Leaving Port Hawkesbury on August 13, we anticipated a very leisurely and short trip to our first anchorage on the Lennox Passage on our way to the Bras d’Or. The Lennox Passage is a 16 nautical mile passageway between Cape Breton Island and Isle Madame. Cape Breton Island is the northeastern-most part of Nova Scotia.
There were many interesting anchorages to choose from and we selected one in Poulamon Bay on the south side of the passage. We anchored behind tiny Crow Island and next to Grandique Point where a scenic lighthouse stood on a point just a few hundred yards from where we put down our hook. The lighthouse is very typical of the area – a short wooden pyramid-like structure with a red cap. The entire peninsula where the lighthouse stands is actually a park called Grandique Point Park.
We were surrounded on all sides by fir trees and parkland with just a few white houses interspersed on a distant shoreline.
After lunch on the aft deck, we took a dinghy ride to explore our surroundings. We motored up to the rocky beach next to the lighthouse, pulled the dinghy up over the rocks and seaweed and tied it off on a big rock.
We then proceeded to walk up a trail in the woods through fields of goldenrod and bright purple firefox. We saw wild raspberry bushes and sampled some of the berries which were deliciously ripe. We also met a couple who were picking not raspberries, but something new to us called Sasquatoons. They invited us to sample some – the ripe ones look like purplish blueberries. They were good!
Our walk took us up a wooded hill and back down to the rocky shore. It was a perfect day, partly sunny and warm but with a slight edge of coolness in the air. We are really enjoying this northern weather!
After walking back to our dinghy, we tooled around the bay for a little more exploration. We passed buoys that are set up for aquaculture. Parts of the waterways are festooned with white or black buoys that are used to help mussels and other shellfish to grow. Boaters need to avoid these areas and we are likely to encounter many more of them on our travels here.
We ate dinner on the aft deck and lingered so we could watch yet another beautiful sunset in this magnificent and very peaceful setting.
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