July 2024

Exactly what the doctor ordered – calm, sheltered, easy cruising. The couple of weeks we spent in the Bras d’Or Lake (which means golden arms) after my hip surgery were indeed a golden gift. This lake is in Cape Breton Island, the very northern part of Nova Scotia. It is actually an estuary open to the sea at two narrow straits which allow very little exchange of water with the ocean. The “lake” is just over 1000 square kilometres in area and must have hundreds of coves and anchorages. Unlike other parts of the Nova Scotian coastline, fog is rare, the water temperature in summer is warm, and the strong coastal winds do not normally reach far into it. The shores are sparsely settled and most of the natural forest is untouched. It has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in recognition of its important natural and cultural characteristics. In short, it is a cruiser’s paradise- especially for this cruiser needing a few weeks to literally get my sea legs.

We spent a few days at anchor in Sydney Harbour, getting re-aquainted and doing some exploration before heading into the lake.

Importantly, we spent some time with a Canadian family who had be-friended Phil when he was out shopping one day. Louis, his wife Kristin and son Oscar, had just returned to Canada after having lived in Melbourne for 9 years. Kristin had secured an academic position at the Cape Breton University and so they decided to make Sydney their home. They are excited about the prospects for Sydney which is enjoying a resurgence powered by an influx of young adults and early retirees from other parts of Canada, along with international students. We spent a lovely evening with them in Wentworth Park listening to a free live music performance, and on another occasion enjoyed sundowners at The Dory Pub followed by dinner, and lots of good conversation, on board Paseafique. We really enjoyed their company and it was pleasing to see how much they enjoyed the evening aboard.

Enjoying “beaver tail” with Oscar, Kristin and Louis – tail shaped friend dough with various toppings like maple syrup at the live music in Wentworth Park

We stocked up our pantry and bar and headed off around Point Aconi and into the lake via the Great Bras d’Or Strait. The next couple of weeks were spent ambling from one pretty anchorage to the next, enjoying the temperate climate of warm sunny days and cool nights.

Otter Point – our first anchorage in the lake

We were delighted to spend some time cruising in company with fellow Aussies Brett and Amanda from Leventeia, who we had last seen in East Africa about 5 years ago. Phil in particular had bonded with them when he was anchored nearby in Kenya and Brett had a medical emergency one evening. Phil was able to help Amanda get Brett off the boat, into a dinghy and ashore for a trip to the hospital. Fortunately, there was nothing amiss with Brett’s health which was later been thoroughly checked in Australia also. They gave Phil a bottle of champagne as a thank you which he dutifully put aside to share at a later date. That bottle of champagne eventually became a serendipitous link between us, Brett and Amanda, and their English friends Vicki and Nick. We coincidentally met Vicki and Nick in Greece sometime later and shared the champers with them for sundowners one evening. We told them the story about how it was given to us, and amazingly they actually also know Brett and Amanda! The world can be a small place sometimes, and the cruising world especially so.

We had an excited re-union with Leventeia in Whycocomagh Bay and spent a lovely evening ashore at the community centre there listening to live music and chatting to the very friendly locals. It was a treat to cruise with them for the next three days as we visited the Little Narrows and then Baddeck. Phil and the Leventeia crew enjoyed some lovely walks at Whycocomagh and the Little Narrows while I pottered around ashore as I was not yet up for long walks.

Amanda and Phil enjoy a break in the beautiful forest on the Little Narrows walk

Baddeck is the delightful main town of the Bras d’Or. It is also the home of the Alexander Graham Bell museum which houses the history of his enduring interest in sound, but also of his many other varied interests including aerodynamics and genetics. I had no idea that he was so active across a range of fields.  Bell helped his father invent a phonetic representation of the alphabet ie., a way to write down individual sounds so that readers could reproduce them, once familiar with the notation. Bell later used this as the basis of a method to teach speech to the deaf. He ended up falling in love with and marrying one of his students, Mabel Hubbard. As we know Bell went on to invent the telephone, and was even working on a wireless version of the phone. Imagine if he could see just how far that technology has developed. Furthering his interest in sound, Bell and colleagues improved on Edison’s phonograph to invent the graphophone which recorded sound on wax cylinders and underpinned the development of the modern record industry.  Along with four others, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association which conducted some of the earliest public flights in North America.

Mabel Bell was a very interesting woman. She was apparently one of the first deaf American children to learn to both speak and lip-read, in several languages, which opened up active participation in society. While she actively supported Bell’s work, including funding some of it, she also maintained her own interests in furthering the education of women and fostering their participation in the intellectual life of the community. Bell, who had migrated from Scotland as a young man, Mabel and their family lived in Baddeck for many years and apparently his descendants still holidayed there in the family home for some time after his death.

On our last evening in Baddeck we enjoyed a seafood dinner together with Brett and Amanda and bade them farewell as they were heading off north to Newfoundland, and we continued our amble through the lake enjoying more stunning anchorages.

On Brett and Amanda’s recommendation we stopped at Iona Port to visit the nearby Highland Village Museum. This is an outdoor living history and folklife museum dedicated to the Gaelic heritage of the area. It comprises 11 historic buildings which trace the journey of the Scots and Irish who migrated here, having been displaced by land clearing carried out by the British to make way for sheep farming.  The first building is a very small stone house in which a typical Gaelic family would have lived before migration.

Subsequent buildings show the development of the houses over the years. There is also a church, a school house, a shingle factory (which still makes shingles) and a wool carding mill (which is still operational). There are people in costume in each house who interact with visitors. The museum also supports special events and programs intended to preserve the language and culture. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours there and were impressed by the commitment to nurture their Gaelic heritage.

Young man in the kitchen of a more modern house, and the post office

The wool carding mill and blacksmith’s shop

While we were at Iona Port we ran into Louis, Phil’s Canadian friend. He was out for a Sunday bike ride and decided to swing by to catch up. Let me tell you there is nothing at Iona Port except a few houses, a church and a post office, but there happens to be a coffee shop at the dock so we spent a very pleasant Sunday morning enjoying coffee and muffins in the sunshine and having a chat with Louis and a couple of locals.

There might be nothing much at Iona Port but the surroundings were stunning

We eventually ended up at St Peter’s at the southern end of the lake. We had entered the lake in the north and wandered in a generally southerly direction to St Peter’s which is where Phil first checked into Nova Scotia. We took a mooring buoy at the marina there and spent a few days doing the usual washing and shopping, and filling with water and diesel. Here I had my first experience of the legendary Nova Scotian fog – I know I was bragging at the start about how fog is rare here but it surely rolled in a couple of afternoons and draped the place in dripping mist, creating a very eerie effect. It didn’t stop the locals from enjoying their afternoon down by the water’s edge though – we saw one group out in shorts thoroughly enjoying themselves having a BBQ and a few drinks. They would have need raincoats to stay dry!

Getting out of the lake and into the ocean will require us to pass under an opening bridge, traverse a canal and pass through a lock. We took the opportunity to go for a walk and see the lock and bridge in operation. The bridge is surprisingly interesting. It pivots 90 degrees on a pylon to allow boats to pass. It was built in situ in the open position and when it was closed for the first time it was only 1 degree out of alignment. How’s that for engineering precision? It’s computerised and everything has to happen in a certain order otherwise the whole thing stops. So for example, the barrier gates won’t go down unless the stop light for the traffic is red. The computer can do a scan of all the systems and identify any errors before they become operational problems. The staff who operate the lock also operate the bridge and drive between the two in an open jeep wearing helmets and looking like characters out of MASH. As all Canadians we have met so far, they are very friendly and were only too happy to talk to us about the bridge’s features.

During our time in the lake area, we were struck by the effort that each settlement put into creating a strong sense of community – small local museums/centres focussing on the biosphere of the lake and local history, free swap libraries, and communal toys at beaches. In summer, there is often free music performances as it’s an area rich in musical tradition. And everyone seems ready for a chat with visitors.

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