There are far fewer good pictures to provide for this blog than others. My "boatographer" had an "oops". We were anchored in the most spectacular "gunkhole" imaginable (more on that below) when she went to the bow to catch pictures of the beauty. So excited was she that she forgot the cardinal rule of electronics tightly secured (like in a pocket). Splash.
Being the loving, dear, studly, brave, brawny, bold husband I am, I grabbed the googles and overboard I went. Unfortunately, I had done to good a job anchoring and managed to find the only deep spot in the gunkhole. On my best day, I could not free dive 22 feet.
The phone is now with the gods of all electronics having served its useful, but short, life along with so many pictures that were waiting for a wifi connection to back up.
Back on topic
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Leaving the Madeleines (AKA, Mags) was a sad day. We loved it. The place, the people, the waters, and the scenery were all wonderful. Fortunately, we had a nice day for the 84 mile open ocean run to Cape Breton on the Northeast coast of Nova Scotia.
The shoreline of Nova Scotia quickly made us forget our depression of leaving the Mags. Breathtaking. The Northeast coast of Nova Scotia is wide open water and not a place many people go. Even other Loopers doing the DECL don't usually attempt it. Therefore, we got the honor of seeing what very few do.
But our buddy boat, Grand Life got a real special treat. Apparently dolphins LOVE the deep sound of a Yanmar diesel. They tend to "race" the boat.
Don't worry, no dolphins were injured in the making of these movies.
Our gunkhole for the night was a nice place with a funny name (characteristic of Nova Scotia) called Dingwall. There was not a whole lot to talk about other than the miles of pristine red sand beach that Yudee loved to run on. He was one tired pup at the end of the day.
Whales!
The next day was the day we had been hoping for. Most of the pictures were lost with Terri's camera (remember, she is the boatographer), but we recovered some off of text messages she sent. We got into a HUGE pod (maybe several pods) of Pilot whales.
Pilot whales are smaller and really look like big dolphins. At first we thought they were dolphins until one surfaced near the boat and he was almost as big.
They were all around us for almost an hour. They would surface as a pod and linger on the top. Way cool. With the loss of Terri's phone, a lot of these pictures were from me stepping away from the helm and snapping a picture. We kept a safe distance and cut the throttles. For the most part, a zoom was not involved.
And of course, the MONEY SHOT! (This one recovered from Terri)
Not to be outdone, as we headed towards our destination, Bras d'Or Lake, the seals posted and started to sing to us. There were hundreds of them and they were huge.
And for the icing on the cake, the puffins posted as well.
What a great day to be wandering around the North Atlantic in the exact middle of nowhere with miles and miles of freezing water everywhere!
Bras d'Or Lake,
Bras d'Or Lake, is considered a Nova Scotia gem. It is a giant brackish water lake in the middle of the eastern side of the province. But before we get to the Terri phone story, first up was some TLC for the Shorebilly.
She got a clean bill of health and ready for a few thousand more miles.
Surprise Harbor
Guess what? It was Terri's 65th birthday! She is now a "junior senior". We needed a great place to celebrate. When the Shorebilly was out of the water, the extremely friendly service manager suggested we go to Surprise Harbor. It is not in the books because most boats don't fit due to draft. The entrance into it is only ~3 feet. What a nice surprise it was. This was perhaps the prettiest anchorage I have ever seen.
Unfortunately, this was the spot her phone went overboard. So an almost magical evening had a slight sour twist at the end. The best laid plans ....
Halifax
After bouncing around Bras d'Or Lake, for a few days we made the skip to Halifax Nova Scotia. Whereas the docks themselves were absolutely marginal, the town was awesome! For the better part of a mile, the town dock lined the waterfront with booths, shops restaurants, bars, music and more. What made the docks so marginal was that boats, particularly large ferry boats, ran up and down the river until late at night. The city docks are on the river so there was a ton of rocking. But it was so worth it. What a neat place.
So look at the light post above. One is titled "Fallen Down Drunk". The next is titled "Concerned". And the third one in the background is titled "Peeing in the Harbor" and at night it has a fountain that shoots water out of its base. You can click on the images to see them better. Hilarious.
About the Trip Itself
We are now bounding along the southern coast of Nova Scotia. This is big serious water. We have to watch the weather windows carefully and our jumps tend to be big, like 80 - 100 miles at a time. So far, we have been doing well and picking great places to duck into. The last few days we were in Mahone Bay and now in Lunenburg. Both great places. We are moving faster than we planned because we have found great days to move. It would actually be better to hang out more in this lovely country, but our schedule is not entirely our own.
To really capture the essence of the people here, we had the best thing happen yesterday. While out cruising around on the dinghy on Mahone Bay, we "re-met" a couple from the Northern Neck we encountered in Halifax. They were with local friends on their boat. The local friends, Eric and Ruth, immediately invited us to stay at their dock in town for the evening. They could not have been nicer people and their dock was a great place to tie up.
Looking forward, we will make at least two more large jumps to stage us to cross the Bay of Fundy back to the East coast. It is currently undetermined if we will go to Maine or New Brunswick and see the "reversing falls". Apparently, the tide reaches 15 meters (almost 50 feet) in some areas and waterfalls will actually run backwards up a waterfall. A must see if possible, so ... we will see if we can make it.
September 14, 2025 I want to start this article with an apology. If the writing is not properly revealing the beauty and enthusiasm of the trip, it is because we received some bad news. A dear friend of 50 years has fallen ill with some serious issues. Amy, we love you and you are in our thoughts and prayers. Dear Lord, please help this wonderful woman. Belfast Maine I completed the last article from a marina in Belfast, Maine. Little did I understand that after hitting the publish button, the best part of Belfast was going to reveal itself. Pre-trip expectations were that the seafood would be fresh, abundant and affordable. For the most part, it was fresh and abundant, so much so that we started looking for menus with a good old fashion chicken sandwich or quesadilla instead of Lobster this and Lobster that. The challenge became on the affordable front. A Lobster roll was anywhere from $25 to $40 and only contained 4oz o...
August 29, 2025 Crossing the Bay of Fundy Our crossing back to the East Coast required a 105 mile open water run from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. The path was straight across the mouth of the Bay of Fundy where it meets the Gulf of Maine. These are notoriously rough waters with a reputation for some of the stronger currents in the world. The tide changes in the Bay can reach 22 feet or more. We picked well on the weather window only encountering an odd rough patch in the middle. My assumption is that the currents were somehow colliding to create a 15ish mile stretch of hell. The Shorebilly ran through it just fine; uncomfortable ... but fine. Our buddy boat, Faith, was trailing behind us and said "We leaned so far over that we didn't think it was going to come back. Scared the bejeasus out of us." But the crossing wasn't without it's rewards. More WHALES! The boat I mentioned above, Faith, was abl...
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