One of the things that Barb and I treat ourselves to, just so that we won’t get totally frustrated with progress or the lack of it on the house, is the occasional side trip by car to explore our new environs. Today we drove out the back roads to Baccaro Point. This is a place that as boaties we have heard of numerous times as part of the marine weather forecast and as a member of the staff of Joint Task Force Atlantic I knew that part of the coastal watch included a powerful radar facility located out on the point. Although we have sailed past it numerous times this was the first time that we had seen it let alone be able to stand right up beside it. It’s amazing that technology will now allow facilities like this to be operated essentially unmanned whereas as little as 20 years ago there would have been a garrison of techies stationed here to operate and maintain it.

However, for me the best part of the morning was the drive along the coastal road to arrive there. As we went along I kept looking out at the water and realized that here was some prime cruising ground that almost no one takes advantage of. Granted there are some significant tidal ranges which makes anchoring more of a challenge and those same tides can in some places create up to two knots of current, but from where I was able to see, there were numerous little bays and islands that you could tuck in behind and as long as there was enough rode there shouldn’t really be any problem in anchoring. It’s just that in water that is 10’ at low tide, given the 20’ tidal range, you would still need over 120’ of rode out. The rewards of cruising in relatively pristine, unspoiled, uncluttered cruising grounds would be worth it. Once Nelleke has her shaft back in and she is back in the water, I plan to bring her around to cruise and explore here. Even if things are too late for this year we can always make that our summer cruising plan for next year before we head back south again. Peter Loveridge’s book A Cruising Guide to Nova Scotia had some nice sections in it about this part of the coast, after all he comes from around here, but that book is out of date and out of print so if you want to buy one it is liable to cost over $100 even for a used book!

The other day Barb and I treated ourselves to a new toy – an image stabilized 30-350 mm lens for my camera. We had hoped that it would fit on hers as well but after we got it home it turned out that her camera wouldn’t accept it. Not to mind. She can always use my camera when the urge strikes. Essentially it has given us a zoom telephoto capability which, when combined with my tripod, will allow us to take some much better and clearer wildlife photos that we have been able to up to now. We tried it out for the first time today and some of the shots in the photo gallery and the one on today’s post were all done with that lens.

Oh. The other thing that has happened since my last post is that I went to a writer’s workshop. There were three offered, Poetry, The Spoken Word, and the one that I took – Life into Fiction facilitated by a lady named Valerie Mason-John (aka Queenie). As my very first writing workshop it was pretty good and I found it to be really interesting both the facilitator and the other attendees. It’s remarkable the number of folk that are also interested in pursuing a writer’s vocation many of whom are pretty good. Valery gave me some excellent advice regarding getting an agent and subject material so I have some projects for this winter on the hard.

It does look as if it might be as long as a month before the Lunenburg Foundry finishes work on our shaft so in the meanwhile we will be emptying the fridge and freezer aboard and turning them off to give the batteries a bit of a rest and as well to reduce our worry factor if the power goes off.

Sigh.

Looks like minimal cruising this year although if we get things back in the water in time September can be a nice month for short trip gunkholing.