St Peter’s Bras d’Or Lake NS Canada

Leaving Johnstown Harbour

Johnstown Harbour was a pleasant overnight stop but we felt that we should move on to St Peter’s and so at 9am on Monday 27 August we raised the anchor and headed out of the narrow entrance.

From Johnstown Harbour to St Peter’s is just 12nm but it’s mostly along a winding passage between wooded islands and with less than 5 knots of wind the only sensible option was to motor.  Whilst we didn’t get to sail, we did get a tank of hot water and fully charged batteries out of the passage.

Anchored off St Peter’s again

By 11am we were alongside the fuelling pontoon at St Peter’s.  We were in no way short of fuel but it seemed sensible to completely fill our tanks because it was easy to do so here and we wanted to fill up with fresh water.  Once BV was brimming, we moved out to anchor a little way away from the moorings and set about catching up on emails and some home admin.

Monday evening was very quiet in the anchorage and the settled weather, with no wind, was set to continue for a few days.  So, instead of motoring all the way to Halifax, we decided to stay at St Peter’s ticking off some maintenance chores until the wind came again.

Tuesday was washing day and St Peter’s marina has an excellent array of washers and driers for use at a very reasonable cost.  Whilst Nicky was ashore battling with the washing machines she met up with Marylou on sailing yacht Kiviuq, also an OCC member.  Kiviuqis a sturdy aluminium yacht which Alan and Marylou had arranged to have built and which then they fitted out themselves with some help from some craftsmen.  They had just returned from exploring Newfoundland, where we hope to visit next year, and so Nicky invited them on board BV for drinks in the evening so that we could hear about their experiences there.

Left back aboard BV, I started pulling bolts.  We had one on the starboard forward lower shroud, one on the backstay bracket, some on the generator exhaust and some on one of the running backstays that had all started to ‘bleed’ rust marks onto the deck.  Clearly, they had lost their seal and needed to be pulled, checked, cleaned up and then bedded down in fresh sealant.  Sorting out the forward lowers bolt was a mammoth task which involved pulling apart the drinks cabinet to get access to the nut.  It took most of the morning to do that and get the bolt out and then only about 20 minutes to clean it all up, check it wasn’t pitted and then seal it back down.  I still had time before Alan and Maryou arrived to get the generator exhaust bolts and the running backstay bolts sorted out but the backstay bolt had to wait for the next morning.

Linde(L) and Grace of Longstone (R)

During the evening, as well as learning a little about Alan and Marylou’s 6 year ‘retirement project’ to build Kiviuq, we also heard that they had sailed along the south coast of Newfoundland at about the same time as a Dutch yacht Lindeand a British yacht Grace of Longstone.  Hans and Clara had arrived in the anchorage on board Lindelate in the afternoon and Helen and David arrived and anchored Graceas we were hosting Marylou and David. When I ran them back to Kiviuqwe stopped by Grace to say hello.  Unsurprisingly, it turned out that we were all in St Peter’s waiting for the northerly wind to move us on to Halifax.

Resewing the top seams on the sail cover where the thread had been weakened by sunlight

Amongst other things, Wednesday was sewing day.  The sunlight had weakened the stitching on the sail cover and I wanted to sew some small anti-chaff patches onto the bimini where the running backstays sometimes touch. Digging the sewing machine out from the back of the machinery space, setting everything up and attending to those tasks, as well as giving a couple of the saloon cushions some attention, somehow made the day disappear.

Drinks on board Kiviuq. (L to R) Colin (Pelerin), Dave (Grace), Nicky, Lou (Pelerin), Marylou (Kiviuq), Helen (Grace) and Alan (Kiviuq).  Hans and Clara (Linde) had left a little earlier

It wasn’t all chores though.  Pelerinhad also arrived in the anchorage (we’d said hello to them briefly in Maskell’s Bay) and now, with 4 OCC yachts in St Peter's, Alan and Marylou decided that was a good enough excuse to host a party on board Kiviuq.  So, that evening, as well as getting to see Kiviuq, we also got to properly meet Dave and Helen (Grace of Longstone), Colin and Lou (Pelerin) and Hans and Clara (Linde), [Ed: unfortunately, Hans and Clara left before the photo was taken].  A great time was had by all and, from what we heard from everyone, we are certainly aiming to take BV further north to Newfoundland next year.

Passing through the swing bridge and on towards the lock…

… and on the way dodging a swimmer in the canal!

Hans and Clara (Linde) had left the party early because they wanted a good night’s sleep as they planned to depart for Halifax on Thursday, sailing overnight to arrive on the Friday.  For the rest of us, Thursday’s weather forecast confirmed that Friday was likely to be the better sailing day.  In anticipation, Pelerin,Graceand BV went through the St Peter’s lock so that we would be ready on the other side to leave before the first lock opening

As we passed through we had expected to avoid some opposite way marine traffic, but not to have to dodge a friendly Canadian taking his afternoon swimming exercise.  I’m sure back home there would have been a boring regulation forbidding swimming or other fun activities in the canal!

Main Street

With all 3 yachts securely moored up on the other side of the lock, we had some time to kill so Nicky and I took a walk.  We followed a footpath which runs along the shore of St Peter’s Bay but cut off it early (it runs for about 3km along the bay) up into the town so that we could get an ice-cream.

Ice-creams melting, we wandered back to the canal and then along to the lock, reading the information boards as we went.  These explained how the early French settlers had arrived here in 1650, repaired an old Portuguese defensive fort (San Pedro) and to set up a trading post.  It was already a busy place having served for a thousand years as a portage and meeting place for the native Mi’kmaq and their ancestors and so Saint-Pierre became a trading and liaison location between the two cultures.  The Mi’kmaq had always carried their lightweight canoes over land along the line of the canal to get access to the Bras d’Or Lake from the Atlantic side. Immediately seeing the advantages of that short-cut, the European settlers built a haulover road so that oxen could drag their heavier-weight boats along the same short-cut.  Useful as that was, it was inefficient and so eventually, in 1869, the desire to get larger vessels into the lake here led to the cutting of the canal and the creation of the lock.

The original canal was widened to its current size in 1917.  It’s more than wide enough for us but every now and then they do get some larger commercial vessels through, which must be a bit of a squeeze.  Had one of these larger vessels been booked to go through the canal we might not have been permitted to wait alongside the dock. But, as it was, there were no planned ship movements so there were no problems with a small fleet of yachts waiting alongside the dock overnight ready for an early morning departure towards Halifax.

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