The Liscomb River Trail has two excellent features. The first is a suspension bridge overlooking a waterfall where you can cross the river and return on the other side, and the second is an excellent restaurant at the head to enjoy a drink or a meal after the hike. From Guysborough we passed through Canso…
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Guysborough
One of our reasons for stopping at Guysborough was to visit the award-winning Rare Bird Brewpub, one of Nova Scotia’s many excellent craft breweries. After passing through the narrow entrance channel, we found good anchorage in Guysborough Harbour just off the pub and the public dock. We of course stopped in at the Rare Bird…
St. Peters Canal
St. Peters Canal, built in 1869, connects the south end of Bras d’Or Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. In most locks, the water flow is unidirectional, with one side always being higher than the other. The typical doors close into the shape of a ‘V’, with the point of the ‘V’ oriented upstream. But Bras…
Marble Mountain
A marble quarry operated at Marble Mountain between 1888 and 1921. When the mine was in operation, several hundred people lived in the area and Marble Mountain was one of the most prosperous towns in Cape Breton. The old quarry dominates the scenery here and has several good viewpoints back into the bay. Trip highlights…
Malagawatch Harbour
In the late 1800s, locals built a canal between Malagawatch Harbour to Denys Basin. Via a portage from Little Harbour into Malagawatch Harbour and then through the canal into Denys Basin this safer route took 20 miles off the trip between Marble Mountain and Orangedale. The canal was 1,000 ft long, 17 ft wide and…
Through Barra Strait
From the Washabuck River we travelled south through the Barra Strait to spend a couple of days in and around Denys Basin. The current can reach several knots in the Barra Strait narrows, so we left the anchorage at Washabuck River to time our arrival for slack water mid-tide. The Grand Narrows Railway bridge in…
Washabuck River
We’d never seen flocks of eagles before, but that was practically the scene at Indian Island at the head of Wyhcocomagh Bay. We anchored in the pristine Washabuck River and ran the tender twenty-five miles up Wyhcocomagh Bay. As we rounded the southwest point of Indian Island, we saw an eagle in a tree, then…
Sydney
Despite 1) falling rain, 2) a forecast for thunderstorms, 3) an exposed run through the edge of the North Atlantic 4) uncertainty about anywhere to land the tender, and 5) a potentially difficult re-entry to Little Bras d’Or channel into a strong ebb current against a freshening northerly wind, the shorter and admittedly slightly more…
Baddeck
Baddeck is the largest town on the Bras d’Or Lakes and is famous for once being home to inventor Alexander Graham Bell. We very much enjoyed this traditional maritime town with its strong Scottish heritage and the excellent Alexander Graham Bell museum. Trip highlights from August 30th and 31st follow. Click any image for a…
Newfoundland to Nova Scotia
From Newfoundland we made a 150-nm, 24-hour passage to Bras d’Or Lake in Nova Scotia. In addition to looking for a good weather forecast for the run across Laurentian Channel between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, we also needed to time our arrival at the entrance channel, Great Bras d’Or. The current at the narrow north…
