Westport NS Canada

The first indications of dawn at our anchorage in the outer part of Yarmouth

It was a cold and early start from Yarmouth, NS on Sunday 9 September.  The alarm went off at 0545hrs and we had the engine on at 0620hrs, with the aim of catching (nearly) the first of the north-going tide to get to Westport on Brier Island.  With sunrise at 0645, as we left we could just make out the edges of the bay in which we had anchored in the dark the previous night and the dawn was beautiful too.

Just like sailing in the English Channel – working the tides and wearing lots of kit to stay warm!

By 0715hr we were well clear of Yarmouth and had full sail set, hard on the wind, heading in the general direction of Brier Island.  The wind, forecast to be from the northeast, was a little bit more northerly, so we couldn’t quite lay our destination and had to put in a couple of tacks.  Not only was it early but it was also jolly chilly. Autumn has definitely arrived and we needed warm hats, thick gloves and decent windproofs for stints on the helm. On the other hand, the person sitting in the shelter of the sprayhood, was toasty warm in the sunshine and out of the breeze.

Entering the channel between Brier Island, NS and Long Island, NS.  (Top) Arriving, just after getting the sails down.  (Bottom) Two views of the Peter Island light (left) from the southwest (right) from the north, almost through the main tidal race

Getting detailed tidal stream data of this area seems to be difficult.  In Halifax Nicky had bought the Canadian Hydrographic Service tidal atlas for Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy, within which the big picture tidal flows are clearly shown.  So, with the tide in the main body of the Bay of Fundy still flowing north and east, we had assumed that the tidal flow through the channel between Brier and Long Islands would be in a northerly direction when we arrived.  Not so.  We arrived off the southern entrance to the channel, about 45minutes after high water at Eastport.  By the time we had the sails down and were making our way in through to the east of Peter Island (the small island in the middle of the entrance) the tide was flooding out at 2 knots, and increasing.  It took us 20mins to fight our way from the position at which I took the bottom left hand picture above, to the position at which I took the bottom right hand picture above, a distance of about ¾nm, and the tidal had increased by about a knot in that time.  Coming from Guernsey, we’re used to strong tidal flows and big tide ranges and but the lack of detail in the tidal atlas for the Westport channel meant that we were on the back foot somewhat.  It all felt a bit amateurish given that we had wanted to arrive at, or around, slack water.

Westport Harbour just after high water – one floating pontoon filled with fishing boats (rafted up to 3 deep) and the search and rescue vessel, and the west side of the harbour dries

We got past the area of strongest tidal flow and made our way, still rather crabwise, across to Westport harbour. Our pilot book suggests that it is possible to tie up alongside a fishing boat in here but it looked rather full alongside the floating pontoon (the fishing vessels were rafted 2 and 3 deep) and the west side of the harbour dries.  We decided to have a look at anchoring close to the fishermen’s moorings just to the southwest of the harbour, close to the fish farm.  The pilot book talks of a contributor anchoring here in the past and finding good holding, out of the main tidal flow. That as maybe but now the moorings take up all the space where one could have anchored.  One, in particular, was just exactly in ‘our’ anchoring space, how inconsiderate!  With a 5.6m range (a little less than that in Guernsey) and thus an enforced starting depth of about 9m and an unknown tidal flow through the area, we really wanted to put out at least 40m of chain but there just wasn’t enough space.  So we decided to pick up one of the moorings and stay on board.  The pick-up buoys on the first mooring we looked at (the one that was just where we really wanted to drop our anchor) were so tangled around the riser that I couldn’t get a line on.  So, Nicky motored us across to a very smart, very large buoy which was extremely close to the fish farm but just far enough away to be OK.  It had a large ring on top through which I threaded 2 lines. Interestingly, in amongst the moorings the tidal flow was opposite to that in the main channel and, with the wind against the tide, BV sat right up on the buoy, rubbing against it.  We were in danger of the buoy scratching the paint to shreds, so I pulled the mooring lines tight so that BV sat with her bow on the buoy but with the paintwork protected from rubbing by the bow protector mat that we use when anchoring (to save her from dinks from a swinging anchor) and when mooring in this sort of situation.

Moored next to the fish farm

It was a beautiful afternoon and, since we were on someone-else’s mooring we stayed on board and just enjoyed the view, whilst we read, did some chores and started to try to catch up with the blog.  A fishing farm boat came out and spent several hours spraying pellets into all the fish farm enclosures, much to the delight of the local seagull population, and periodically Nicky peered through binoculars at the tidal flow in the channel to try to work out at what time slack water would occur – important for timing our departure the following morning.

Minke (?) whale close to our mooring

Part way through the afternoon we were treated to a visit by a Minke whale (we think!).  It didn’t come very close and it didn’t spend much time nearby but it was there long enough for me to get some pictures (we identified it afterwards from comparing the photos of its dive sequence with pictures in a book we have) and for us to have a good enough view.  Our first big whale close up.  Wow!

Low tide, evening light and a whole new view compared to when we arrived

Low tide was at 1735hrs and by that time Nicky had confirmed that the tidal flow was relatively slack from about 1½hrs before LW until about ½hr after LW.  Since we didn’t want to end up being squirted out of the northern end of the channel in an uncontrolled manner the next morning, that meant that we would need to be up and off before 0600hrs.  Ouch! The joys of working in a very tidal environment!  But the evening light was lovely and the scenery very different from when we had arrived (we’d gone down 5.6m, about 18ft, so there was a lot more land and seaweed on view) and our tidal eddy was now operating in the other direction (still in opposition to the main tidal flow and rather stronger on the flood than on the ebb).  It was a glorious evening to enjoy sundowners in the cockpit.  Tides, whales and great scenery, what more could you want?

Westport, NS, Canada