Shelter Cove

I promised you an amazing coincidence, well here it is. I dragged myself from my slumbers on Sunday morning, looked out of the window, into what was now a very damp and misty Shelter Cove (much more so than in the photo above), switched on Starlink and went back to bed. After a while I checked my emails and...

"Hi Tom,

Greetings from your new neighbour in Shelter Cove. Looked you up on the OCC web site.

I see you’re from Hoo on the Medway. I used to sail from the Hoo Ness YC with my uncle, many years ago. Twould be good to get together sometime.

How long do you expect to stay in Shelter Cove? Are you heading east (as we are)?

Cheers,

Mike & Nic."

Now, as you can probably tell, Shelter Cove is a little off the beaten track, and this early in the boating season (yes I know it's July, but this side of the Gulf Stream things are a bit slow to get going) there aren't many boats running up it! 

So, I was pretty surprised to find I even had a neighbour; even more surprised that he had heard of Hoo, let alone sailed from there, and to cap it all, Mike and Nic had left Australia in 2015 and managed to arrive in Shelter Cove within a few hours of Bonny's arrival!

By the way, just to give you an idea of how deep into the year, the tentacles of a Nova Scotia winter can penetrate, Sunday evening got so cold that I finally undertook the long overdue service of the Diesel Cabin Heater and despite the persistent drizzle, emptied the cavernous cockpit locker, removed the screwed down floor board and reclaimed the chimney that had honr into storage in May 2023!

By the time I had finished the service and had amassed a load of diesel sodden kitchen towel, I had warmed myself up sufficiently to no longer need the heater!

Monday morning was just as chilly and wet, but I avoided the cold of the early morning by simply staying in bed late and then once the rain stopped, escaped over to "Zen Again" (whose heater was working) for coffee. By then, the very hazy sun that penetrated the mist had, surprisingly, started to warm things up. The rain returned as soon as I got in the dinghy, but aboard Zen Again all was cozy. Indeed within a few minutes so much so that they switched their heater off and I remained in shirt sleaves.

By that evening however, winter had returned and I lit the heater. There's something extremely pleasant about being warm, dry and cozy on a boat whilst outside is cold and wet. The morning was the same and justified using another dose of my meagre supply of methylated spirits (I had completely forgotten that I needed the stuff) to light the stove once again. Luxury! 

Within a couple of hours, summer was in full swing, it was 25°C - no need for heater.

That's still the temperature now, as I write this on a very lazy Wednesday morning in the cockpit. Time to take off my long-johns! 

Yesterday we had so much sun that I turned the water heater back on and there's currently a full tank waiting for me to have a shower, once I've finished writing this. I also recommissioned the water maker. Despite being inshore, the water here is so clean that I'm sure it will be fine.

After visiting Zen Again, I decided the visibility was good enough to warrant a trip ashore to explore.

I was glad I went, because the ever changing density of fog and the changing layers of mist that hover over the cove on such days, make for mysterious and magical land and sea scapes and for the first time I felt I had found Nova Scotia's wilderness!

Don't get me wrong though - sunny days here are gorgeous - the warm sunshine is so much more enjoyable than the blistering humid heat of the Carribbean. 

I flicker of activity just caught my peripheral vision and I got the glasses out to watch a family of diving birds enjoying the sunshine on the other side of the cove. Heads would pop up, then the rest of the bird before they scamperd a few metres across the mirror surface of the water and dive again. Enchanting.

Talking of enchanting; yesterday as I rowed around the cove and then explored on shore, I saw two eagles, a sea otter (or perhaps a seal further off) and most excitingly traces of bear! 

At the time I thought one of the eagles was an Osprey, but Mike and Nic assured me it was a bald headed eagle.

This one, I think, was not the bald head!

The day (Monday) was so quiet and peaceful in the mist, that it seemed sacrilegious to scar it with the sound of an outboard motor, so I rowed around the cove and to the shore. Despite it being a windless day, this was not quite the risk free enterprise you might think. Both the two piece oars had lost their silly little connecting clips and were only held together by bits of gaffer tape (an absolutely indispensable component of a boat's tool kit as Murray, I'm sure, will agree).

By luck I had timed my exploration to coincide with the last two hours of a rising tide and was able to leave the dinghy in the salt marsh tied to a tree in the knowledge it would still be afloat a couple of hours later. 

I had landed close to the two "beautiful back to back beaches" mentioned in the Pilot. 

My first find was an axe embedded in piece of driftwood. After a lengthy debate with myself about whether the owner may seek to retrieve it and whether it was even left where I found it, I decided to 'rescue it'. As Burglar Bill would have said "... that's a nice axe, I'll have that..."!

I exploring the beach and its rocks, crossed the narrow istmus to the other beach and then took a short trail to my right through the rather strange woods - dying and dead firs amidst healthy mature and young trees. Despite the very salty conditions there was an abundance of wild flowers....

Some scenes reminded me of the bluebells in Norfolk's woodlands ...

I clambered round the headland back around the fascinating and ancient horizontal rock formations that ringed the peninsula until I returned to the beginning of the trail but from the opposite direction.

I then walked the full length of the second beach, found a camp fire clearing in the woods....

and a purpose built latrine...

... and then finally returned to the dinghy - still afloat and rowed back the boat in the gathering gloom.

On Tuesday morning - a gloriously summer day - Mike and Nic came over for coffee and in the afternoon we went exploring the same territory once again, but this time without the fog. 

It was a bit like exploring the two characters of Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde. Both deep and intriguing, one mysterious and the other charming.

Afterwards it was back to Bonny for beer in the cockpit in the sunshine. This afternoon we'll go off exploring somewhere else by dinghy.

The wind is due to return on Friday, when both Bonny and Zen Again will continue eastwards.