Maskell’s cove

This time around we found a number of locals hanging out in Maskell’s cove. Given that it was Sunday and the weather was lovely, that it was not surprising to be in the company of a pontoon boat, a few motorboats, a couple of jet skis and a sailboat. There was still plenty of room for all. Only the sailboat and Salty Ginger remained at anchor by dinner time.

Julia took the dog ashore on the dinghy onto the sandbar by pushing the dinghy while swimming. The kids were jumping off the side of the boat, as they have been doing daily rain or shine. I decided to escape that madness and swam ashore after my sister. Nothing interesting was to be found in the shallow water as I waded toward the exit of the cove, but on the inside beach there were a few snails and lots of small oysters. Definitely too small to eat.

Off to the distance in a small pond were 3 birds, each standing on one foot. I figured that chances were high that they will still be there if I go back with the dinghy to get the camera. Julia loaded the dog into the dinghy and I rowed back. On the way I saw Alex and then Diego with the kids swimming towards the shore. Dima got cold and didn’t feel like swimming anymore, but he was happy to come along on the boat.

The birds were still there. While I was fiddling with the focus of the camera, I also turned the burst mode on. And right then the birds decided to take off! The focus was already set for the right distance and I got a few good pictures of them taking off. It all happened very quickly, and getting that captured without the burst mode would have been impossible. Unless I’m mistaken they were lesser yellowlegs.

 

We heard an osprey call, and we saw an eagle in the distance, but they did not come close. Fishing was also disappointing. Diego had one bite, but the fish got away.

Alina and I cleaned the mussels that the kids collected off the dock in Baddeck. Arguably, we should have changed their water more frequently during the previous 24 hours, but they survived with exception of a few. I asked Julia if she wanted rosemary or thyme while cooking them, and she said to put both. That worked out very well. It’s hard to spoil fresh seafood! Unlike the mussels we found in the tidal waters, these were much smaller and didn’t have any pearls inside.

Natural colours

Despite the presence of mosquitoes, I didn’t feel like going inside after dinner and instead lounged in the cockpit with my guitar. Julia came to join me and we sang a few songs. Some inspired by the starry skies and shooting stars. The Bimini was folded to have an unobstructed view of the sky, and after we saw a few shooting stars, we called the kids so that they could also enjoy the night show. A few meteors covered a substantial arc of the sky, leaving a shiny track, a few were more faint. 

We sang a couple of lullabies for Anya and remained in the cockpit chatting with Dima, reminiscing about our high school friends and experiences. It was very quiet and warm and practically windless.

Some time after midnight I helped Julia row ashore to walk the dog. When we were coming back, we noticed that the sky had a strange tint to it. And then there were these vertical streaks… Northern lights! Most of the colours were reddish, but out in the distance a bit of blue. We called Dima who we presumed was not asleep yet, and he took a photo with his iPhone, which filled the entire sky with intense colours due to the long exposure time, painting a picture that had nothing to do with what the naked eye was observing. “I will never believe pictures on the internet!” remarked Dima. He had seen similar pictures from his friends who went to see the northern lights, and now he was skeptical about what they actually saw.

The third streak of natural light in the middle of the night was bioluminescence. It wasn’t as abundant as we have seen in other places, but clearly visible when I disturbed the water with my foot.

The agreement was to wake up for the sunrise, which is exactly what we did with the previous crew. Unfortunately I woke up an hour too early, and by the time it was time to get up I was too sleepy. Dima was also woken up by Alex half hour before the alarm, so by the time the alarm went off he had already seen the red band of light on the horizon and stayed in bed. I saw that it was lovely and woke up Alina. Julia and Diego came up with her to watch the morning light show. Overall, a great stay in a beautiful setting!

Dog rescue

Adventures wouldn’t be adventures if something didn’t go as planned. At least sometimes. And hopefully without severe consequences.

While everyone swam ashore after breakfast, I decided to stay and get some alone time. I saw the crew running around excitedly on the beach. Turned out that was a horse fly that they were trying to escape from. Not that exciting.

I changed into the swimming trunks and decided to meet them half way. Then I hear people shouting “Georgi, where is he?” It turned out that the dog went overboard. He was sitting on the bow of the dinghy and some disturbance (rowing?) shook him off and he landed under the dinghy! The humans reacted fast enough and extracted the dog and got the wet, unhappy, rat-looking creature back into the dinghy.

Later we figured out that Georgi did not learn his lesson. He didn’t fall overboard, but he definitely did a few dangerous things aboard Salty Ginger that could have landed him into the lake. Perhaps that’s an incentive to get a life vest for the little creature.

Wind games

Once all the excitement of having rescued the dog settled, it was time to pull out of the cove. The typical southwesterly or westerly wind picked up, even in the cove, so it allowed us to unroll the sail right after we raised the anchor, turn off the motor and sail out. I wasn’t sure how strong the wind would be outside the cove, so only a part of the mainsail was rolled out.

Indeed, there were whitecaps out on the lake, so I didn’t unroll the entire jib either. The wind was doing something similar to what I experienced on my single hand sail: it would pick up and shift. Luckily, we would get a lift during the puff. Alex asked if he could steer (we were working on that!) and I was happy to let him point directly towards the Barra Strait bridge. I was sitting on the jib sheet. Let out the sheet when we were almost on the beam reach, trim back in when the wind would ease and we were close hauled. Yes, as Sasha remarked on our first sail through the lake, the sailing part is not boring.

I hailed the bridge operator, who confirmed that he saw us and would open the bridge in time. Professionals are professionals. I saw the traffic stop, the bridge starting to open, and a hundred meters before we were at the bridge is when it was opened fully.

On the other side of the strait the wind calmed down a lot. I thought we would be able to maintain the same course and then fall off, but no, we got a header and to avoid two short tacks I just motored for 5 minutes until we actually could fall off. I thought it would be spinnaker weather (well, we first had to eat lunch). But no, as I kept turning away from the wind to point into the East Bay, the wind kept shifting, so we remained just forward of the beam reach. Definitely not a good setup for the spinnaker. The crew was chilling and taking it easy, and enough wind picked up for us to do 5.5-6 knots, so I remained under the main and the jib. Easy does it. Sometimes.