DECL Leg 5

It was a great wedding! Roger and Marcie tied the knot on August 14 in a wonderful friends-and-family weekend of celebration. We could have, and nearly did, dance all night

We know, we know. This has nothing to do with cruising, but without apology, it was easily as much fun, and far more important.

Upon our return to Charlottetown, PEI, Celebrate was ready to begin the fifth leg of the Down East Circle Loop. The engines were serviced, and provisioning was undertaken in Charlottetown. On Tuesday, 8/17, we departed and headed east across Northumberland Strait between Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. It was flat for several hours but really stacked up in a 20kt northerly wind. The good news is that we tucked in to Ballentyne’s Cove around the tip of Pt. George for the night – not as planned, but a picturesque gem and a neat discovery. We were greeted by Mr. Ballentyne himself, a fifth generation of the family that started things. It is a busy tuna fishing port because the giant (>1,000 lbs) bluefins school there in August and September to fatten up on the abundant mackerel. They are caught on hook and line and auctioned the same day – many fish going to Japan for $000’s apiece!

Wednesday we had a smooth crossing of St. George’s Bay, saw a couple whales, and passed

through the Canso Strait lock – the lift is only a foot or so at slack tide and we didn’t even have to tie up. The strait separates the mainland of Nova Scotia from Cape Breton Island, the huge northern region of the province with its famous Bras D’Or lakes. We didn’t visit this year, but will make it a focus in the summer of 2005. Crossing the strait we sa

w what we thought might be a dead baby whale, but as we got close it moved and Andrea researched our stuff and concluded it was a basking shark, not unusual in these waters. Rounding Canso we reached the easternmost point of our loop at W60° 54.13’. Now we really were beginning the return part of our trip. Head seas greeted us and we turned in to Whitehead Bay for a quiet anchorage and respite from the wind.

The weather outlook was full of discussion about winds Friday and Saturday from the southeast 30km/h gusting to 50km/h and we knew it would be a handful. So on Thursday, instead of taking the three days we had planned to get to Halifax for Saturday, we got going Thursday at 0630 and headed straight for it. The further we got, the smoother it got, and we wound up at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron 13 hours and 117 nm later, flat seas the last several hours.

Friday and

Saturday we cleaned up the boat, provisioned, toured downtown Halifax,

visited Peggy’s Cove , a bit touristy but picturesque even in the fog. We picked up Dick and Karen at the airport Saturday night. Halifax is a neat city - great farmers' market, waterfront renaissance, restaurants, parks, pubs, etc. We will spend some more time next year.

Sunday, 8/22, started with overcast and light rain but it stopped in late morning and

we set out for Mahone Bay and Chester where we arrived in beautiful clear, sunny weather by late afternoon. Chester is a very tony community with a lot of American summer residents – some ruining the region with McMansions amid the traditional and quaint homes around the harbor. Mahone Bay is full of grassy and wooded islands, seemingly a place one could cruise for several days inhaling the touch and feel of the real Nova Scotia.

Monday we made the 20 mile jump to Lunenberg on flat water in perfect weather. Arriving in

Lunenberg was like cruising into the middle of a post card. The town is

completely given over to maritime enterprises – originally ship building and fishing, and more currently tourism has become important as fishing has waned. Every building is painted a brighter color than the last one. Andrea and I walked the residential streets where each house is also freshly painted and accented with bright

contrasting trim colors. Every street light in town had a fish or a lobster or a

something-from-the-sea metal sculpture hanging from it. Sounds garish, but is most pleasing. As elsewhere in Canada, we were struck by the neatness, cleanliness, and friendliness. We got fresh lobsters at the Scotia Trawler grocery and cooked them aboard for dinner – outstanding.

Tuesday, 8/24, we departed, bound eventually for Yarmouth a couple days hence. Because the weather and conditions were so perfect, we decided to push a little to give us some buffer at the other end of Dick and Karen’s v

isit, and clocked 85 miles to Port La Tour, another quiet village with wonderfully protected waters for anchorage. Celebrate hit the 7,000 mile mark along the way. Near the end of the leg we found ourselves up close and personal with three whales, spouting and cruising amazingly close. We stopped to give them room. At anchor, a couple local boats visited us just to say “Hi” and “Welcome.” One had four generations aboard! They confirmed Dick's planning for the next day's departure time. Again, the friendly welcomes so typical of our experiences in these parts.

Rounding Cape Sable at the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia requires some real planning because the tides and currents are such a major factor in the approach to Yarmouth because it effectively is at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy with its incredible flows. Dick's computations called for us to round Cape Sable just around noon. We did, and rode the flood the next 40 miles to Yarmouth. Everything turned out to be a non-event. Perfect weather, perfect tidal current, and a pleasant anchorage in Yarmouth Harbour. Dick and Karen treated us to a great dinner ashore and Digby scallops rule!

Route planning now loomed large as it became inevitable that a long day was in store for us to stage for Dick and Karen's departure. It was decided to go to Grand Manan Is. across the Bay of Fundy but about 20 miles short of the New Brunswick mainland. From there a ferry could provide the last bit of transportation. Alternatively we could have made it to Digby, but the entry would have been tricky in fading light at the end of the day. We set out at 1130 ADT and arrived at 1930. A long day, but what a ride!

It was flat calm and to our delight, halfway across the water became alive with billions of jumping herring feeding on trillions of krill and all the above being inhaled by three huge finback whales. We stopped and drifted for half an hour as the whales took steamshovel-size bites of lunch. Awesome.

Grand Manan is grand. We stayed two days. On Friday we hiked the rim of the 200' high cliffs that are the north shore. The tidal range is around 20'. It provides a free "dry dock" for the local fisherman to use when the bottom of the boat needs some fresh paint. It also provided us with the best lobster roll sandwich for lunch we've ever had. Andrea was treated to a bag of dulse by Jerry Flagg, whose company harvests and packages this vitamin and nutrient rich delacacy. It is essentially dried kelp (seaweed) and can be eaten dried, raw, in a salad, and as a seasoning.

Saturday, 8/28, Dick and Karen hopped on the ferry to St. Johns to fly back to Annapolis. We set out for St. Andrews, NB, some 30 miles distant across the remainder of the Bay of Fundy. A bit of fog got in the way but lifted as we rounded East Quoddy Head on Campobello Is. The strait to Eastport, ME was full of current and eddies accommodating the 25' tides in this region. Arrival in St. Andrews was a piece of cake - we were led to a mooring by the wharfinger, and went ashore to enjoy this perfect destination. At low tide, the harbor in St. Andrews dries out about 300-400' from the high tide shore.

Lobsters aboard capped a brief but activity-filled day, and having a full moon rising didn't hurt a bit. Between the tranquility and charm of the place and some flaky weather forecast, our time on the mooring was four nights. We found food, a hot internet cafe, gym, lobster rolls, shops, and once again, the friendliest of welcomes all around. St. Andrews gets the 'five maple leaf' award for certain.

Postscript – Nova Scotia taught us a real lesson: that it is one thing to have toured it and another to have cruised it. This year we toured it, i.e., traveled its circumference, checking off some of the obligatory stops at the end of a long day’s passage. But next year we’ll cruise it – spending an extra day here, another there and visiting so many more coves and harbors, lakes and bays - and we'll consider 20 miles a long day!

Stay tuned for Leg 6, Maine and New England. 9/1 to mid-month before starting our return to Annapolis and closure of the slightly extended Down East Circle Loop.