Sailing to Indian Harbour NS Canada

Through Taylor Island Passage

We left Dover West at about lunchtime on Tuesday 4 September and, for entertainment value, since we were heading west and it was a lovely calm day with virtually no swell, we decided to take the passage that runs between Taylor and Indian Islands and the mainland shore.  In terms of distance this is a short-cut compared to leaving Dover West by the main entrance and then routing outside the islands.  However, the main route is in clear deep water, so pushing on at 6kts is not an issue.  The inshore passage is very shallow and narrow and runs extremely close to rocks and islands on both sides.  It is most definitely not a route to take at speed!

Let’s hope there’s enough water……

But it was great fun.  As we lined up to go through the narrowest part of the passage (between the mainland shore and Indian Island, a gap about 30m wide) we both wondered aloud whether we had done the tidal rise calculations correctly…

……there was!

….Fortunately, we had!  But the passage isn’t very deep – perhaps only 1.9m at chart datum so we did need to do the sums!  More interesting is the fact that the exit route, on the outside of Indian Island, is also quite shallow, perhaps 3.3m above datum.  With any swell that could quite quickly become rather too interesting!  As the pilot book says ‘A truly lovely passage showing the ruggedness this coast has to offer....[to] be avoided if there is any sea running.’

Peggy’s Cove from seaward

From there we headed west and then northwest along the coast towards Indian Harbour, on the shore of which Russ and his family had taken a holiday cottage.  On the way we passed Peggy’s Cove, a very well-known and attractive cove, which gets mobbed by holidaymakers in season.  The harbour here is very small and, whilst it is technically possible to enter in a boat the size of BV, it is not recommended.  But we thought that we would take a close-ish look at the place to try to see what all the fuss is about.

Peggy’s Cove

It certainly seems to be a most attractive place.  One for a visit by land, perhaps.

Approaching Indian Harbour – Paddy Head Island Light

Indian Harbour is a surprisingly well-marked cove with a few houses around the shores and a lovely sheltered anchorage with a couple of moorings in it in a pool to the north of Paddy Head Island Light.  This pool has fabulous protection from all but the south, though, if there’s a big swell running from the southwest something will work its way in, but it won’t be significant.

Indian Harbour – (top left) entering the harbour; (other pics) views from our anchorage

On the eastern side of the cove are, apparently, the remains of Government dock but by all accounts that has all but disappeared now.  And, presumably that’s the reason for the well-marked entrance because there seemed few enough other reasons for such good buoyage.

Indian Harbour – views from our anchorage.  Russ’ holiday house is
on the coastline shown on the bottom photo

With the anchor dug in and BV settled for a couple of days, we inflated the dinghy and whizzed across the harbour to the beach off the house where Russ and his family were staying.  That first day we left the dinghy on the rocky shore which made for an interesting relaunching later (in the dark) after the tide had receded!

The evening view towards BV at anchor (and yes, though you can’t see it in this picture, we did leave her anchor light on!)

After a slight scramble across the beach – the warning bells should have been ringing – we reached the holiday cottage and met up with Russ, Elizabeth and their extended family.  We had a lovely evening, meeting them all, chatting, catching up and enjoying a fun holiday atmosphere, including drinks around a beachcomber’s fire on the shore watching the sun set.  Fabulous!

Indian Harbour, NS, Canada