(Not-so) Little Harbour

We took Gerry’s rule to relax seriously on Sunday morning: almost everyone slept in and we started quite late with our breakfast. Mark tried fishing, but the only thing that he caught was a crab that wound itself on the line.

There was not too much to do before we could leave St Peter’s: get a few more groceries, pump out the holding tank and take out the trash. Much of it happened in parallel, so by 11 we were underway.

Meandering to the lake

The engine was needed for all of 5 minutes to unfurl the mainsail and off we were on our way through St Peter’s inlet. The cruising guide description matched our experience precisely.

Sailing through this inlet is the nicest possible introduction to the Bras d’Or Lakes. A fair breeze and extremely smooth water offer a rare combination. It’s a lovely experience, especially after the challenges of the waters that you need to cross to get here.

After our experience walking through the village of St Peters and looking at the small harbour, I told Sasha, that perhaps I will get bored in the lakes. However, sailing through the inlet is definitely not boring. The islands created major wind shifts as we sailed. Mostly the wind was behind us, but then sometimes we would find ourselves on a close reach even though our course stayed the same.

And then we saw the opening into the Lake. A huge body of water, where the wind was no longer shifting, but blew steadily from the southwest. First at 15 knots and then building up to 20 (right as Katya and Pasha finished cooking), so that we had to reef both the main and the jib in order to be able to eat. And we were still doing 7 knots. Sort of in the direction we wanted to go, but we still didn’t have a clue as to where we would spend the night.

Jumping in the waves

Pasha inflated our inflatable “pillow” on the dock, so once he had a few minutes to digest lunch, he was ready to jump into the water to bounce around. First Sasha went with his son together. With the sails reefed, we were only doing 5 knots, but with two people it was bouncy enough, so Sasha came back on the boat but Pasha decided to stay. Seeing that we could only get to 6-6.5 knots, I partly unfurled the main, so now we could get up to 7 to provide an ultimate bouncy experience. We managed to do everything under sails, either heaving-to or just pointing Salty Ginger into the wind to slow down for drop off and pick-up.

Since we have enough experienced sailors aboard, I had a chance to go as well. Bouncing was fun, but then I tried shifting the balance to one side or the other. Swinging to the right and to the left of the boat while riding the edge of the inflatable was a lot more intense. On the windward side there were a lot more waves and I kept shaking the salt water off my face all the time. On the leeward side Salty Ginger was creating a much calmer sea state. After some 10 or 15 minutes my forearms were exhausted and I was ready to come back. Pasha was intrigued by the new technique and went back. He was swinging right and left and after 10 minutes he signalled that he was done.

Remote scenery

We decided to spend the night in Little Harbour, but on the way there we wanted to take a peak at the nearby islands and a former quarry at Marble Mountain. The islands look a lot greener than the ones that we have seen offshore. We rolled the mainsail in and enjoyed the scenery in the waters sheltered by the islands. Compared the ocean the sea state is, of course, very calm.

Katya took the helm and steered the boat into the Little Harbour. The charts do not show a clear depth contour at the entrance, but the cruising guide assured us that there would be at least 18 feet of water. We aimed through the center of the narrow entrance and were inside a huge pond. There are a few houses on the shores, but largely the shoreline is undeveloped, so finding a spot where only the forest was off our stern was easy. Two or three other boats are anchored.

The water was balmy! Even Mark was convinced that it was time to jump in and he went off the side with a big splash. And as expected, salinity of the water is way lower than out in the ocean.

In the mud and sand near the shore we discovered mussels and small oysters. Perhaps we’ll go foraging at some point with the next crew.

Katya and I went through the cruising guide and the chart to scope out the itinerary for the next couple of days before the 3 of them have to depart.

Pasha decided to try flying the drone in the wind and discovered that it compensated for the windy conditions very well and he took videos of Salty Ginger and the surroundings from quite far away above the forest.

The stars on the moonless night were very bright. I even convincingly recognized Ursula Minor. The Milky Way shone brightly and I was lucky to see two shooting stars.