Nova Scotia

[Otter-BelleHavenMarina]

Any C-Brats out there who have cruised in the waters near Halifax, Nova Scotia? We are heading up there in August with the Otter in tow to spend a couple weeks with friends on an island in Mahone Bay. Looking forward to some saltwater cruising. Any ideas and information would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

[Pat Anderson]

No, but say "hello" to all my cousins in Wolfville N.S. (and I have a LOT of cousins there)! I would LOVE to get Daydream there some day!

[El and Bill]

Nope, haven't cruised up there -- but don't forget the Bras D'Or Lake -- old sailing friends swear it's the best cruising water in the Canadian east. Our best to you friends -- have a great trip.

[Otter-BelleHavenMarina]

Thanks Pat and El & Bill - we are really looking forward to it. 20 years ago, I worked as a deckhand on a 93-foot sailboat. We sailed from Chicago to Florida via the St. Lawrence seaway. Halifax was a lovely stop, but when we set out from there, weather drove us into the little town of Lunenberg Bay. For three days we waited there for the high winds to abate or change direction. To this day, I vividly remember the taste of that air, the sweetest I have ever breathed.

[KenMcC]

Wow! Does that bring back memories!

Our family used to vacation there at a tourist house on Mahone Bay (similar to to a bed and breakfast, but served 3 meals a day). It was at Mader's Cove, and the place may still be there. (This was in 1950 - 1954).

My dad would rent a Bluenose Class sloop (much smaller than the ocean racer), but same basic design. My brother and I would go out on a rowboat on Mahone Bay.

Mrs. Mader would do all the cooking on a wood stove, and made the greatest blueberry pies in the world. Breakfast in the mornings included milk from either "Daisy" or "Marie", their on-site milk supply. Really hated the taste of fresh milk!

Halifax was a great place to visit, but even more fun was the tuna fishing port at Lunenburg.

The Digby to St. Johns ferry was also a great experience.

Thanks for the memories!

Ken

[Pat Anderson]

Patty and I traveled to N.S. probably in 1971 or so, we were living in N.J, and after all, how far could it be? Turns out to be LONG ways, but for us worth the trip. My grandmother's family was all in Wolfville, she had been sending photos of little Pat since I was a baby, they all knew who I was and welcomed us with open arms. I had NO idea! Haven't been back since sadly. Best photo I ever took was fishing boats at Peggy's Cove...But we too have VERY fond memories!

KenMcC wrote:

Wow! Does that bring back memories! Our family used to vacation there at a tourist house on Mahone Bay (similar to to a bed and breakfast, but served 3 meals a day). It was at Mader's Cove, and the place may still be there. (This was in 1950 - 1954). My dad would rent a Bluenose Class sloop (much smaller than the ocean racer), but same basic design. My brother and I would go out on a rowboat on Mahone Bay. Mrs. Mader would do all the cooking on a wood stove, and made the greatest blueberry pies in the world. Breakfast in the mornings included milk from either "Daisy" or "Marie", their on-site milk supply. Really hated the taste of fresh milk! Halifax was a great place to visit, but even more fun was the tuna fishing port at Lunenburg. The Digby to St. Johns ferry was also a great experience. Thanks for the memories! Ken

[Crab Cake]

My family and I were all over N.S. about 5 years ago - our first trip
there. The Mahone Bay area is beautiful and I would 2nd the motion
on the Bra D'or Lakes area for boating and visiting. It is a beautiful area with lots to see and plenty of places to stay. Take some time to see
Lunenburg ( or Lunenberg not sure of spelling ) . Very worth while,
particularly the fisheries museum. Good luck. Crab Cake

[Crab Cake]

One additional item... We took the CAT ferry from Bar Harbor ME
into Yarmouth. If you are planning to do this, there is a great
tourist information center one block into town on your right as you
get off the ferry. 20 minutes there and you can get driving maps,
B and B brochures, dining info, you name it and it will save you loads
of time. I am sure there is similar information that the bureau of
tourism would send to you in advance, but you are in for a very nice
time up there. The people are great and the water and scenery are
too. I probably had 20 bowls of fish chowder on my trip from
20 different places - all distinct and all wonderful. Also, El and Bill
were right, its: Bras D' Or Lakes, thought the s is silent. Mahone Bay
has a great bar with beer coasters from all over the world. I forget
the name but it will be an easy find and worth having lunch at. Enjoy!

[Otter-BelleHavenMarina]

Many thanks for the tips and good advice. We are planning to take the ferry to Yarmouth, so we will look for the that information center. C-Dory people make for such an excellent network!

[Levity]

Tom,
A friend and I traveled around Nova Scotia in '75 on motorcycles. It is a beautiful country and the people were very receptive to us and helpful with allowing us to sleep in their barns or work for a meal. The nothern most locations were rugged and picturesque. Try Cape North as a destination. Enjoy your trip. Will look forward to the telling when we get together in June.
Levity's Michael

[Otter-BelleHavenMarina]

We had a great trip to Maine and Nova Scotia. The Otter seemed to be right at home up there among all the salty fishing boats. Beautiful area of the world and great cruising. Just uploaded some photos from the trip in my album. All the best,

[Rick from Maine]

Hi Tom,

Nice photos. But now we want more stories about your cruise. Did you find any launch ramps that a normal mortal could use? Looks like the kids had a ball. Do you have any facility recommendations in Nova Scotia? Want More!

Rick from Maine

[Otter-BelleHavenMarina]

OK Rick - you asked for it!

Launching from the backyard "ramp" in Maine was exciting enough - when it was time to pull out, we used the public ramp at Buck's Harbor. Found lots of great crusing destinations in Penobscot Bay but only visited a fraction of them. In Nova Scotia, Mahone Bay is full of islands and great scenery. Most are privately owned with various policies about beaching. Those that don't want visitors generally let you know with a sign. Entire Bay pretty well protected from everything but a hard south blow. Even out on the ocean, we found that the Otter liked the swells and rode softer at speed than she does under similar conditions in the Chesapeake Bay's shallow, choppy waters.

St. Margarets Bay, just east of Mahone, is wider open with far fewer islands. A great location for sailing. The coastline along much of the east side of SMB is beautiful, sheer granite. Not a lee shore to be on when you run out of gas or foul your prop! From the open ocean, we shot a gap between rocky shoals around Taylor's Island with a 15 knot wind behind us and a sizeable swell. That was exciting. The channel behind, between Taylor and the mainland, was calm as could be. Lots of little houses and boats back there built right onto the granite ledge, all involved in fishing industry so far as we could see.

In terms of facilities and accommodations, there doesn't appear to be the level of marina infrastructure built up there that we are used to seeing in coastal bays in the States, but since we were staying with friends on one of the islands in Mahone Bay and others who live at the head of St. Margarets Bay, we didn't do any research on accommodations.

When we hauled the Otter out in St. Margarets, the tide was fairly low and the boat ramp was long, steep, and slick. I was once again glad to have 4-wheel-drive, but I don't think retrieving at anything approaching mid-tide or higher would be a problem for any two-wheel-drive tow vehicle.

Note on the tides: don't tie up to anything that isn't floating for a long period unless you really know what you're doing! (The fisherman have a system for tying up to fixed piers.) With 15-foot tides, it is tricky. Must be really interesting on the north side of NS in the Bay of Fundy where tides reach 25 feet and more.

Note on anchorage: my little Danforth that sticks so well in Chesapeake and Potomac mud was pretty ineffective for Maine and Nova Scotia's gravelly and rocky bottoms. You also need a lot more rode up there in the deep water than what we are used to here. It wasn't an issue for us as we had moorings we could tie onto, but it was one area in which I felt unprepared in case of emergency.

Trailering 2,100 miles: have a spare tire, a jack that you know will work under your trailer (I used a bottle jack), and a wrench that you know fits your trailer lugs. We made it through 2,000 miles and had a blow-out at the end of the Bay Bridge on our way back, just an hour from home. I also took out Boat US trailering roadside assistance insurance just in case. Make sure your bearings are well lubed as well. (Good information on this in other posts and threads.)

Navigation: Don't expect to easily find charts of Nova Scotia waters at every marine store. Better to order them ahead of time. The Navionics Gold charts of the waters we used in our Raymarine 435i chartplotter were very good. Always good to have a paper backup though.

Wildlife: Lots of seals and harbor porpoises in Maine and both NS bays. Also saw puffins, osprey, and lots of other waterfowl. Only whales we saw were humpbacks from the ferry on our way over. We would have needed more time and fewer people little ones on board to do the long (10-20 mile) trips beyond the mouths of the bays to have a good chance of seeing cetaceans. This was my only regret of the trip.

Customs/Border crossing: Canadian customs officials very interested in assuring themselves that I was not bringing the boat into the country to sell. There is a sizeable tax on boats in Canada and the government wants to make sure it gets its share. I was glad I had documentation for the boat and the trailer. (I had registration and bill of sale for the boat and title for the trailer -- am not sure the minimum they would have been satisfied with.) Upon exit, I had to present a paper to customs showing them that I was leaving with the boat and trailer (in addition to a few cases of fine Canadian beer!)

Weather: We had little rain and clear skies for much of the trip. Temperatures were warm. I understand that you can have whole weeks of socked in weather up there, but I think August is pretty good most years. I threw my wetsuit into the boat at the last minute and am glad I did. Wish I had brought mask, snorkel and fins as well. The water is very clear, but cold. One day on the island in MB, I used little childs dive mask from the cottage to go looking around just off the shore and had a close encounter with a lobster about the size of our labrador. He was 5 feet below me, tucked in between some rocks. He looked at me, I looked at him. I had thoughts of returning to the beach with dinner, victorious and manly. He had thoughts of taking my thumbs off at the joint if I tried to grab him. We called a truce and I swam on.

People: super nice, friendly folks across the board.

The value of a C-Dory when sponging off friends: you may have noticed that nearly we were guests nearly everywhere we went on this vacation. Kathy and I congratulate ourselves on having the good sense to be friends with people whose grandfathers bought islands and use 'summer' as a verb. We brought along some token hostess gifts, but our greatest contribution and generator of goodwill was the Otter. In Maine our friends are sailing people and it was great fun for them be able to go out on the speedy Otter to explore distant islands that they never get to in a day of sailing. And in Nova Scotia, the folks with the island just have an old 14-foot open runabout for getting to and fro, buying groceries, etc. They rarely if ever feel comfortable going into open ocean, and if the weather looks sketchy they stay off the boat entirely. So, to all those lurkers on this site thinking of reasons why they "need" to invest in a C-Dory, add this one: it helps you to be a good guest! Its also a good reason to bring your boat along on a road trip where water will be nearby.

Rick, I hope that satifsies!

All the best,

[Rick from Maine]

Hi Tom,

Yup, that was satisfying! Thanks.

Gee, I hadn't thought of summer as a verb. What a neat idea. I need friends like that.

I've noticed that there aren't many good launch ramps on Penobscot bay, especially where you can leave the trailer overnight.

Again, thanks for your cruising tale. It was fun to read and makes me want to try Nova Scotia soon.

Rick from Maine

[Pat Anderson]

Tom - thanks for the Reader's Digest version, when do we get the full story?