Back to Baddeck Blog (courtesy of Kathy K.)

Hi  friends of Maggie & Branko,

Kathy and Maggie

This blog entry comes a little late.

 I'm Kathy from Toronto and I was with Maggie and Branko just before Bill, Gavin and Shannon.  My east coast adventure was two weeks; the first was with family, and the second week I was all alone (mostly), with just a rough itinerary, never knowing where I was going to eat or sleep, or even what day it was.  Pure bliss!!  Which is just a fraction of how Maggie and Branko must feel, with considerably more than a measly week of freedom ahead of them.

Need we say anything...:-)

Of all the adventures I experienced on my trip, by far the most fun I had was my time with the sailors, even though there was no sunshine and no sailing, and involved a museum, a knitting store, and a fiddle show.  I happily met up with the M&B at the wharf in Baddeck on a wet, dreary Wednesday morning, and I feel as though a magic spell was cast on us for the brief time we had together.  As Maggie mentioned, we had a great lunch, then on to the Alexander Graham Bell museum, which it turns out really is interesting.  We learned a lot about Bell, and my favourite part was watching the video of his daughters talking about growing up with this interesting man on their sprawling family property.

Learning to knit, pearl one and stab...

Afterwards, it was on to the knitting store for Maggie and me, while Branko went back to the boat to make dinner.  We had a blast at the knitting store.  It started when we walked in and Maggie announced to the owner, Pat, that she wants to make Branko a sweater.  Pat  was very amused to find out that Maggie had no knitting experience.  She was so amused that every time someone came in to the shop, Pat pointed to Maggie and told them about her ambitious plans.  Everyone laughed, and Maggie took the ribbing well.  She talked Maggie down to a scarf, and then maybe a blanket.  Pat and her husband of two years, Fred, were high school sweethearts, who went their separate ways and then reconnected after many decades...a very romantic story.  Fred gave Maggie some knitting lessons, and we happily left with a bagful of yarn.  (How's the scarf coming Maggie?)

The chef and captain with Sophie

Back to the boat for dinner, and just as my time with M&B was the best part of my trip, Branko's stew was the tastiest meal of my trip (and I had plenty of great food in two weeks).  I wish I could have come home with the recipe, but Branko just made it up as he went along -- and it was amazing.

Kathy with the talented fiddler

After dinner we went to the local Parish Hall for the Ceilidh, and for a couple of hours we just sat back and got lost in this wonderful Cape Breton tradition.  Well, M&B sat back until Nancy, the organizer, asked for four couples to come onstage for some dance lessons.  The first three couples quickly went up, and after a little coaxing, Branko grabbed Maggie by the hand and off they went.  So much fun!!!  Thankfully I had my camera with me, and got some great video.  If you want to see the dancers in action, please key in "h2obo Baddeck" and "h2obo in Baddeck" on Youtube.  Afterward, several people told Branko what a good dancer he was, but Maggie said it's just because he's tall and easy to see.

H2obo in Baddeck

Afterward, we went back to the boat and watched a very strange but excellent movie ( I can't remember the name), then off to bed.  I slept like a baby in my cozy little bed.  If you didn't have a chance to see the boat before M&B left, let me tell you -- it is gorgeous!  They did such a fantastic job building the interior from scratch.  I remember seeing it when it was just a hollow shell, and I never imagined the end result to be so impressive...so beautiful, comfortable, and efficient.  Every square inch of the interior is functional, and still esthetic.  I can see why Sophie is so happy and content!

 The next morning Maggie's cousin and his kids arrived just as I was leaving to continue my road trip.  You could see they were happy and excited to begin their adventure.

I want to thank you guys for your hospitality and the great memories!

Maybe I'll see you in the Bahamas or Croatia!

Note from H2obo -  Blog entry and pictures courtesy of Kathy :-)

Hurricane Watch in Nova Scotia ... Part 2

My friend Ken , whose family recently moved to the area from Vancouver, was interested in riding out Hurricane Earl with me, so the night before the storm was due to hit, he came aboard and Maggie went ashore to spend time with  Ken's wife (also name Margaret) and their four children.  Sophie stayed aboard because we figured that hurricane force winds buffeting the boat would be less traumatic than removing her from her favorite sleeping spots.

Earl was not expected to hit until the following midday, so the evening was pleasantly spent talking and watching movies.  I had a sound sleep but awoke early as the winds started to blow with Earl's approach.  Hubbard's Cove is tucked into a corner of St. Margaret's Bay, and H2OBO is moored near the mouth of the cove.  As the wind steadily increased we could see the waves marching across the cove entrance and breaking on the shore.  We only rolled a little as the waves fanned out from the point of land that marked the cove entrance.

Overnight, Earl had taken an eastward detour from the route he was originally expected to take.  Instead of making landfall in Yarmouth, he was travelling just off the southwestern shore, and it now looked as though he would hit near us somewhere in Lunenberg county, in which Hubbard's is situated .  We had on the local all-news radio station that seemingly had reporters posted all over Nova Scotia giving live updates of the hurricane with wind speeds, rainfall amounts, power outages, and fools getting swept into the ocean while watching the waves break on the rocks.  The seas out there were 7 to 10 meters high.

Around noon is when the action peaked.  H2OBO bucked in the wind and swung on its mooring but all remained secure.  I had one of the weather boards out so we could clearly see astern.  Every once in a while we would see the dinghy, which was tied to a stern cleat, get caught in a gust, rise up and flip over.  This happened about a dozen times,but no harm was done since the outboard engine was firmly mounted on its spot on the stern pulpit.

The eye must have passed very close by because there was a period when the winds diminished and the sky brightened followed after while by a return of the winds with equal intensity.

Apart from a few times when I mistakenly thought that we might have dragged our mooring, my only source of anxiety was the wind generator.  It is a Rutland 913, which I am very happy with in every respect.  It has a thermal switch which allows the rotor to freewheel in the event that the internal mechanism starts to overheat in high winds.
When this happened, the rotor spun so fast that I wondered how it did not break apart.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Earl, two boats in the cove broke free of their moorings and went ashore, power to over 200,000 people in the province went out, one person drowned somewhere while trying to secure their boat, many trees and branches snapped in the wind, and Sophie slept through most of it.  Maggie spent the time with her new friends enjoying their down-east hospitality, checking on Ken and me from shore, and playing games with the children by flashlight and candlelight.

H2OBO in Hurricane Earl

While at no time did I feel I was in any danger, I certainly felt alive.  And that was the end of Earl - our first named storm.

Hurricane Watch in Nova Scotia ... Part 1

I was going to talk about how we hit a rock while gunkholing in Tangier Bay on the Eastern Shore of Halifax. That resulted in a haul-out to repair the damage (I am sure the rock got the worst of it). But hurricane season on the atlantic coast has become the bigger news item, at least from our viewpoint.

If you have checked our blog, you will see us sitting in Hubbard's Cove, on a mooring ball. This is as good a spot as we could hope for in this situation. During hurricane Juan, about 4 years ago, no boats in the cove were lost. We are hoping for the same result this time.

Earl should hit sometime this weekend and we have been working to prepare for him. We have chafe gear on the mooring bridle and an extra line to the mooring anchor, stripped all the canvas off the boat, secured all the lines, lashed down the boom, removed valuable items and documents from the boat....the list goes on from there. We will be ready.

We will likely be here until the depressions off the coast of Africa cease forming at the present rate. Once we see a generous weather window, we plan to sail to Cape Cod to spend some time in that part of New England. We had been planning on going to Annapolis, but we will instead stage a trip to Bermuda from Newport, RI, and then go to the Bahamas. All this probably will not happen until October, because after Earl, there are Fiona, Gaston and the rest of the hurricanes and tropical storms lurking out there.

The weather and water temperature here have been uncharacteristically warm, as it is along the whole eastern seaboard, so this is feeding the depressions. It will take cooler, drier weather to break the chain of storms marching across the Atlantic.

For now, Maggie and I are going for a swim off one of the beautiful nearby beaches because today it is hot and sunny. Enjoy yourself while you can.

Branko