The forecast 7am rain did not come and that made the morning a lot more pleasant than we expected. The eagle was back, perched on one side of the cove, decided to fly to the other side in search of better fishing ground and then did that again.
Irina and Alla took the dinghy and rowed ashore. It was low tide and the terrain looked right for mussels. In the meantime Peter and Mark were chilling, David did quite a cleanup of the cockpit and the saloon, I went through the multitude of lines, hoping to find a better solution for anchor snubber line.
The girls came back with a bucket half full of mussels and a few oysters. Without any delay Irina started to open the oysters. Yummy! As fresh as they get! The mussels got their bucket of water so that they could start to filter out the mud and the sand from within.
Continuing with cleanup, we found a few leftovers in the fridge that we ate for lunch. Now it looks quite possible that we can consolidate the contents of both fridges into one. Would be nice for the power draw.
Foggy sail
While we were eating our lunch, the rain started. It was windless, so leaving the mooring under motor with the mainsail raised was easy. Just a bit wet. David joined me in the cockpit while the rest of the crew were playing a board game. The rain stopped as soon as we left the cove, but there was still no wind, so it looked like we would have to motor sail the 15 miles to our next anchorage.
But soon enough the southerly wind picked up to 18 knots, so we were motoring straight into it. Once we went around the land and pointed the bow east, the jib was unrolled and we were sailing. We were now exposed to the Atlantic and its waves made sitting inside the cabin rather bumpy, so the board game was abandoned and everyone came into the cockpit. Peter was the only one who threw up due to seasickness and then slept on the bench. Irina perched herself under the dodger and was also dosing. Alla was looking for the horizon, but it was impossible to see in the fog. We were back in less than quarter-mile visibility.
My original plan of sailing by Peggy’s Cove had to be abandoned. First, the detour would take us more downwind, subsequently requiring a more upwind sail. Second, we wouldn’t see anything anyway. So the course was changed directly towards Roost Island. At 8 knots we had no problems reaching the point where islands and rocks were sheltering us from the ocean swell.
All of a sudden on the leeward side we saw an outline of the shore and waves breaking on the rocks. Without GPS this would have been a lot more nerve-wracking.
The red buoy was nowhere to be seen, but then we heard it. The outline of Hearn island a hundred meters away looked ghostly, obscured by the fog. My worry was seeing the narrow passage between the rocky shore of Roost island and the submerged rock. The guide book gave a good description of the entrance, but the fog made it a bit harder. At least the island was sheltering us from the winds.
No rocks were hit by our keel and Salty Ginger entered a very sheltered inlet. We saw outlines of a sailboat sitting at a mooring and I steered the boat into that wider part of the inlet to make anchoring simpler. When we passed Magica, a woman came out of the cabin and greeted us. There was an empty mooring a short distance further and she cheerfully told us to take it. “First come, first serve!” She assured me that anchoring was not necessary, so we heeded her advice and picked up the mooring. The southern part of the cove, through which we entered, although just a quarter mile away could not be seen through the fog.
Exploration continued
Irina is now completely detached from the everyday routine and her work. She barely checks her phone and is in very good spirits. The fog and drizzle could not take that way: there was the whole pretty cove to explore. A few things held the exploration back. For starters we had tea and cheese with crackers. I also pulled out a bottle of maple rum that I bought in Lunenburg. The old-fashioned “warm-up” method combined with tea had a magical effect on everyone. Then we decided to have a batch of the mussels. Generally I like to keep them in clean water for 12 hours before cooking, but we figured that the smaller ones shouldn’t have as much inside and should be ok to eat. Garlic cloves, some onion and white wine resulted in a delicious appetizer!
The dinghy was assembled and lowered into the water. Irina and Alla put on the foulie pants to keep themselves warm and dry and together with David they set out to row about the cove. Mark was cooking dinner, Peter was reading a book after I revoked his Nintendo privileges, I was taking it easy.
After dinner we played board games until everyone was sleepy after an exciting day of sailing.
In the morning the fog lifted and we can finally see the entirety of Rogue’s Roost, reportedly one of the most beautiful anchorages in Nova Scotia.
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