog.  Halifax Harbour is a very large natural harbor with two arms, and we had been told by several people to go up the Northwest Arm and stay at the Armdale Yacht Club.  We were due for a marina stay, and we were meeting up with friend Jon and Ann on the Volunteer who had taken a mooring there, so we did too.  We arrived about mid-afternoon.  The weather in the harbor was sunny and hot.  The AYC is located across from what appears to be a swim club, and there was much cheering and singing coming from over there, as daycampers were celebrating their last week.

     Armdale Yacht Club has some very nice people working there, with basic amenities, and has a bar and restaurant and even includes a launch service, but I wouldn't recommend it without caveats.  There is only one shower, and only one bathroom.  It's a multi-person bathroom (two stalls, four urinals) and there is a sign on the door to knock before entering, but I couldn't bring myself to use it more than once.  I'm not a prude by any stretch, but it bothered me to be in there with guys.  Also, people should know that while the restaurant is open until ten, the launch service stops at dusk and you  might find yourself stranded from your moored boat if you didn't use your own dinghy to get ashore.  The bus to town is a very short walk from the yacht club, but it's longer when you're lugging laundry (there are no washer/dryers at AYC) and the bus back to that stop ends its run at 8 pm, so if you will have to walk back from the terminal or take a cab.  We found all this out the hard way, which made an especially interesting time in Halifax.  We found out you can dock for free during the day right downtown, so we left on the 14th and found dockage adjacent to the CSS Canadia and spent the rest of our time seeing what we couldn't fit in the day before due to time spent grocery shopping and in the laundromat.

     Halifax itself is a very interesting place.  We toured the Atlantic Maritime Museum - which featured exhibits on the Titanic (Halifax buried many of the victims), Cunard (who established the Cunard cruise line), Joshua Slocum, Howard Blackburn, and watch a very sobering movie about the Halifax explosion.   The explosion took place on the morning of Dec 6, 1917, when two vessels collided in the harbor and one of them caught fire.  That one was carrying explosives.  People went to the harbor to see it burn and when it exploded, 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 were injured and the Halifax waterfront was flattened.

   We toured the only surviving ship from the explosion - the Acadia - and we walked up to the Citadel, a large star-shaped fortress overlooking the waterfront, where British and later Canadian troops were once stationed.   Students from the in-town universities have summer jobs there dressing in character and leading tours. Very interesting and very informative.

   We finished our time in Halifax with a harbor tour in the Willie Dawes.  Many ships from the Canadian Navy are stationed there - perhaps headquartered there?

We saw remnants of bunkers from the World Wars on our way down the harbor to Herring Cove, where we spent a quiet night in a very narrow but picturesque stream of water.  I remarked to Dan it was like parking in the street in a quiet little subdivision and setting up camp.  We were right in everyone's front yard.

Herring Cove entrance

August 15: Supplemental:  In Which Dan Blogs and Kathy Polishes...

      We tend to do the blogging in steps.  Dan usually writes them up and often, when he has a moment of internet connectivity, he will post them.  It's my job to to add pictures.  And sometimes punctuation marks.  And to correct the spelling.  And to add the missing letter or word.  The reasons for this are many: we each have our own computers and they are not compatible with each other.  (Dan has an HP Netbook, and I have a MacBook Pro.)  Dan's computer, in a secret between it and God, will connect to the internet with our Wi-Fi booster, while mine will claim not to recognize the USB connecter to the booster.  All the pictures are on my computer because Dan's computer refuses to recognize my camera's SD card.  Sometime in the future we will have electronics that will talk to each other no matter what, but until then, we are somewhat handicapped.

     What I'm trying to say is that you should feel free to go back and re-read the blogs from time to time, because they may have been proof-read, changed, or had pictures added.

August 12, 2015 Still Jeddore Harbour

      We didn't give the muffin man a chance but instead made an early run out to the end of the river to see what the conditions were and if there was chance of making the 22 mile run across to Halifax. We met a power yacht inbound and I asked him how is was out there, he said he had been on a similar mission and had turned back as he was headed North and it was just too rough. We took this under advisement and went another twenty minutes and came to the same conclusion, turn back.

      We headed back up the river, this time turning to port by the man made looking islands and heading into what is called Jeddore Harbor on our chart/Smart phone. We found spot where we could tag onto an unlocked WIFI spot and anchored in a nice little bay.  The WIFI was iffy and tended to throw me offline as soon as I got onto the desired webpage, but I did manage to get up all these blogs!

August 11, 2015  To Jeddore Harbour

      Our first navigation task of the day was only yards from our anchorage, where we crept thru a narrow dog-leg passage from “Cardinal Bay” into Popes Harbor. All was as the GPS chart showed it was in that passage and we continued down Popes Harbor to head thru another small channel, just South of Sally's Cove. The Southerly swells were still rolling in and I idled way down to go thru this cut. We had hardly entered the channel when I saw a swirl in the water a boat length ahead! Full reverse! We stopped and our prop wash streamed out ahead of us mixing with the swirl of the swell going over a rock! Another 5 seconds and we would have been hard aground. This was the first time in over 1000 miles that we had found fault with the GPS information.

      I later shared my near-miss with another boater, to remain un-named, and he said, “That's the rock I hit last summer!” As soon as I figure out how to do it, there will be a point of interest on the chart for that spot. We don't want to bother that rock any more.

      Having lost my taste of adventure for a bit, we headed toward the offshore route for the rest of the day. We were on a good line for Halifax Harbor, but a strong SW wind came in, and in combination of the still large swell it was a little on the uncomfortable side, so we decided to run for Jeddore Harbor. This was an easy downwind leg, bringing us into the river entrance.

      Jeddore has a curious topography. One hundred fifty foot high eroding banks of gravel greet us at the entrance, then a narrow, but 50 foot deep, channel with hidden sand bars on either side. This 250 foot wide channel continues over 4 miles in then opens to a wide bay to the East and a smaller bay to the West. We choose the West side called Jeddore Oyster Pond and again anchored alone. The sand bar configuration looks like that of a dredged channel where the spoils were just put off to the side, but I doubt this 50 foot deep channel was ever dredged by man. The other thing it resembles is as though the sand was placed by current coming into the bay, instead of the normal deposits made by an outgoing river current. Hmm, musings of an armchair geologist. Well up in the bay there are a few spruce covered islands, very small, which look like uneven granite blocks were piled up there. If there wasn't soil on them enuf to support trees I would have thot they were man made also.

      Part of the reason to anchor where we did was that in one of the tourism pamphlets that we had picked up somewhere along the way that if we anchored in this area we might just be greeted in the morning with fresh muffins and a paper. Not a lot of activity save for a guy hand mowing several yards, and he obviously isn't making muffins.

Note from Kathy:  again, no photos here... the weather was a little on the rainy side and the photos don't really capture the raw beauty when everything is shrouded in shades of gray.  

August 10, 2015:  Twenty + Miles Today!

      Leaving Port Bickerton we were greeted by a large long swell and strong off-shore wind. We started the day with main and jib but were soon down to storm jib alone. On this section of the coast there are many islands and we wove our way along thru protected water in along narrow channels, some buoyed, some not, for 25 miles or so, occasionally crossing a bay of a couple miles wide. The swells were still coming in strong from the south as we headed up Spry Bay to a back passage into Pope Harbor.

Port Bickerton Light

one of many eroded embankments we passed

      Back in the late 1980s there was a young schooner captain in the Maine fleet. He thought he was pretty adventurous so one year decided to try and have each Lobster Bake (one per trip) on a different Maine Island. Toward the end of the season, maybe around trip 18 or so the pickings were getting pretty slim. He remembered being shown a small group of islands in Hurricane Sound that were owned by the State of Maine. The timing was right so he anchored up and brought his group ashore, starting the campfire to steam supper. Soon enuf along came a man in a whaler so the captain came down to the shore and they spoke. The man said, “What are you doing here?”  The skipper answered, “Having a Lobster Bake” To which the man said, “I don't know if Mrs. Whatsherface would like that.” To which I thought, whoops, by which I mean the skipper replied “Why this island is owned by the State of Maine, this is Ram Island.” To which the man exclaimed “RAM Island?!!, this is NARVO Island, Why, you don't even know where you are!” Well that provided quite a bit of entertainment for the crew. We , er..., they finished the cookout and went back aboard the schooner without incident. The next day Mrs Whatsherface came out in her whaler and we made friends and chocked it all up to a misunderstanding.

      The reason I tell this story is that with our admittedly somewhat rudimentary charting system on the Willie Dawes, very often we find ourselves wanting for place names. Eventually we gleaned that the cove we were anchored in was in fact Little Pope Harbour, thru the wonders of satellite communication and my Dad, Alan Pease's computer in Camden Maine.

      So we have Little Pope Harbor, where we anchored in a mill pond-like setting, all to ourselves.

      You see, all along we knew where we were, just not the right name.

August 9, 2015:  Inching Our Way Down the Eastern Shore

      After breakfast and one more lesson for Bill in Navionics, smart phone fashion, we followed Serianna out to the mouth of the harbor, Serianna going East, and we turned West. As the morning went on the wind and waves became stronger against us, so we again fore-shortened our route plans, and made for Port Bickerton.

      As we entered the harbor we came to a fork with channels going left and right. With Kathy reading the cruising guide I mistook the directions and we proceeded to what we thought was the wharf and anchorage described by the guide book. It looked inviting, so we tied up with one fish boat in company, no one around. Eventually a fellow drove in and said it was ok for us to tie there, so we stayed and walked up the road in search of some ice and maybe a Post Office. We found both and then walked back to the boat.

      We decided to get underway and look for an anchorage, so having figured out my misunderstanding of Kathy's directions, I headed up the other arm of the harbor and anchored for the night. Light rain, which spared us during our walk was falling as we anchored. During the night we had heavy rain, which filled our dinghy right to the seats, must have been between 1 and 2 inches, but we were dry in our bunk.
  
      Sorry, no pictures for this blog.

August 8, 2015 Underway Early Once Again

       Red sky in the morning... we set out for Isaacs Harbour to meet up with Bill and Paula Page, they are cruising East on their adequate West coast style troller “Serianna”. We had an easy passage of 25 miles with a quartering wind and arrived first so decided to explore up the Eastern arm and see the Cable Ferry which is a blast from the past, the ferry pulled back and forth on a cable from one side of the bay to the other. The name boards on the side read “Keep Well Back” a very utilitarian name.  

      We had the chance to watch some Bald Eagles and Kingfisher close up along the shore, but getting good pictures eluded us. Onward down the bay and across to the West side and into Webbs Cove.

      We weren't there 10 minutes when the Serianna came into view and eventually anchored next to us. Bill came over for a chat, to see and ogle over our GPS plotters. (Two Smart Phones!) He felt so bad for us that he invited us to supper aboard Serianna. Kathy brought the salad and home-made croutons.

      We had a nice meal and visit with the Pages and their yellow kitten “Percy”and were ferried back and forth by Bill in his tender Agnes with his electric motor. Serianna is as near perfect as a vessel can be.

8/7/15  Portage Cove to Yankee Harbor

      0600 we had a calm wind in anchorage and we got under weigh at 0610,  West bound.  Almost immediately we met a large Southwest swell and Southwest wind waves came following.  The Willie Dawes did a lot of climbing over waves, sliding through troughs, and generally banging around.  It was 8 miles to Whitehead bay so we set the main to steady us and pressed on.  

      We encountered a wild sea at the entrance to the bay. So much mist from breakers that it clouded the air.  Made anchorage on East side of a fish farm, 0900 off entrance to the basin in Yankee Cove,  but due to the current we decided to move to West side.   The anchor didn't want to come up.  It's a Rocna, and they like to dig in, but this was more resistance than we'd encountered.   Fouled on underwater cable?  From the fish farm maybe?  We could only get it to within 15 feet of the surface. So I fashioned a makeshift hook and was able to hook the roll-bar of the Rocna anchor and slack the chain to free us from the cable.   Or whatever it was.  Phew!  We found a nice spot West of that farm, later joined by three Halifax Sloops we had met in Bras d'Or Lake:  the  Jan-Les, J.J., and Thundercloud.  All four of us stayed snug from the wind and sea in Yankee Cove.  

8/6/15:  Out of Bras D'Ors Lakes...

       After showers and goodbyes at St Peters Marina, we headed toward the bridge, canal and lock out of Bras d'Or Lake. We locked thru with a lobster boat and headed out into a Stiff West wind, 20 knots. We made for Lennox Passage as it seemed a bit windy to cross the lower portion of Chedabucto Bay.

      We made good time despite the head wind and approched the Bascule bridge hoping it would open today.Apparently on a hot day the bridge expands enough that it gets stuck in the down position. Today it made an awful groan as it slide by, but opened none the less. I asked the bridge-tender what would happen if it didn't close all the way, would he go out and jump up and down on it? He replied that he would go home first to eat and get heavier, then jump on the bridge. In any event, it did close and traffic resumed.

      At the Western end of Lennox the wind had mostly died out, so we turned and headed down Chedebucto Bay for the fishing town of Canso.. The wind picked up again for a wild reach thru Canso's barrier islands. The half dozen windmills behind town looked like they were right over the town, but as we passed the area we could see that the mills were well back.

      Andrews Passage is a beautiful twisting turning channel thru the islands and near the Western end we turned up into Portage Cove where the wind died out just after I set the second anchor. This is a tiny sheltered cove that lined by rocky shores to beat all. Part of the reason to set two anchors was that there was no room to swing. A slight swell rocked us to sleep.

August 1-5:  2015 Bras d'Or Lake

      Now today (Saturday) is what the guide books promised. Sunny and clear with a light breeze, we set off down thru the narrows toward the big lake. It is a winding channel thru the islands, much like the topography in Maine, Spruce lining the shores with hardwoods mixed in. Several sail vessels, sloops and cats were headed in our direction as this was the Denys Race Day. Nicholas Denys was an early settler to this region known for his never ending struggles to overcome obstacles. It seemed every time he set up a business that was starting to do well, he was driven off by some some French politician. Even though in the end he returned to France an old and broken man, he is still honored here for his fighting spirit.

      We motor-sailed across the big lake and gunk-holed way up into Crib-Work cove, then back out and around a couple points to Little Harbor, another pond -like cove, this one with an opening about 100 feet wide with beach on each side and a very narrow, but deep entrance channel. There were several yachts at anchor along the shores. We anchored in the middle in 30 feet of water and had no-one close by. A cove with an entrance ¼ the size of Pulpit Harbor, North Haven, but with room for the entire NY Yacht club to anchor with room to spare.

      Sunday morning we were underway at 0800 and heading back to St. Peters to participate in the Nicholas Denys Days Swim to save the Lighthouse. The swim is from the bridge end of the canal to the lock, then continue on to the beach at Battery Provincial Park. Proceeds are to benefit the rebuilding effort of the landmark lighthouse on the Jerome Point.

      At 1330 we were registered, #s 96 and 97 of over 120 swimmers, then bused from the park to the seawall at the Northern end of the Canal. Into the water and swim the 900 meters with a stop at the lock. We made the swim to the lock with ease, but I at least failed to realize that once at the lock, we would have to wait for all the participants to get into the lock, at which time they would close the doors, slowly let the water out, then open the other end and let us continue on. This treading water lasted at least one half hour, and I was cold, even with a shorty wet suit, and many had no wetsuit at all!

      Many of the participants were local, so it was like a big pool party, with lots of chatter and one group belting out a song written specifically for the swim, About swimming thru the lock, amid mackeral and squid, etc. They put on a good show. We didn't know what they were singing about at the time, but clearly they were enjoying themselves, and entertaining as well.

     Nicholas Deny would have been proud, as no-one dropped out, and when the lock doors opened there was a mad rush to the beach and to get out of that cold water. T-shirts were handed out and folks came back to life, the party continuing ashore. Fun time

       Back at the boat, we came into the marina, had showers and Kathy used the A #1 laundry facility equipped with 5 fast washers and at least as many dryers, that all worked. Best laundry of the trip!

      After comparing cruising notes with Jon and Ann from the sloop Volunteer of Old Lyme CT, we headed out to the Bras d'Or Lake Inn for fish and chips.

      Monday, we settled up with the marina, grabbed ice and a few groceries, then headed back out on the lake. This time we were headed for the Barra Narrows and thru the double bridge, Rail and Auto, and into Great Bras d'Or Lake, which I think is smaller, but whatever, then over to the Baddeck area.

      We pushed right on thru Baddeck proper and headed up past Red Head, where Alexander Graham Bell's summer estate is, and into Baddeck Bay and Herring Cove, for a quiet moonlit nite.

      Tuesday, heading into Baddeck today to see the town and visit the Bell Museum.

      The Museum was great, many exhibits and many artifacts of past Bell projects, including his participation in Canada's first airplane, experiments with hydro-foils, tetra-hedral kites, and even breeding sheep,  not to mention a little device called a telephone!  But how come we were never taught that Alexander Graham Bell was Canadian? We just took him as one of our own.

     After our museum tour, we packed in some grocerys and headed Willie Dawes up St Patrick's Channel to a secluded cove called Maclvers.  Pronounce that one. We had a quiet but windy night.

     Wednesday, Last day in the lake. We headed down the bay past Baddeck and back over to get a picture of A.G. Bell's Estate on Red Head, then made our turn for Barras Narrows. At the bridge the tender called us and asked if we could hold back as there was a sailboat coming the other way and only one side of the bascule bridge was opening. I said better one than none and let the other boat pass first. Turned out it was the “Coffee Break” which we had seen in Petit Rivier Est.

From there we made for the channel to St Peters for shopping, ice, fuel, propane, Showers, the normal routine in preparation of setting out down the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, where it is a little less developed and supplies are not so handy. We found about everything we couldn't live without and after listening to the locals perform some music on the Marina lawn, had a quiet nite at anchor.