TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

Sailing at sea can be very adventurous and we had certainly enjoyed viewing the marine wildlife but for the sheer pleasure of good sailing it is hard to beat a large lake, especially one with plenty of islands and coves to explore. Waves are not much of an issue and with several arms to the lakes there is always somewhere new to investigate whatever the wind direction. While we were in Baddeck, we ordered a replacement for a broken part on our windlass (it would still pull up the anchor but this was now a two-person operation) and asked for it to be shipped to Baddeck. This gave us a good excuse to spend several days exploring the huge Bras d’Or Lakes before we started to wend our way back south along the coast. On Wednesday, before setting off on this "vacation", we enjoyed an evening with "The Baddeck Gathering Ceilidhs" (pronounced kay-lees) where we listened to Cape Breton fiddle and piano music, watched some step dancing, and learned the differences between various types of Celtic tunes and "ethnic" styles, and that clapping to the music is a disapproving signal for the music to end but loud foot tapping to the rhythm is not only acceptable but expected. It was great fun and the musicians were very relaxed and willing to talk about both the Cape Breton music in general and their personal routes to playing it (classical violin training in Kansas then moving and changing to the Cape Breton style versus a long-time Cape Breton family of piano players).

After a couple of rather grey days that included one night of torrential rain, we were treated to sunny skies for much of this period with sufficient winds to make sailing worthwhile. We used this opportunity to learn more about sailing Tregoning, which until now had been more of a "making-do" type of sailing but we needed to add a bit more finesse to make it more efficient.

On August 14^th, we sailed southwest from Baddeck to spend a couple of nights in Maskells Harbour. This trip is less than 10 miles under power but being almost dead into the wind became a full afternoon’s journey as we tacked back and forth across the lake learning how to coax Tregoning to sail as close to the wind as we could (angled about 45-50 degrees either side of directly upwind). On Thursday, we interrupted lazing around and reading with an exploration of part of the shore from the dinghy. This included a beautiful pebble spit that protected the natural harbour and an uphill walk to a viewpoint along which we found a glorious abundance of wild raspberries. Between eating handfuls of them fresh, we collected a mug-full (Randall had conveniently brought and drained a travel-mug of coffee) and that afternoon he made a delicious apple and raspberry cobbler!

From this wonderfully protected cove in the northern lake that was surrounded by steep, tree-clad hills with only a couple of small buildings visible, we sailed toward the southern lake. Having motored through Barra Strait (sailing is not allowed through the narrow draw-bridge) we enjoyed tacking upwind and then between islands to spend a couple of nights in another very protected anchorage, Clarke Cove at Marble Mountain. This cove was a bit more developed and being the weekend we were able to share the happy sounds of one particular household partying into the wee hours! Sunday morning was wet and ideal for further vacation-minded novel-reading, then in the afternoon we ventured ashore and hiked (somewhat steeply) up to the top of the disused Marble Mountain quarry where the ground was white with marble chips. Randall entertained us both by identifying the trees (such as white and black spruce, white and big-toothed poplars, and quaking aspen) and we were treated to spectacular, sunny views back over the lake and islands. Ravens noisily greeted our entry to the quarry and at the highest section we briefly saw a falcon in the cliffs overhead. The habitat, general appearance, and our imaginations screamed peregrine falcon but we did not know what characteristics to look for quickly to be sure and the maps in our North American field guide indicated that they do not occur in Nova Scotia. Some days later, we saw a Nova Scotia bird book that included peregrine falcons so, with an element of reservation, that will be our final answer. On the Bras d’Or Lakes, we see bald eagles most days and this morning, for example, one flew low enough over us as I was jogging that Randall called to me from his bike to "look lively" lest it decided to view me as a slow-moving snack!

With the benefit of another sunny day on Monday, we continued tacking upwind to the Crammond Islands near the head of the West Bay in the southern lake. We anchored for a swim and lunch in the calm waters of the narrow channel between the two islands. Another splendidly scenic spot, we had been directed to visit them and Marble Mountain by a Nova Scotian sailor, Christian, whom we’d met in Baddeck and we greatly appreciated these suggestions. Our navigation to the excellent anchorages in the lakes was aided by the Cruising Guide to the Canadian Maritimes (the fruit of our search in Halifax) and this useful book had also mentioned the trails ashore that we had enjoyed in Whycocomagh and Marble Mountain. Also on the recommendation of this book, we spent that night in Little Harbour (just northeast of Marble Mountain) after an excellent afternoon’s down-wind run, and ate well at the recommended Smokehouse Restaurant overlooking the almost land-locked cove.

Strong southwesterly winds the next day created noticeable waves as we headed back towards Barra Strait, making the downwind run a bit more lumpy and sea-like than might be expected on a smaller lake. So by the time we tied up at the public wharf in Iona (just north of the bascule bridge on the west side of Barra Strait) it was mid afternoon and too late to cycle up to the Highland Village Historic Site. Many locals were swimming, fishing, and enjoying the sunny afternoon, and we were later joined by another sailboat which we recognized as the single-handed sailor, Gary, with whom we had chatted prior to entering the St. Peters Canal lock.

We cycled up the hill to the Highland Village this morning in bright but windy conditions and thoroughly enjoyed their recreation of the historical Gaelic colonization of this part of Nova Scotia. The walking tour is organized in chronological order, starting with a recreation of a simple, dry-stone, sod-roofed "black house" from the Western Isles of Scotland in the 1790s, and progressing through the 1800s to early 1900s with a log house, several frame houses, a church, barn, blacksmith shop, school, and general store. In most buildings we were greeted in Gaelic (and there is a modern Gaelic school nearby) by costumed guides who were extremely knowledgeable and good at talking in terms appropriate to their period. No knowing quite what to expect of "North America’s only living-history museum for Gaelic language and culture", I must confess to having been a bit ambivalent about going to visit this site, but in the end we both really enjoyed it. We found the woman in the replica of the Scottish black house, the story of moving the 1874 church by barge 15 miles across the lake in 2003, and the demonstrations of butter-making and iron-forging to be particularly interesting. There were some highland cattle, Soay sheep, a pig, chickens, and a Clydesdale horse and several guides were cooking using the products of these animals (at least the milk and eggs), or carding, spinning, and weaving wool. The progression in the houses from hand-spindles to spinning wheels over time provided me with pleasant memories of my father, a skillful knitter, who made a similar transition after my mother, as a bit of a joke, gave him a hand-spindle and some wool at the beginning of his retirement.

On his mother’s side, Randall’s McMillan family came from the Scottish Isle of Arran to North America in the mid-1800s and initially lived in New Brunswick. On our journey south we hope to be more successful in renting a car and, if so, driving to the place of their settlement in New Mills, NB. Between the Gaelic signs on the Cabot Trail, the evening at the Baddeck Ceilidh, and our recent education about Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia, we are starting to feel quite well prepared in anticipation of this over-land expedition.