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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
The passage to Westport was all motoring in dense fog, hardly seeing the bow of the boat for most of the trip. The fog cleared as we entered Grand Passage, the cut between Briar Island and Long Island. There's a small island with a lighthouse at the eastern entrance to Grand Passage named Peter Island. According to the charts the eastern side of Peter would be preferred. According to the locals, the western side, much narrower than the other, is preferred. We planned our arrival for high tide and slack water. This, with the lifting of the fog, gave us an easy entrance into Grand Passage.
Westport is located on Briar Island about half way through Grand Passage. They have a tidal range there in the neighborhood of 20 feet. By comparison the 2-3 foot range in Southeast Florida where we've been based for the past several years is hardly worth a passing thought. I learned to sail in San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay where the tidal range is in the 5-7 foot range, and take it as a matter of fact. And we've chartered in the Pacific Northwest where a 10-12 foot range is not uncommon.
Anchoring in extreme tidal zones such as Westport has its challenge. The rule of thumb for anchoring is to check the depth, then feed out 4-5 times that in anchor rode if using all chain or 7-9 times that if using rope. That wouldn't work in Westport. If we did that, we'd find Volant on the rocks at high tide. So we checked the depth, determined from the tide tables that we were about four feet from high water, adjusted for that and ran out nearly 200 feet of chain. Fully half of that was to allow for the tidal range.
Briar Island is a summer destination for eco-tourists. There are miles of trails for hiking and lots of whale and bird watching excursions. Several of the whale watching excursion boats guarantee whale sightings, the mammals are so plentiful in the area.
There's also a large salmon farm in the harbor. Apparently the fishing business is not as profitable as it once was, so some fishermen are turning to aquaculture... reluctantly. Not many fishermen want to be farmers.
In the winter there's still some fishing and lobstering to be done, so Digby is still primarily a fishing town. Many of the homes have lobster pots stacked in their yards awaiting the season that doesn't start until October. Next to the stacks of pots there are piles of anchors and miles of rope and buoys, all required for the sets.
We walked around the town from one end to the other. There were two streets in the downtown area, only one street elsewhere. At one end we found a monument to Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail single-handed around the world. He was native to the region and spent eight years here before going to sea at age sixteen. Standing at the monument overlooking Grand Passage at Peter Island, we could see the awesome rips being generated by the 7+ knot currents. We could easily see how an error in judging the tidal currents on entering this cut would be a recipe for disaster.
The weather forecast called for fair winds and no fog for Sunday. Since we'd already explored Westport as far as we desired we saw no reason to tarry. So we elected to leave on Sunday instead of Monday as originally planned.
And, at least on this occasion, the weather folks got it right. We had a beautiful sail from Westport to Digby. The wind was on the stern. We single-reefed the mains'l, ran the boom all the way out to port and rigged the preventer. With the jib was then poled out to starboard we really rolled along. The wind was mostly around eight to ten knots relative, and we were getting a two to three knot lift by the tidal current.
Coming into Digby Gut was a bit of a challenge. Due to the hills on either side, the wind was fluky. It would go from drifting conditions to over twenty knots and back again in minutes. And, to top it all off, the Digby to Saint John Ferry was on its way out the Gut as we were coming in. But there were no mishaps, giving us a safe arrival.
Given that Digby tides run into the 25-30 foot range and that the small marina in the harbor has floating docks, we elected to tie up. We were directed into a slip by some fellows on the dock, one of whom apparently owned the slip. His boat wouldn't be in his slip for a while, so we were welcome to use it. The marina is populated mostly by sailboats from the Royal Western Nova Scotia Yacht Club, several of whom we met as they came in from their Sunday afternoon race.
Wow! I thought the 20-foot tides of Westport were spectacular. But the tides in Digby are awesome. It's just as well that we didn't get further up the Bay of Fundy as we had originally hoped, as we'd have a devil of a time coping. The tide ranges get as high as fifty feet or more in the upper reaches.
We met a lovely couple from Digby, Bonnie and Vaughn, who drove us around the area and offered us whatever assistance we might wish while visiting their town. Bonnie was raised in the nearby town of Bear River on the banks of the Bear River, so they included that pretty village in the tour. The extreme tides flood miles up the river into the heart of Bear River twice a day, then recede just as quickly. We were only able to see the river at low water but, from the extensive mud flats, could easily envision how the water would fill to the banks and how beautiful it would be at high water.
We'll shortly be leaving for Saint John, New Brunswick, likely on Thursday morning, thus ending our visit to Nova Scotia. It's a beautiful place, filled with warm and friendly people. We didn't see nearly enough during our short time here and hope to return soon to see more.
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