Day 25, July 12 -- St. Peters to Chapel island -- 10 NM

Our third consecutive bright sunny day. I could get used to this.

A lazy start after reading, blogging, watering, fueling, and trying to pick nice anchorages. I keep asking locals which are their favorites, but they are no help. "They are all good" is not useful advice. It may be true, but we have to select let's say ten out of fifty. I marked half a dozen in the West Bay (the western half of the southern lake) in red, computed mileages to and among each if them, and got Lene to read the two cruising guides' entries for them, to winnow down the selection. A lot may depend on the wind direction tomorrow because the places I selected range from pretty due west to almost due north. Some have museums, others eagles, others beaches, others hikes, etc. One of them will be selected tomorrow.

Underway in the afternoon for 2.75 hours, going ten miles (five as the crow flies) from the Marina in St. Peter's to an unnamed Cove on the SE side of Chapel Island. I drew our route through the area, which is called St. Peter's Inlet (from the canal to the big southern lake), in red.

Average speed only 3.5 knots, ranging from two to five. Why so slow? Well for one thing it is gorgeous, with several anchorages recommended by the cruising guide to port and others to starboard. The main reason for our slow pace was that we made the passage under the small jib alone. The "Z" shaped part of our recreated red track was a pair of tacks. and a jibe near the end

Chapel Island is visited by tribes of Mi'kmaq (pronounced Mig-maw) Native Americans in July, the cruising guide told us. And they were here in rustic homes that lined the southern part of our Cove.

A bonfire was roaring on the SE point of the island as we pulled in and anchored in 14 feet of water in a spot protected from the then blowing (gently) northerlies. Another reason that I selected Chapel was the spiral of the approach around the island.  The cruising guide told us not to think about entering through the shortcut from the west, south of the island.

I broke the zipper that closes the stack pack sail cover and will get it repaired in Baddeck or in Maine. Meanwhile, to keep some of the rain out (we did have ten drops last night) I trussed it up and the kitties still enjoy parading on it.
Serenely calm this evening.