La Have River NS Canada

Autumn is starting to set in – no more shorts and T-shirts sailing!  But it was a good sail, even if it was all upwind

We’d had a lovely couple of days with Russ and his family but it was time to move on, even if, as we had known would be the case, the wind was against us.  We had said that we’d be off around 0700 but actually it was nearer 0800 on Thursday 6 September when we got the engine going and lifted the anchor. Though the wind was blowing at about 15kts from the southwest, little in the way of sea was getting into Indian Harbour; the protection inside is far greater than is apparent from the charts.

Bashing to windward

Over the next eight hours we bashed to windward with a reef in the main, full staysail and variable amounts of genoa depending on how strong the wind was (20-25knots acros the deck).  Autumn’s most definitely on the way and whilst we have sailed in similar winds in the Caribbean and, indeed, further north in Nova Scotia in shorts and T-shirts, this passage was definitely cooler.  What was nice was that the sea state was slight which helped BV keep up a good speed.

Approaching the entrance to Le Have River

We considered stopping early and going into Lunenburg but we had been there before and Bill and Lydia had recommended a stop at La Have.  Also, stopping at Lunenburg would have meant a longer passage to Shelburne the next day …… and the weather wasn’t thatbad…  So we took the route round the outside of West Ironbound Island (the passage between the island and the mainland shore has only 4-7m and we reckoned that the seas would be jolly unpleasant there) and then bore away to the entrance to the La Have River.

At anchor off Riverport at the bottom end of the La Have River

Once inside the islands off the entrance to the La Have River the seas calmed down even more and, off the wind, we made great progress to the river entrance itself.  There may have been a more convenient suitable anchorage amongst the islands but we decided to stop off Richmond, which is a small village alongside a shallow bay just up from the river entrance.  We found it to be yet another place in Nova Scotia where there is great protection, attractive scenery and virtually no other yachts.  If this were the south coast of England, or southern New England, the place would have been rammed with moorings, motorboats and sailing yachts.  As it was, we had the place virtually to ourselves and had a wonderfully peaceful night’s sleep after a fun day’s sail.

La Have River, NS, Canada