No, not THE St Peter's gates, but the town of St Peters on Cape Breton, at the entrance to the Bras D'Or lakes, a vast inland sea, there are gates - lock gates. We visit a couple of nice anchorages on the way and a dock at Liscombe Lodge, "up a river" all sheltered and peaceful.
Courtesy of Openseamaps
Leaving Halifax, there are two cruise ships visible, four arrived all having run away from Hurricane Florence - the remnants of which comes here anyway but has dropped to 25 knot winds and lots of rain.
We pull in to a remote anchorage - it is stress free to sail a coast where there are bomb proof anchorages every 5 miles or less. It is called ship harbour but it has no ships, apart from us, and no harbour either (it has a bit further on)
Some houses and beautiful churches
And then into a river at Liscombe Lodge - a few miles out of our way but showers and a pint beckon.
They have a dock for visiting yachts, not big but we are the other boat
The lodge is actually packed with people getting a good Sunday night buffet, we indulge. This involves are introduction to Nova Scotian wine - really rather good, even if not imaginatively names.
Yes, that's right, if you want this, ask your waiter for a bottle of your "Great big Friggin Red" a frivolous barbecue wine, fruity and full of berries, a pleasant hot summer's day drink. Quite good actually!
We depart at 08:00 the next morning and head for St Peters, nipping in to another wee anchorage West of Pilot's island (I omitted this from the Openseamap above, sorry.) And then onto St Peter and the gateway to the Bras D'Or lakes
Canal entrance just around the corner from the lighthouse
On radioing we discover it shuts Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the winter season which started three days ago, how we laughed at our misfortune... actually ok as we take a magic bus to a whisky distillery while we wait for it open!
Interesting lock, the tidal part has 5 foot range and the lake about a foot, sometimes one is higher than the other so they need double gates to keep the water in (you need the water pressure to push the gates together to get a seal.
It is only a few hundred yards long, but has a lifting bridge which the lock-keeper walks up to open, a leisurely experience, they get 1,000 boats a year going through, we saw 3 or 4 on the water. Winter is coming.
The town is a collection of buildings with a good community vibe - they are preparing for Pirates weekend which we almost miss (we get back here on Saturday night).
Out nearest Wifi Portal! and it has good beer. We ask the owner (we think) where we can get a bus to take us away from St Peter and she says, St Peter has nothing, no buses, no nothing. I think she is having a bad day as the waitress staff are very friendly and helpful. We visit the nearby Tourist Visitor Centre and have a lot of help from Mary-Jane.
A wee house
A bigger house
Made of wood of course, available and cheaper than alternatives. Modern construction long lived and warm.
In fact she phones lots of people and gets us a phone number so we can book two buses to take us to Glenora Distillery in Glenville, near Inverness - an hour or two away through the town of Hawkesbury. We are going on an adventure!
We phone and are told to be at the bridge at 7:20, a large people wagon arrives and we are taken to Hawkesbury, everyone's name is on a big clipboard and phonecalls are made and received. When we arrive at one pickup place the driver gets us on to a bigger bus, with college kids (and adults) and some differently abled people. This bus goes to a couple of schools/colleges and even lets me have a pee at a Tim Horton.
Bespoke travel - very impressive. Eventually we are the last two and are taken to the distillery, not a "normal" run, well I don't think there are "normal" runs. The area transit buses just take people to where they need to go. They are needed for the colleges and just support the community in addition, government subsidies it, we get charged 5$(Can) for 80km. Way to go Nova Scotia.
You have to admit, Eat, Drink, Sleep, they have it all covered! The tour is run by a lovely man who is most expert on Scottish whisky. This distillery was only started 28 years ago!
And they have this really good bucket list inside, so many whiskies and so little time.
Of the 65 malts, 40 are in the Speyside area, we are told that this is because the water is so good they don't have to spend money cleaning it, the Scottish don't like spending money, so hence...
So, there's a challenge, the Scottish Malt Cruise for yachts is ok, but has a big waiting list, if you want to get around all 65 Scottish malts, hire an RV and driver!!!
Some photos of the Distillery, it's products taste ok, neither peaty or seaweedy.
I think they process 2 ton(ne?)s or maybe 52 barrels a week, during the Barley season. They keep busy the rest of the time making rums and other things for other people.
We head into the Bras D'Or lakes and visit Iona en passant and then onto Baddeck. I will blog about that next and continue with our second visit to St Peter as we return Saturday night hoping to get an 8 o'clock exit on Sunday. The Town is awash with pirates and three bars are enjoined with access via bracelets purchased for charity - the community hall has really good live music. There are free buses taking everyone to and fro, although they are well within most drunks staggering distance. many hundreds of people having a good time. Then night begins with a sailpast from the local yachtclub - 18 boats, all decorated differently so clearly there was a plan. If only I had known we could have had Shadowmere there with her fantastic Christmas lights.
Next day we start heading... Well, actually West, but it feels like South - we tend to think of North-South travel all the time but Nova Scotia is tilted quite far East-West. I am coming home...
Good bye St Peter, we take an overnight sail to get back to Halifax quickly. We are playing weather windows now as not only bits of Hurricanes but deep depressions are coming at us. The depressions tend to pass to the North of us, having come out of the lakes. 149 miles, took exactly 24 hours. It is great having crew on board. We took a dock in Halifax overnight and next day took a bus to Lunenberg, on our return we meant to leave the dock which is free for daytime use but it was raining, at 6am we snuck away to Dartmouth 4 miles away to take a cheaper mooring buoy and stock up in a nearby shop (called the Chop shop but apart from having 50% of its shelves full of meat and seafood, it sold quite a lot else - vegetables and bread.
We leave Halifax and ironically call at Lunenberg - a lovely spot but we arrive at 9pm and leave at 7 am and don't go ashore - having visited by bus when the day before when the weather was inclement.
After Lunenberg we arrive at Shelburne and wait for weather to make the crossing from Nova Scotia to the American Mainland. In the end we take 48 hours to travel 290 miles direct to Boston and encounter force 8 for 4 or 5 hours and force 7 for another 5 hours. The forecasts said 25 knots. Gribs often underestimate by a beaufort force or more. (You can see gribs at http://www.passageweather.com )
There are separate blog posts for Iona and Baddeck in the Bras D'Or and Lunenberg. and we then back to Boston, where Nick departs and I do some maintenance on the boat. More and more things are breaking, time to get home.