| DAY 9. – SACRIFICE ISLAND
– Wind
0, Fog all day with prolonged showers.
This day the fog was totally determined. No amount of fiddling with our electronic fog dispersers would make it go away. We did not dare leave the island and spent the day eating through our stores and exploring the spectacular array of coloured fungi, mosses and lichens which the island has to offer and which grow only in a very damp environment. |
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| DAY 10 – SACRIFICE ISLAND
– Wind
S 2-3, fine and sunny.
We woke to a crystal clear day and
the knowledge
that we had to fly home the next evening. We sailed along the inlet,
which
took us to the back of Lunenburg town, whose streets we were now able
to
explore in the full glory of a warm and sunny autumn day.
 Mahone Bay, to the north of Lunenburg is the largest of the spectacular series of bays, river estuaries and natural harbours which we had been exploring since we set out. The bay is dotted with tens, probably hundreds of small islands, which rest within its sheltering arms. It is about seven miles wide and probably fifteen deep and must offer some of the best sheltered sea sailing in the world. It was to a spot just opposite the town itself that we had to return the boats. |
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| This was a day for easy sailing.
Bottom on
the floorboards, feet on the thwart. If we had been pipe-smokers, they
would surely have been lit as Jim & I discussed the implications of
what we had seen these last ten days. This coast is the wild,
beautiful,
maritime front for a massive and thinly populated country. The nearest
major centre of population is Toronto, three hours away by aeroplane,
two
days by road or rail. It is a dangerous coast, which has yielded
fortunes
to privateers, shipbuilders and fishermen - and this in turn has
produced
a proud people and a fine literature.
But those industries have gone. They are the past on which thrives a new industry: tourism. Americans come for the history, we Brits. come to sail Wayfarers and everybody is beginning to come for the low property prices. Look up into the sky at any moment and you will see the vapour trails of up to twenty jets at a time, all rushing around the great circle of the North Atlantic. Look along the shoreline and you will see lines of chi-chi white houses with lawns and fencing posts replacing the occasional discreet log cabin. There is a connection and Jim agreed that it is time for someone to get political before the beauty is lost in the stampede to posses it. |
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