Captain's note

 

It has been another wonderful season aboard Summer Wine II. We visited 5 provinces each different with it oun landscape and culture. 

We saw whales, dolphins, ganets, puffins, seals and more. We caught cod,  mackeral and ate sea food just about everyday. We met alots of nice people along the way.

  I would like to thank all the crew.  Each crew member brought a ton of fun and we had great time.

Shediac and home

A day of preparation to haul the Summer Wine II out of the water and seeing the tide out the fun way. 

            A bit of kite flying.

       Time as come to header home.

Summerside to Shediac

No time for pictures today as the seas kept us driving all day. The wind was 15- 20 on the starboard hind quarter and the fetch reached back to Ballentynes Cove so the waves were up and we had the pay attention. 

Once at Shediac it was a race to the YC's loaner bikes and to find Pumphouse Blueberry Beer.

Victoria to Summerside

Before leaving Victoria we climbed the little lighthouse for a Kodak monument, then had the highly rated eggs Benny at the Beachcomber restaurant. Once we got on the Strait it was a spinaker run under the Confederation Bridge and all the way to Summerside where we just had to have a feed of lobster.

Charlettown to Victoria

Calm like you wouldn't believe on the straight today, but once we got in we immediately  started sounding for depths. The tide was to ebb another 18  inches and we only had 2 to spare. We checked  the bottom and discovered we had a foot of soft mud under us. Things were tense so we headed to the Lobster Barn for curied muscles (amazing) and a pint. I cooked up some haddoc and Terry beat me two games straight in Wizard. We made it through low tide and all was good until 11:30 when the wind picked up to 15 knots causing big waves to rock us to sleep. The tidal range this week is 7 feet. We will have to wait until 11 to leave. But first we ride. The rental bikes were perfect for riding on the tidal flats, not because they were state of the art fat bikes, but because they were rented.😊 

Pictou to Charlettown

We sadly left Pictou and sailed to Woods Island  for a lobster sandwich and a short nap then headed towards Charlettown. We sailed an hour out and back only to make two miles in the direction we wanted to go. With the wind on our nose and a full moon the tidal range was high so we were battling a two knot current. We adjusted our sail plan and turned on the motor, putting us in an hour after dark. That was a long day on the water.

Balentinnes Cove to Pictou

We slipped out at 7:30 before breakfast and motored around Cape George and set up for a close reach. We sailed three hours before the wind died and the books came out. We went for a dip and fished for a while before heading in. As we arrived in Pictou, the first site was a French couple who were heading to Hondurous with a pirate bird. Then Al from "Deliverance" showed up with a 1979 Chev truck which he had restored to new for our use while we were in town. 

In the morning we meet Bruce and Sheryl form "You and Me", the couple we meet in Port aux Basques for coffee. Then they drove us around the county showing us the sites. We stopped at rye distillarery, a boat building shop where they bought their hull and some of the harbours before having us to their house for lunch. All very nice.

That night we headed to a variety show at the da Costa Entertainment Center. It was titled "celtic ladies". There was two ladies singing and playing plus the singer songwriter Siobhan  Miller from Scotland with her band. It was a very good show. At intermission they came out to meet the audience and within minutes we'd ones up the Scots up for an afternoon of sailing. After the show we headed in search of a snack and found a bike and its owner, Corey a biking enthusiast, who lined up some nice bikes for us to ride. 

In the morning I headed for bread and ice  then met Terry at the Hector Museum for look before Siobhan, Mike and Euan showed up for a sail.

As it turns out the fiddle player "Mike" had just bought a concept 36 sailboat and is planning a round the world trip starting next year. After our four hour sailing tour Terry and I headed biking with Corey. The up hill was hard, but the trails were good. On the way down we got caught in a thunder storm and got totally soaked, luckily it was warm so we could laugh it off easily. That was quite the day thanks to all of our new friends and ambassadors of Pictou.

Port Hawkesbury to Balantynes Cove

             Terry and Skulpin

We spent a rain day at Port Hawkesbury paying cards, and watching the Olmypics  at the Canso Straight Yatch Club. Here we met Greg and Perry off Suhka ( C & C 35) out of Kingston and Al and Alta off Deliverence (Beneteau 30) out of Pictou. The next morning we headed to Balantynes Cove stopping to look at Harve Boucher and doing some fishing along the way. Terry got one ugly fish called a sculpin. I call the Boyd's residents to say Hello and ended up there for dinner with Tina and Alec, Sandy and Ann and Karl. Sandy was cooking.

             Canso Straigt Yacht Club

        Canso Iock with bridge behind

              Grey Foggy Day

Bourgeois to Port Hawkesbury

Another nice sunny morning and we left Bourgeois, re entered the Lennix Passage heading for the Burnt island Bridge and called the operator to let us through. Motoring up another 4 miles we stopped and set anchor for lunch. We no sooner started lunch and the wind kicked up to 15 knots, ( Murphy lives here).  We rounded Bear Head and tacked, and tacked and tacked x15 up the Straight of Canso to Port Hawkesbury. 

Ben Eoin to Johnstown harbour

This being the second time for Terry sailing, I ran though the basics and we headed out. The wind was prefect 8-16 kn on the nose with small waves, we were able to tack back and forth, reef and shake them out, all good things to learn before heading into the Northumberland Straight a few days from now. Terry caught on quickly and we were timing a tacks and watching our speed like a seasoned race crew.

We had picked Johnstown as our destination for the night. This is another great spot to hang out in for a few days. We were both wishing we had a dingy of some sort to explore the edges and shallows. We saw king fishers, and a young eagle. The water was a nice temp for swimming.