Bras D'Or Lakes

We left Ingonish Harbour, stuck our nose in to the wind, and started to make our way through the high seas down the eastern coast of northern Cape Breton.  Our aim was to anchor the night in St. Anne's harbour, but because of the direction of the winds, we decided to work with them as much as possible, so we gave St. Anne's a miss, and headed directly for the Bras D'Or lakes!  We made the entrance of the Great Bras D'Or Narrows just as the tide waters were heading out!  We had 5 knots rung on the old 'iron jib' and were making 2 knots!!!  A 3 knot current made for a leisurely cruise up the channel!  As the afternoon progressed, the wind eventually died down and we headed for an anchorage in Big Harbour.  This turned out to be a lovely anchorage with lots of protection from the winds and impressive gypsum cliffs on one side, cottages on the other!  The sun gave us a beautiful sunset before we went below and hit the hay!!  The next day we stayed in Big Harbour enjoying the sunshine and warmth!  George got the engine on the dinghy so we took it out for a harbour cruise!   We were sharing the harbour with a couple of other yachts....both we had seen in Ingonish!  The wind picked up again during the day, but no swell!!!  Welcome to the lakes!!!  I was going to enjoy sailing with wind, but no real waves to speak of!  In honor of the 'return of summer', I made a salad supper...potatoe salad, tuna salad, and deviled eggs!

3 knot current!

Bras D'Or Narrows

gypsum cliffs

sunset in Big Harbour

The next morning rain was predicted in the afternoon, so we decided to make for Baddeck in the morning so that we would be settled by the time the weather turned.  As we came out of the Bras D'Or Narrows and rounded Cape Red and went in to St. Patrick's channel we spotted Alexander Graham Bell's house sitting on the point.  A grand old place, that unfortunately no one lives in now, and no one is looking after either!  The Grovesnor family still comes to Baddeck at times, but they cannot keep the place up.  They also haven't committed to allowing the public in to it either, so there it sits with all it's empty rooms and 16 fireplaces!!!

Baddeck itself is a very picturesque little village, population 1000!  It is very pretty to sail in to and a very vibrant sailing community!!  While we were there the Baddeck Yacht Club was holding their annual sailing regatta so all kinds of sailors and sail boats of all sizes and ages!!  The rain did not come, so we had another beautiful summer day on the Bras D'Or Lakes!!  We ended up staying at the Cape Breton Boat Yard as the marina was full due to aforementioned regatta!  It was a great place with good people!  AND it had lots of fresh water!!!  As soon as we were tied up, I washed the boat!!  It felt so good to do that!  We had had a lot of salt water crashing into and over the boat the last 10 days and no way to wash it off!!  The days of dipping my trusty pail over the side and washing down the boat are long gone for now!!!  Anyway, after I got the salt washed off the boat, George and I headed straight for the showers and washed the salt off ourselves too!!  Felt great!  Then we hit the town and had a pizza at the Yellow Cello and a cone with locally made ice cream...Marvelous Moos!  Then we wandered about the docks and soaked in all the atmosphere.

entrance to Baddeck with Baddeck lighthouse

Back at the boatyard we admired the other boats.  Both boats we had seen in Big Harbour and Ingonish were there as well!  One done for the summer and spending the winter there, the other still sailing, but also winters there.....both American boats?!  We also found the internet....had to go to the office which was upstairs in the boatyard building.  A great big door opened up to the outdoors, letting in the sun and fresh air, and we shared the spot with a couple of dorries!  It was a great place!  Everywhere you looked there was a boat in some state of repair!  Outside at the dock, there was a gorgeous sailboat......2 1/2 million dollars!!!! And also the White Mist; a beautiful old sailboat that the Grovesnor family once owned and is now owned by the owner of the boatyard.  The boat is featured in a National Geographic article about 30 years ago, so it was pretty cool to see it in 'real life'!  Henry, the owner actually took it out the day we left and raced it in the regatta!

the schooner Aomeba

We really liked Baddeck!  The weather was absolutely perfect and the people were so friendly!  We enjoyed our stay very much.  After two nights, though, we decided to carry on and take advantage of the beautiful sunny, windy days and get a day of sailing in of our own, and then find an anchorage on Bras D'Or Lake.  So on our third day, after a visit to the Bean There coffee shop for coffee and a bagel, we said our goodbyes to the boat yard and Baddeck, raised the sails, and headed out in to St. Andrew's Channel, which would lead us through the Barra Straight and in to the Bras D'Or Lake, where we encountered our first real waves since we came in to the lake region!  Fortunately they died down as evening approached and we made for Little Harbour for the night.  After squeezing through a narrow passage between two sandbars, we found ourselves in a lovely, teardrop shaped harbour!  Again, lots of protection from almost all weather, and yet lots of room!  One other boat there, but at the other end, so felt like we had the place to ourselves!!  We ate a late supper....lotus land linguine!...a vegetable stirfry in a spicy peanut sauce poured over linguine noodles, although in our case they were fettucine!  Then the mosquitoes chased us below decks!  We listened to Ideas on CBC, then headed for bed and fell asleep under a silent, starry sky!

entrance to Little Harbour

Little Harbour!!

Cape George

The next morning was glassy calm, so started out motoring, but about noon the wind picked up, so got to do some more sailing as we headed for St. Peter's, at the exit of the Bras D'Or Lakes.  As we reached the south end of the lake, we rounded Cape George (!!!) and entered in to the inlet leading to the village of St. Peter's at the St. Peter's locks.  St. Peter's is actually one of Canada's oldest settlements and started out life as Sainte Pierre back in 1630 and was established as a trading post and a portage point for carrying canoes from the Atlantic to the inland seas...the Bras D'Or lake.  It also spent time as a logistics centre for Fort Louisbourg.  When the french lost possession of what is now Nova Scotia to the English, Sainte Pierre became St. Peter's!  Eventually, in 1869, the portage spot became a canal, and then a lock system was installed to help control the tides.  And tomorrow morning, following in the footsteps of hundreds of sailors, we, too, will transit the canal and make our way back in to the Atlantic!