Monday 13th July

A slightly complicated day today.  We’re heading back to the Bras d’Or lakes via Great Brad d’Or.  The entrance has very strong currents - up to 4.5 knots, so we definitely want to arrive with the current in our favour.  Which means, (today), we need to arrive at Carey Point, 46 17.50N 60 24.92W, at 6pm or slightly later.   We also wanted to visit the Bird Islands, 46 22.47N 60 23.08W, on the way.  In fact, visiting the Bird Islands made things a little less complicated since we could spend more or less time there as needed. 

We stared out at noon with very light winds, which picked up at 1pm and allowed us to sail.  We had a very pleasant beat out of Sydney harbor, and despite our best endeavours to give the lobster pots a wide berth, found ourselves among them again.  They were much more spread out however, and we were sailing, so only had rudders to worry about (no props).  By the time we got through the pots the wind had pretty much died, so engines went on again. 

This enabled us to get to the Bird Islands on schedule, and Teresa took lots of photos of puffins, kittiwakes and cormorants.  Ron was once again on the lookout for lobster pots!

We got to the wide open bay at the entrance to Great  Bras d’Or on schedule (6pm), and were worried to find 1 knot of tide against us.  (If we had 1 knot in the wide open section, we’d expect 3-4 in the narrow section.)  We pressed on since we didn’t have anywhere else to go and were amazed to find how quickly the current changes here.   In 20 minutes they went from 1 knot against us to ½ knot in our favour.  So we had a very nice passage through the narrows and dropped the hook in Otter Harbour, 46 13.22N 060 31.83W at 7:30pm.  By 8pm we were cooking lamb chops on the grill.  Life is tough!

Ships Log: 4689.2, Todays Log: 37.4, Seasons Total: 241.3