Sailing to Lunenburg NS Canada

Friday 3 August dawned grey, with a hint of fog in the not-so distance.  But all the pilot books say that you have to sail/motor in fog if you expect to cruise in Nova Scotia so we up anchored at 0805….

Can you see the fish farm in the fog bank?  It’s out there somewhere – Nicky saw it just before she took the upper picture

…..hoisted the mainsail on the edge of a low fog bank…..

…and headed off towards Lunenburg as the fog clamped in properly at 0820.

Radar in head-up mode, chart plotter is North-up

We spent the next few hours with the radio’s automatic foghorn blaring keeping a close eye on both the radar and the chart plotter, making sure that the 2 agreed with each other and that we weren’t going to hit either charted land or uncharted vessels or fish-farms.

15 knot fog

By about 1100, the wind had filled in sufficiently to sail, so we switched off the engine, changed the foghorn programme to ‘sailing’ and found that with the DuoGen and the solar panels [Ed: good sunlight from above, just virtually no viz all around!] we had power to spare even if we continued to run the radar constantly; so we did.  As we sailed along in the 15kt fog (always an odd experience being in fog but with a decent breeze blowing) and with our foghorn blaring away every 2 minutes, Nicky made up a ditty as a means of reminding herself of the various fog signals:

Under power I come, sounding one.

Stopped on the blue, then I hoot 2.

Towing, sailing and fishing a bit,

Then I sound DAH-DIT-DIT.

Last in the tow or towed alone,

DAH 3 DITs is my ship’s moan.

Pilots fly the flag HOTEL,

And they sound ‘H’, 4 DITs, as well.

If at anchor my ship sits

For 5 seconds each minute,

I am required to sound a bell

And I may sound DIT-DAH-DIT as well.

When my command is really large

A bell rings forward and a gong booms aft.

But (woe) my ship has gone aground,

Three strikes, ring a bell, 3 strikes must sound.

Learn this rhyme well and one will find

That fog signals come quick to mind!

Bottom:  Rose Point (6nm southeast of Lunenburg)

Happily, after 4 hours the fog lifted and suddenly Cape LaHave Island and the rest of the coast appeared in full view.  This was much better!

Top:  Bluenose II.  Bottom: Police RIB

We were enjoying the view, and the peace and quiet of sailing along without the foghorn blaring every couple of minutes, when we saw ahead of us Bluenose IIsailing along and clearly having just as nice a sail as us.  Also ahead was a small speck which rapidly materialised into a Police RIB.  We waved as they went past but they slowed down, inspected our stern and then came up alongside for a chat.  They asked all about where we had been, where we were going, how long we intended to stay in the country, where we had reported in, etc etc etc  And they asked to see our Reporting Number, so we dug it out of the window and handed it over, which seemed to satisfy them.  Finally, they asked if our boat had ever had any other name, so we explained that she had been ‘Blue Velvet of Dart’ (11 years ago). The officers looked a little bemused and said that they could see the boat on their AIS and it showed the same name as on the stern.  But when they interrogated the system they said that the name came up as ‘Fishing Bay. That totally bemused us; as we told them, no-one else had ever seen anything like that before.  Anyway, we were eventually allowed to go on our way and we headed on to Lunenburg puzzling a little on what the police had said. Later, when we had internet access, we realised that they might have been looking at Marine Traffic which seemed to show BV as still on passage from Fishing Bay, Deltaville (despite our several stops in between and the messages we and others had had from Marine Traffic stating that BV had arrived at wherever).  Clearly, not terribly helpful but also, should you be familiar with Marine Traffic, clearly not actually the boat’s name.  Hopefully the officers on the next police vessel we meet will not have the same trouble with working out BV’s name!

Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and we had a lovely sail up the bay towards it, eagerly anticipating our first sighting of the town.

But, actually, we needed to get pretty close to properly appreciate the attractive harbour with colourful wooded houses tiered up the hillside behind the waterfront.

Lunenburg waterfront.  Top: far left, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic with the Cape Sable (1960’s trawler exhibit, moored outside); middle, Bluenose IIreplica fishing schooner (and Ambassador for Canada)

We found ourselves a suitable space in amongst the moorings, nice and close to the dinghy dock and the heritage area, and dropped anchor in about 6.5m, about where the fishing schooners of yesteryear would have anchored between trips out to the Banks’ fisheries. Eager to wander the town and learn more about its history, and also about the history of Bluenose, we inflated the dinghy in double-quick time and headed ashore for a late afternoon explore.

Lunenburg, NS, Canada