Back in the USA

We weathered the remnants of tropical storm "Danny" while in St. Peter's, Cape Breton. It was no big deal compared to "Bill" the week before, still, we had some significant wind for a few hours. We let the sea settle down before heading for Sambro on Monday, August 31. Sambro is a small harbor south west of Halifax. The wind was perfect until about 10pm when it quit requiring us to motor through the night. The moon was almost full so we had great visibility.

Our progress was so good we decided to bypass Sambro and keep going to Lunenberg, NS one of our favorite places. We picked up a mooring and enjoyed the great view of the harbor before heading off to our favorite bar in Nova Scotia, the "Knot Pub." It felt almost like going home. The fish and chips dinner and the scallops were as good as we remembered from before.

We contemplated staying there another day because the wind was going to be against us but decided to push on anyway to Port Mouton. However, after thrashing about for a few hours in opposing wind and seas, we changed plans and headed into the LaHave River. We'd heard good things about the area, so it was not a hard decision to make.

One thing local cruisers and guide books rave about is the LaHave Bakery. Not only do they have great baked goods, but they have moorings as well. This was our destination. You can't miss the bakery as it's on the water and has the name painted on in very large, block letters. The moorings were harder to locate. The one that we initally tried seemed way too small, so we dropped it and headed towards some larger ones that were just a stone's throw away. After picking one up, we relaxed in the cockpit for a few hours before heading over to the bakery's wharf in our dinghy. We had only gone a few yards when we saw a man on a dock off of a nearby house, waving his arms to get our attention. We figured we were on his mooring.

"Welcome. My name is Grant. Would you like to tie up your dinghy to our dock? Want showers? Can I take your garbage for you?" It was like Newfoundland hospitality all over again.

He went on to say the mooring was not the bakery's but that the owner hadn't used it all year so, sure, go ahead and stay there. Then Donna, his wife, came out to greet us as well. Grant and Donna are cruisers who recently retired and moved from Halifax to their new home on the river. They invited us to come back after our visit to the bakery and our walk around town.

We bought some bread at the bakery and left it there so we could walk unencumbered and pick it up upon our return. Nearby we found a an historical site and museum commemorating the original French settlement. After reading all the information plaques, we sat on a bench to stare out at the river. Within a few minutes an older gentleman walked up and started chatting about the history of the place, why we should move to LaHave, US health care reform, world-wide food shortages, the Clans in Scotland and on and on concerning a wide variety of topics. Although he was very pleasant and interesting, we were rather tired and concerned that the bakery would be closed before we got back to pick up our bread.

We finally made our move to leave. He, it turned out, was headed in the same direction. So, we chatted and chatted some more while walking. We left him at the post office--his destination--and continued on to ours. The lady at the bakery said she wondered if we had walked to Halifax as we were gone so long. "No, we just ran into a very talkative guy at the park" I said. "Was he wearing boots and shorts?" she asked. "No, but he was Scottish." Then she described someone else that did not fit the bill and noted that there are quite a few long talkers in town.

We got back to Grant and Donna's house and planned to just say thanks and move on. However, they invited us in for drinks and to talk about our recent cruising adventure. We thought that sounded like a fine idea. Their house is right on the water with a beautiful view of the La Have River. They had just moved in a few weeks prior and were planning to cruise on their sailboat, Mr. Bill in the coming years, so they were eager to chat about boats and destinations. It turned out Donna was from Newfoundland, so we felt right at home. We thoroughly enjoyed the several hours we spent there and will definately look them up again the next time we pass through.

The following day, the wind was still against us but we did manage to make it to Port Mouton. Mary T was thoroughly coverd with salt from all the spray we took. Port Mouton is a place we've been to before and enjoy it every time. There is a beautiful sandy beach and very clear but cold water.

From Port Mouton, we went to Shelburne where we planned to wait until favorable winds would carry us to Portland, ME. The Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club was sponsoring a sailboat race and cook-out. As we were sailing in to the harbor, the racers were headed out. We felt like Muslim pilgrims at Mecca walking the wrong way around the Ka'ba. We recognized one of the participants--Blue Chip and a short time later they called us on the radio. After the race, we met up with Darrel and Janet on their boat and had a fabulous cocktail hour with them and their friends. Turns out they quit the race and motored back to the club as they were getting bored by the whole exercise. They insisted we join them at the cookout even though we had nothing to bring except our giant box of red wine. Everyone in the club was very gracious towards us, even though we lacked a covered dish for the pot luck table.

We didn't end up lingering in Shelburne, but headed out the next day for Bar Harbor. The wind would be favorable and, we felt like visiting Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island. As it turned out, there was hardly any wind at all and we motored the whole way--about 26 hours. Boring but efficient.

Arriving at Mt. Desert Island from the water is quite spectacular and reminiscent of Newfoundland. Bar Harbor was hopping with activity which was somewhat of a culture shock for us. We enjoyed a few of the local restaurants and the free buses sponsored by LL Bean were still running throughout the national park. We did a rather strenuous hike and ended up at the Jordon Pond house, a restaurant in the park famous for popovers. The other dishes were nothing to write home about, but the Popover a la mode (chocolate Sunday in a popover) was to die for.

We anchored the following off McGlathery Island in Penobscot Bay's Merchant's Row. Close by was the 145 foot schooner, Heritage. Heritage is a charter vessel and the crew had just rowed the guests to a beach on the island. Amy, every curious, decided to go over and see what they were up to. Turns out they were having a lobster bake and Captains Doug and Linda invited her to join in. They were even kind enough to send one lobster back to the Mary T for me.

We're currently at Robinhood Marine Center waiting to visit with our friends, Corning and Tita Townsend, who live in nearby Edgecomb. We had also hoped that the yard here would re-install our water pump which they had installed back in June. It has leaked oil ever since. We were very disappointed when we were informed that they would not do a re-install gratis. There is much we like about Robinhood but we would not recommend the place for mechanical repairs.

We shall continue heading toward the Chesapeake Bay on Sunday September 13, because it is getting chilly. It is time for the snowbirds to fly south.