LEAVING BADDECK

It seemed strange but we both felt very sad to be leaving Baddeck. We had loved the culture, the people and its scenic beauty. We had made good friends, attended worship at the United Church, attended a choral singing workshop, been visited by Karen, their minister, loaned a private car to tour the Cape Breton trail and received excellent service from everyone. Even strangers would greet us in the street with a cheery, "Hello, you're still here?"
The motor arrived back in the nick of time as there was a gale warning out for the Saturday with winds SE 45 knots. Had we remained on the dock we would have been severely battered against it. The motor was installed on Friday afternoon but we had difficulty starting it. Sparks were seen to be flying out from under the exhaust box. The mechanic lifted the box to discover that the main positive cable to the starting motor had corroded to copper oxide with only two strands of the cable still intact. It had to be replaced and it was 7pm. Bruce sent the two mechanics home and worked until 10pm. to remove the massive batteries, battery box floor and finally the offending cable so that a replacement could be fitted. Saturday morning a new cable was installed, the motor started and we were able to motor up to Herring Cove a wonderfully protected hurricane hole and dropped anchor just before the gale hit.
The next day we motored back, the mechanic checked the motor on Monday and we were off down the lake through Barra Strait to drop anchor in Damien Cove. We were the only boat at anchor in the picturesque cove and as the forecast for the next day was for light winds we were keen to head south. Dense fog prevented an early start but as soon as it lifted we headed for the St Peters Canal and were through and on our way by 1100h. It was almost a dead calm so we had to give our rebuilt motor a good workout. We decided to try to get right through to Halifax by travelling through the night varying engine revs every 20 minutes to run it in. As we approached Halifax the winds picked up from the S and we were able to romp into Halifax Harbour at a boat speed of 7 to 8 knots.
We refuelled and anchored off the Armdale yacht club for 3 nights until a favourable forecast motivated us to leave for Lunenburg.