Baddeck Bras d’Or Lake NS Canada

We’d had a lovely stay In Denys’ Bay but by Wednesday 22 August we felt that we should move on to Baddeck at the north end of the Bras d’Or Lakes.  Getting out of the maze of waterways should have been as simple as following our chartplotter’s ‘snail trail’ of the route in.  Unfortunately I cut one corner just a little bit too fine and we went firmly, if squishily, aground on some of the Lakes’ finest ooze.  There’s virtually no tide in the Bras d’Or Lakes so things were a little fraught as putting the engine into reverse didn’t make much of an impact on how firmly BV was embedded in the mud.  Happily, the wind was partly in our favour, so we were able to unroll the genoa and use that to slew BV’s bow off towards deeper water.  That combined with a good blast of astern revs got us off the mud.  [Ed: there’s a moral in there somewhere about not getting distracted!]

Clear of the mud and en-route to the Barra Straits’ Bridge

After taking a slightly more circumspect approach to the rest of the waterways between Denys’ Basin and the main body of the lake, we arrived at open water and headed towards the Barra Straits’ Bridge.

Barra Straits’ Bridge.  Top left:  Jazz II approaching the bridge.  Top right:  the road bridge fully open.  Bottom left: the railway bridge, which is never normally closed

We arrived off the bridge at about the same time as another yacht, Jazz II, and so went through in convoy. Amazingly, like the St Peter’s Canal lock, the bridge opens on demand in the sailing season, so getting through was really easy.

With the bridge behind us and cheerful hellos and thank-yous exchanged with the bridge-keeper we set sail for the final 12nm to Baddeck.

There wasn’t vast amounts of wind but there was enough and there was another yacht to race…..

Entering Baddeck Harbour

Unfortunately, Jazz II stopped at Maskell’s Bay, only a couple of miles up from the bridge, so we had no company for most of the leg to Baddeck.  When we arrived at the town it was clear that most of the anchorage area was filled with moorings, but there was plenty of space to the north of the moorings, between them and the lighthouse, so we dropped anchor there, launched the dinghy and headed ashore.

Baddeck is a surprisingly large town, primarily geared to tourists visiting the Bras d’Or Lakes. Nevertheless, we found a good-sized Co-Op (though the Sobeys in St Peter’s is better and has an adjacent liquor store), a hardware store, a laundrette and, best of all, a good ice-cream shop.  We spent the end of the afternoon in an enjoyable wander around the town, getting our bearings, enjoying the views across the lake and recce-ing the Alexander Graham Bell museum for a visit the next day.

Baddeck, Bras d’Or Lake, NS, Canada