Maskell's Harbour, Bras d'Or lake, Nova Scotia

Saturday, August 30, 2008

046-1.380 N
060-47.040 W

Ahoy from Maskells Harbour on Bras d'Or lake, Nova Scotia!

Yesterday, after a relaxed but rainy morning, we moved a few miles north to Maskells Habour, which is wonderfully protected anchorage. When we passed it on the way to Baddeck, I checked it out extensively and thought to my self "Wow, that's a great hurricane hole." The harbour is about a mile deep and at most 0.2 miles wide, making it long and narrow. It runs on a NE/SW axis. Along the northern shore there's a spit of land with reeds and trees on it that runs parallel to the cove. You can pull in behind this and pick up one of the mooring balls or you can anchor near the point of the spit, in 20' of water. We had great holding and sat on flat water, despite the 20+ kts that were blowing out of the NE, which is straight down the harbor.

It rained almost all afternoon so we didn't explore the cove. This morning we have broken clouds and it's calm and we can hear a waterfall somewhere near the end of the spit. This is a very beautiful anchorage and is a great storm harbor.

Today we're going to move to Cape George Harbor, which is at the S end of the Bras d'Or lakes in preparation for our trek down the coast of Nova Scotia. The seas offshore were 12' yesterday and were dropping to 6' today, so we were in no hurry to head on out. It will be interesting to see where m/v Venture, and s/v CheshireCAT are, as they headed out 2 days ago. I looked at the forecast and didn't see any reason to leave, as neither Sue or I wanted to bash our way in seas like that and 35 kts of wind.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 1273