18 Sep 15

The Admirals wanted to get to somewhere where we could take showers - i.e., Yarmouth - so we pulled the anchor at 08:45, waved goodbye to “Agapes” and motored to Yarmouth with the flood tide in light airs. We passed through the very narrow and rock-strewn Cockerwit and Schooner Passages, the latter of which was made more interesting by the thick fog (i.e., visibility down to about 100m) that settled down on us just before we reached the entrance. But the chart plotter was accurate, the fog signal at Pasko Island was working and the entrance buoys were right where they were supposed to be. So, other than a quickening of heart rate, the passage was without issue or concern. We tied up at Killam Brothers Marina at 13:45 and went immediately to enjoy hot showers, the first since Sunday morning. Afterward, we walked around town a bit, toured the County Museum, then went for happy hour and dinner at Rudders; happy hour was fine (they brew a fine beer), but dinner was a “less than sterling” culinary experience.  Back to the boat later for more Settlers of Catan.

43-50.195’N, 066-07.388’W

19 Sep 15

I switched propane bottles, with the intent of refilling one bottle whilst in Yarmouth, and detected a leak in the delivery hose between the bottle and the regulator; one more chore to attend to. We rented a car (pickup, actually, since that was all they had left), stopped at the local RV supply store and bought a new propane hose and went for a drive around the west coast. First, we stopped at the beautiful beach at Cape St. Mary’s just after low tide. Then, we went on up the coast and had lunch at a greasy spoon diner in Meteghan. Finally, we made it up to Annapolis Royal, NS and spent the rest of the afternoon touring the various town museums and shops, finishing with a visit to the Annapolis Basin water power plant, where they capture the tide, as it rises, behind a barrier and then generate power for about 6 hours while it flows out through a 33 ft diameter turbine; really cool. Then, we loaded back in the truck and drove back to Yarmouth in time for dinner at MacKinnon-Cann Historical Bed & Breakfast; very nice. John and Laurie got packed up and we all crashed about midnight, although the wind was getting up from the south and the little wavelets it generated were slapping up under the counter annoyingly.

20 Sep 15

Sometime around 05:00, we could no longer stand the wave slapping under the counter and got up and turned the boat around, which was much quieter and allowed us another hour of sleep. Then we were up at 07:00 to head back up to Digby, so John & Laurie could catch the ferry to St. John, NB for their flight back to Vancouver. After we loaded them on the ferry at 10:30, we drove south down the Digby Neck, crossed over to Long Island by car ferry at Petit Passage and visited the Balancing Rock park; this is a basalt outcrop on the SE coast of Long Island and is very spectacular, although we could see little of it because of the pea-soup fog. After a nice hike to the rock, we drove back up Digby Neck and on to Bear River, which is an old “frontier” boat-building town-turned-artist enclave on a tidal river about 5 miles up the Bear River from the Annapolis Basin. Many of the old buildings still standing are built out over the river on stilts. We were pretty much run in after this and drove back to Yarmouth for a quick grocery shop. When we got back to the boat, the wind, as predicted, had gone around to the north and wavelets were again slapping under the counter, so we turned the boat back around. After happy hour and dinner aboard we called it an early night.  ZZZZZ

21 Sep 15

Before turning the truck in, I went to refill the spare propane bottle, only to find that it was 10 years old and thus needing to be pressure tested and re-stamped; but that will take a week here as it has to be sent to the north end of Nova Scotia to be tested. So, it will have to wait until we get back to the States somewhere. Even though it was a beautiful day, we needed a “chore” day: the Admiral did the laundry and I spent most of the day searching for a boatyard where we can lay-up for the winter, searching for a replacement holding tank and planning our next few days of travel across the Bay of Fundy. Just before HW, we moved over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. Then, it was time for happy hour and a quiet dinner aboard. Tomorrow, the plan is to head the 34 N-m to Westport on Brier Island (boyhood home of Joshua Slocum). We thought about going all the way to Grand Manan (67 N-m), but as we are affected very much by tides, the optimal arrival time at Grand Manan is 18:45, which is only 40 minutes before dark; I’m nervous about going that distance and arriving at an unfamiliar port with that little margin for error in hand.