We left off in Summerside on PEI. This is where we began to notice the big tide swings this area is known for. While the shore is fairly flat the difference is still impressive.
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| Tide In |
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| Tide Out! |
This is definitely an area to stay in the marked channel. Since the weather was going to keep us here for several days we rented a car to tour the island. Jill and I agreed that it's a place we could return for a vacation in the future. Once the winds calmed down we made our way further down the island to the "big city" of Charlottetown. We were less impressed with this area but were once again pinned here due to high winds. We did manage some brewery visits and both of us got kilts...what were we thinking??
Once we left Charlottetown we stopped at the lovely town of Montague for our last stop on PEI. This was a small town where we could have enjoyed a few days however approaching weather dictated we move across the straight the next day.
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| Montague |
Our next stop was Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. This is a beautiful island with a large lake in the center. The south end where we entered is controlled by a lock while the north end is open to the Atlantic. Our first stop was the town of Saint Peter's. We have found that many towns in the Maritimes have marinas that aren't used to 50' boats. We were always able to find a spot but sometimes is was unusual. Here we were on the fuel dock which worked great for our boat.
Next we headed up the Bras d'Or (Bra-door) lake to the town of Baddeck. It was regatta weekend so we could only get 2 nights. Again on the town pier.
Baddeck is another lovely town with great restaurants, and inviting yacht club and the Alexander Graham Bell Museum . I had no idea about Bell's influence in this area so the museum was very interesting to us.
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| Bell Museum |
As you approach the town by water you can see his house on the hillside which is still owned by the family and not open to visitors.
Next we went back to St. Peter's for a couple of days to wait for calm weather to cross over to the main island of Nova Scotia. While there we walked up to see the annual canal swim which the locals enjoy. I say locals because there is no way I'm getting in water in the low 60's! In the video below you can hear the wind howling which will keep us in port for a couple of days.
We next traveled along the south coast of Nova Scotia where we anchored for a night before heading to Halifax. It was very well protected in an area of small islands.
I typically leave the chart plotter on for a bit after we anchor to be sure we're not dragging. This is when I noticed something exciting...
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| 25,000 Miles! |
It's actually 26,000 miles since we didn't add the electronics until we brought the boat 1000 miles home to Cincinnati the first year. I'll do a wrap up in a future blog with all of this years exciting totals... We were treated to a nice full moon and a quite night at anchor.
Next stop was the town of Halifax and it's busy harbor. It's definitely a "head on a swivel" transit but worth it to be right in town. Here's a short video to give you an idea...
We again took advantage of the Hop-on, Hop-off bus to see the sites around town. One stop is a cemetery where some of the Titanic victims are buried. It was interesting to see that some of the remains have been identified after originally being just a number. I later found out the DNA testing is still ongoing as methods improve.
We also visited the Maritime Museum which has a small but interesting Titanic exhibit (see, it's not all breweries!). The museum has a deck chair from the ship on exhibit...
...as well as a replica which people would sit in for a picture with the deck in the background. It struck me as a bit creepy!
Halifax is a town I could have spent more time in but it was time to move on.
Next was Lunenburg which is a quaint fishing/tourist village that was having their annual music festival while we were there. It also has a couple of breweries...
As we moved along the coast we had another stop or 2 before our last anchorage in Canada for this year. It was another nice well protected stop and a calm night...too calm! The next morning we awoke to our only foggy travel day of the trip. We'd actually expected more. This one was a good one and we never saw land until we got to the town of Yarmouth even though we were weaving our way through islands. Thank goodness for radar and AIS!
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| Todays view |
We spent a couple of nights in Yarmouth and it's here that we saw the biggest tide swings of the trip. These are the famous Bay of Fundy tides we'd always heard about. Below are 2 shots of the fuel dock.
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| High Tide |
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| Low Tide |
The difference is amazing! The picture below was taken the night before we left and you can see the large Cat ferry that crosses daily to Bar Harbor in Maine.
We were underway early the next morning as it was over a hundred miles across to the US and the days were getting shorter! I'd never seen an AIS Icon with little jet streams behind it but this is what the fast ferry looks like.
It was kinda sad to be passed by the ferry in both directions before we ever got to land!
We were blessed to have a very calm crossing and by late afternoon we were seeing Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Not long after that our first lobster pots...
It was just about sunset when we got docked in Southwest Harbor but it was a great crossing! Now, lets find some of those lobsters....
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