Bird Island surprise cove and Ingonish

Our intention was to head out of the lakes and head north up cape Breton, With the ever present hope of seeing whales. This trip will include. A trip through the Narrows where all of the water escaped from Bra Dor lakes. It often has currents around 6 knots and will produce a pretty impressive standing wave with wind against tide. Our plan is to leave Baddeck and head up the channel in 2 hops First to surprise cove. and then to Ingonish via a fly by of Bird island.

Surprise cove was going to be a challenge. It is a flooded gypsum quarry just off the channel. The entrance to the quarry is very shallow and very narrow and there is no easy way to turn round once you are in there . Im not sure how wise it is to take on this challenge but, we have an adaptable boat and a pretty strong will to find out of the way places. The guide books give some basic instructions that were written 10 years ago, Im. Pretty sure the channel was more silted now. We set the keel to swing mode, which means it will swing up if we clip the bottom. We needed every bit of lift to get in. We turn of the main channel into Big harbour.(not that big) from this small bay runs a a small c Handel to the quarry. The entrance to the channel goes down to less that 3ft depth and now we about to enter the near row part. This long channel is about 8 or 9 metres wide with overhanging trees it is mostly about 4 to 6 ft deep with all kinds of trees and branches in the water. Claire is on the front of the boat spotting hazards as we sneak through. The mast pushes through the last branch and we are in the quarry is deep on the left and a muddy shallow flat to the left. We manage to drop anchour in the deepest part and control our swing by putting lines around trees with us of the dinghy. We are in and it beautifully isolated. Time to explore before the Mosquitos get hungry. This turned out to be a great spot for watching wildlife, all alone and quiet.
We saw cruising otters swimming deer and all sorts of bird life even caught a striped bass. Time to go inside the mosquitos have founded us.

Next stop a tidal swoosh under the bridge and out to sea. 20 miles to ingonish with a Bit of a left curve so we pass by bird islands(AKA Hertford and Ciboux island) we go under the bridge at quite a rate dodging lobster pots best we can. Beautiful blue morning with the odd sea eagle to punctuate the sky. Bird island was nice with Guillemot’s razor bills and Puffins but nothing like as good as the UK. Skoma island and the Chiant island have spoilt us. On ward to ward the lump of rock in the distance call big smokey. Famed for whale and dolphin watching . A nice 20 not downwind breeze was taking us there fast. We carried fully sail to the Big Smoky for ur left turn towards the harbour. Bit of a mistake. 40 knot winds falling of the hill and a slalom cause of lobster pots to negotiate. It took us 5 mins to reduce sail and get full control back. The entrance is Bouyed but marked as a hazard on the chart. Bit weird. When we get to the final part of the channel we find out why . We are doing five knot which no sail or engine help. The channel is 3 boat widths wide and at the last minute I see birds standing up in the water next to the Starboard marker. The channnel turns out to be further left and the buys are in the wrong place. Luckily we had enough time to stay left enough. Once in the wind is still howling and we have to look for shelter to anchour and we start a creep along the southern shorelineRead more