Sailing to St Peter’s Bras d’Or Lakes NS Canada

Leaving Inner Louse Harbour

Friday 17 August dawned glassy still and, as we lifted the anchor and headed out of the inner part of Louse Harbour, the tide was quite a lot lower than when we had arrived.  Once again I was extremely grateful that I had fitted the deckwash back in Deltaville, as the mud that came up on the anchor was thick, black and smelly.  Nicky, meanwhile, was concentrating on making sure that we departed along the same line as that we had come in on – and she did, though she commented that with the water so still she had been able to see the ledge across the channel at the narrowest point.

Louse Harbour

It was a beautiful morning for a motor through Louse Harbour, albeit not such a good morning for sailing when we got outside.  However, after a couple of hours there was enough wind to sail goosewinged across the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) that leads towards the Strait of Canso and on towards the St Peter’s Canal.  Part way across the TSS we called up the shipDutch Runner.  Her AIS return showed her to be on sea trials and she was steering a most erratic course and increasing and decreasing speed too.  With the main held out with the preventer and the genoa poled out on the opposite side our ability to manoeuvre to avoid Dutch Runnerwas limited and anyway it was difficult to know how best to alter course to avoid her.  So we called her up on the VHF radio and asked if we were safe to continue on our course and would they avoid us?  The voice that answered was quite happy with this plan and it certainly made us feel better as she continued to meander gently around the channel.

A grey sailing day

Gradually the day became greyer and greyer and about half an hour short of the canal it started to rain.  Not too heavily at first but enough to get everything soaked through by the time we had eventually anchored.

Arriving off the entrance to St Peter’s Lock

We called up the lock-keepers and asked to transit from south to north and they replied that they would make the lock ready to accept us.

Locking through in the rain.  It was all of about a 2 foot drop to get to the level of the Lakes

By the time we arrived off the lock, the gates were open and the lock-keepers were ready for us to enter. It’s a great service.  Free entry/exit any time between 0800 and 1600 seven days a week in August, just call up the lock-keepers and they’ll make it so!  We tied alongside, still in the rain, and Nicky popped into the office to get the details of the opening hours into September as the gates were closed behind us. Then we went down, gently, all of about 2 feet and the gates ahead were opened.  But we were asked to stay on the wall whilst the lock-keepers went to open the swing bridge only a short distance to the north of the lock.

St Peter’s swing bridge, also operated by the lock-keepers

We waited until we had the all clear to move off and did so as fast as we could, conscious that the traffic on the road, though it’s probably not a terribly busy road, was at a standstill until we got through.

View from our position at anchor down towards St Peter’s Lions Club Marina once the rain had passed

It was still raining when we dropped anchor off St Peter’s Marina and it didn’t stop raining until the next day. Even so, it was clear that the Bras d’Or Lakes were going to be an attractive place to sail but we were looking forward to viewing them in the sunshine to have it confirmed!

St Peter’s, Bras d’Or Lakes, NS, Canada