....our first trip of the year! Sadly no one came out to join us but regardless, we had a great weekend.

We motored out in the wet and cold on Friday night and after an initial struggle with remembering how to anchor we go a good pick in and then got the furnaces going. We decided to make an early night of it and BBQed some bratwurst for dinner and crawled into the bunk.

The next day dawned bright and sunny so we piled into the dingy and rowed ashore with poor old Peri dancing from paw to paw in his eagerness to find a tree to cock a leg up against. Barb had never been ashore before and it has been a while since I had so it was pretty much a major explore and a lot of new stuff to see. If you go out to the photo gallery and look at the "Hiatus on the Hard" folder, then click on the Gunkhole folder, and finally click on McNutt's Gunkhole you will see some of the photos that we took.

The whole place is pretty neat. At the present time the residences are all summer places although there is one place that, until a couple of years ago, and American couple were staying in year round and had fixed it up with a wind generator and solar panels to allow them electric power etc. Some of the other residents keep free range sheep on the island which accounts for one of the sign that greet you after you disembark at the government wharf - "Leash Your Dogs. The Sheep Are Armed".

It is a seven kilometer walk to the lighthouse so we didn't go that far but we did stroll along as far as a farm that was recently renovated by an American couple named Hyde. For about five years they were the only year round residents on the island, then they were essentially foreclosed on and the property reverted to the original owner who held the mortgage. Now there are only seasonal residents on the island. There are pictures of their place in the photo gallery.

The original resident of McNutt's Island was the guy the place is named after Col Alexander McNutt of the British Army. He was there from 1760 and I can only imagine what his descendants were thinking when the Port Roseway Associates ships sailed in past their place in 1783.

"I say, old girl. Do come and look at this. I wonder where they're going."

"Don't you remember, Dear?" his wife would respond. "The Governor has granted some loyalist land at the head of the harbour."

"Yes, m'love. But up there? Chap Micmac won't be happy with that. Whatever are they thinking? And look! Half of them are in wigs and ruffles. That won't help the first time they have to swing an axe!"

Besides imagining what the early settlers would be thinking there were lots of other things to do. Beachcombing is always fun, at least for us. Barb was picking up small bits of driftwood for her crafts and I found the upper jaw of a seal and purely by accident Barb found what must be half of the lower jaw. Always interesting things to be discovered on a beach.

Other than the walks on the beach we had a lazy day culminating in a BBQ dinner and an early night. It is always great to be confident in the anchor's holding when you put your head down for a snooze and as the wind had piped up to gusting to 40 kph during the day and we didn't budge I was confident in the hold when it dropped down to 10-20 kph at night.

Sunday we had another stroll on the beach and then back to the club. We were a little disappointed in the lack of interest from other folks in joining us but as they only has 3 racers on the Saturday race I guess we weren't the only ones disappointed. Next weekend we are planning a trip to Cape Negro Island blight and perhaps this may interest more. If not we will still have a nice weekend if the weather will allow it.