Shelburne, Nova Scotia

Friday, September 12, 2008

043-45.420 N
065-19.380 W

Ahoy from Shelburn, Nova Scotia!

As has been the norm for this trip, we motored sailed about 42 nm to Shelburne. The predominant winds at this time of year are out of the SW, and that's pretty much the direction that we're headed. If we waited for perfect weather to sail, I think that we'd get frozen in before we made it back. As it is, the temps are dropping into the upper 40s at night, and in an un-insulated boat, that's chilly!

After leaving Port Muton we saw a shimmering apparition on the horizon. It looked like a boat sitting atop a rock pile in the middle of the ocean. It was far enough away that it was hard to tell if what we were seeing was real or an optical illusion. As we moved along, it became apparent that it was real, so I headed towards it. On the chart it showed up as Little Hope island and it really had a boat sitting on top of it. When we got into port, I did some research and was unable to find out how the Lady Helen No. 1 ended up sitting on Little Hope island, but I did find out that there used to be a lighthouse there which was destroyed in a hurricane and that appears to be what the boat is resting upon. If anyone knows more history, please let me know.

Mid afternoon we pulled into Shelburne Harbor, which is a delightful little town. The waterfront received a facelift when a movie was made there and now it resembles an antique New England town. We really enjoyed walking around and seeing it. There are a variety of museums that you can explore, but after just having stayed at the fisheries museum, we didn't feel the need to go through them. We did have a very nice dinner at the Charlotte Lane cafe.

Right now we're underway to Yarmouth, which is a 72 mile trip. Due to strong rip tides around Cape Sable island, the recommendation is to pass by it at slack tide, which is a 2 PM today. That delayed our leaving until 08:30, which will bring us into Yarmouth at around sunset. I sure hope that the currents work in our favor and get us in a bit earlier. It's hard to predict as the currents divide at Cape Sable and you only get favorable current on one side or the other.

Our biggest issue right now is figuring out how and when to get to Maine. It's been so cold at night that I don't want to do an overnight in the very busy Bay of Fundy, which would require almost constant standing at the wheel. The other option is to go to Grand Manan island, which is off of the Maine coast, during the day, but then we need to find somewhere safe to pull into once we get to Maine as the remains of hurricane Ike will be passing through here.

We'll keep you posted on how things progress. Good luck to our friends in Texas! We'll be thinking of you.

-- Geoff & Sue

For the cruiser:

It's a long way into Shelburne...almost 9 miles...but it's worth it if you like quaint towns like this. We pulled into the docks at the Shelburne Yacht Club and paid $1/ft. Mooring balls are $15. There are several marine stores and lots of restuarants. There's a grocery in Shelburne, but I don't know how close it is. Very good WiFi.

Log ID: 1283