Days 29 & 30, July 16 &17 -- Cassells Cove to Baddeck and Layday --19 NM

A bit overcast which turned sunny in the afternoon. An easy passage today, after exiting the Cove after another calm night anchored in 14 of its 18 feet of water. I showed Lene how to raise anchor, so next time she can do it. It is more complicated than it sounds on ILENE with snubber removal, deck wash and securing the anchor once it is up.
Using the computer to stay on the track we made when we came in -- in the center of the deepest part, where the chart said that should have been much more water -- we passed harmlessly over the eight foot spot. Once out we sailed under Genoa alone at about four knots on a beam and then a broad reach to the Barra Strait, connecting the two lakes, and up the Strait to the bridges. The white church atop Hectors Point, the Strait's SW headland, (toward the right in this picture)  will look beautiful with a blue sky behind it.

 The railroad bridge is permanently open after the demise of the railroads. We furled sail as is requested and motored through the opening of the adjacent roadway bridge, seen here from two miles away.

The bridge tender asked us to switch to Channel 10 and took care of us, raising the drawbridge from both sides to let us pass, for which we thanked him on Sunday morning. There is tidal current in the Strait and it was with us, about a knot. We passed both Iona and Maskells Harbor, to port, both of which we plan to visit soon. I'll get the pictures on the way back. But wind was diminished in the Strait and from astern so we motored the rest of the way to Baddeck.

Baddock is the northernmost point of this cruise and of s/v ILENE's life at least for this summer. It was our intended destination and it a beautiful small harbor created by nearby Kidston Island off the north coast of the lake. We have put 815 NM under our keel to get here.

But unlike every other place we have visited so far, without reservations we could not get a mooring. We circled for about half an hour and finally the people at the Bras d'Or YC helped us onto the central town dock, where we spent two nights, protected from its pilings by a fenderboard that some kind person had left behind. $50 per night. In Mr. Dunlop's photo (which was a mural at the local coop food market) we are on the long side of the dock near its red roofed manager's building. We are right next to the Bras D'or YC

Both ILENE's are looking good and are happy.

At the end of our dock we saw s/v "Amoeba", a schooner taking tourists on harbor rides with up to five sails flying.

A pretty sight. We were asked to look out for her by our friends, Bill and Sandy they also knew the schooner from when she operates the same business in the winter in the Caribbean. Same boat but sorry Bill, the son in law is operating her now. Also, across the way from us was Mark and Liz's s/v "SavingGrace", a Saga 43 that is two years younger than ILENE.

Mark and Liz are Canadians, from Toronto but live aboard and we got together for dinner

and a sweet potato-mango pancake breakfast and to discuss our mutual similar boats and our differing adventures,

The "No Room At The Inn" problem caused  us to reorder our plans for the next few days. We had planned to rent a car for two days to drive The Cabot Trail, a big coastal loop of beautiful scenery -- leaving the cats with lots of food and water and access to both inside and out; they can handle it. But docks are not suitable for this because they afford to many opportunities for the mischief makers to get themselves into trouble and we wanted them securely on a mooring rather than our anchor. After the two days on land, we had planned to visit a few more nearby nearly vacant coves. Also, no car rental was available until Thursday and hotel accommodations for our one night on land were also difficult to come by. So we swapped the time for the nearby coves and made reservations for a mooring and a car rental back at Baddeck starting Thursday morning.

Alexander Graham Bell a Scottish immigrant to the US, loved this area and built a large home on the big hill overlooking the area on 335 acres that his family still owns and occupies in the summer called Beinn Brhreagh, Scottish for "Beautiful Hill," viewable only from the water.

The Canadian Government operates a large modern museum about him,

which tells his life and has several theaters for videos and a very open look throughout -- it is very not crowded. He started with his family business of audiology and became a teacher of the deaf where he met his wife, a student there, and he devoted himself to philanthropy including especially the deaf. The museum's focus was on his Baddeck activities and other inventions besides the telephone. These included structural use of tetrahedrons, flight (motorized and by kite) and more that a century before the recent Americas Cup was raced on hyrdofoils, the building of huge propeller driven hydrofoils intended for use by the navy. in WWI.

he also was concerned with the greenhouse effect, a century before his time.

We will be back in a couple of days.