Sailing 2020 From Chesapeake to Nova Scotia

[hpeer]

Slug,

I agree with your point. And sometimes the weather does not cooperate.

[peter loveridge]

It's a lot easier to clear customs at Shelburne than Lunenburg. The wharves in Lunenburg are crowded, may not be available and are subject to wakes. Border services want you to come alongside, they do not go out to moorings or anchored boats. Be sure to declare alcohol and firearms. While Marihuana is legal in NS it is not legal to import it. No pots are in the water after May31 anywhere south of Halifax. No pots are in the water anywhere after August 1st. The only fishing boats you will have a problem with are the herring seiners. These are quite large and go around in a bunch in random directions. Usually they are west of Shelburne. Long lines have a buoy at each end , so are usually in pairs, there are not that many of them within 20 miles of the coast. No reasonably found boat will get significant damage from hitting one of these, the worst is you might get a scratch from the radar reflector. Be aware it is a common practice for longline and gill-net boats to lie adrift at night with radar and engines off and the crew sleeping. I'd hope a riding light would be on but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Todays boats are quite large, 55-=65 feet LOA and 30+ feet beam. Hitting one of these in the dark will ruin your night

[slug]

Originally Posted by peter loveridge

It's a lot easier to clear customs at Shelburne than Lunenburg. The wharves in Lunenburg are crowded, may not be available and are subject to wakes. Border services want you to come alongside, they do not go out to moorings or anchored boats. Be sure to declare alcohol and firearms. While Marihuana is legal in NS it is not legal to import it. No pots are in the water after May31 anywhere south of Halifax. No pots are in the water anywhere after August 1st. The only fishing boats you will have a problem with are the herring seiners. These are quite large and go around in a bunch in random directions. Usually they are west of Shelburne. Long lines have a buoy at each end , so are usually in pairs, there are not that many of them within 20 miles of the coast. No reasonably found boat will get significant damage from hitting one of these, the worst is you might get a scratch from the radar reflector. Be aware it is a common practice for longline and gill-net boats to lie adrift at night with radar and engines off and the crew sleeping. I'd hope a riding light would be on but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Todays boats are quite large, 55-=65 feet LOA and 30+ feet beam. Hitting one of these in the dark will ruin your night

When do the giant bluefin tuna pass thru that Canso area ? July ?
Spectacular sight

[peter loveridge]

last time I went tuna fishing was late September. This was off Port Mouton. Not a fishery for the faint-hearted

[Lewisail]

I made the return trip from Baltimore to Nova Scotia 4 years ago. We sailed direct to Halifax, cleared customs and sailed to Port Hawkesbury’s Strait of Canso Yacht Club, my home base. We went into the Bras D’Or Lakes at St. Peter’s.
Let me know if you need additional info on this region as I keep my boat in Port Hawkesbury and would be pleased to assist and welcome you to SCYC. Fair winds.

[jen1722terry]

We're Yanks who own a home in Mahone Bay, NS (15 minutes by car from Lunenburg). We summer on our boat in Northeast Harbor, ME (near Acadia NP). We've sailed from there over to Mahone Bay. If you're thinking of harbor hoping coming back, Liverpoole, Lockport and Shelburne are nice stops. Yarmouth has fuel and provisions and from there it's an overnight to Adadia NP. You can clear customs at Bar Harbor or Northeast Harbor. Another option is to sail from Yarmouth up to Eastport, ME and clear customs there, then sail west to Roque Island, Maine's loveliest, pristine beach and a great overnight, then it's an easy run over to Acadia. We recommend Northeast Harbor for access to Acadia as it's the most sheltered, moorings are reasonable, the town is much quiter than Bar Harbor and there is a free bus to take you most anywhere on the island. PM us if you're stopping in and and we can give you more details or a drink in the cockpit.

Coming east, if you clear customs at Shelburne, Mahone Bay harbor may be a better stop than Lunenburg for it is much less foggy, has ample rental moorings, dinghy dock at the town wharf and is just a very pleasant little town. If you're going to stop there, PM us before you do. We/may/may not be there and you could use our mooring (our boat will still be in Maine). We live on the water just across from the main town.

Other nice stops in Maine are Castine, Stonington, Northhaven/Vinalhaven,
Camden (busy but pretty town), Tennants Harbor, Rockland, even Portland. Lots of nice harbors and islands to explore. We've summered there for 4 staight years on our 31-footer and have only scratched the surface.

Oh, one thing if you're coming from the northern Chessy via the C&D canal: it's a short cut to use the Cape May canal and the town is worth a few days to explore the grand Victorian buildings. There is a mast height restriction of, I think, 60 feet. If you can use the canal, it saves a long run south of the Cape to avoid the extensive shoaling.

Best of luck with the plans, feel free to PM us with any questions.

Jenn and Terry

[hpeer]

Cap May Canal bridge height is 55’

[bicyclewriter]

Thanks for the great input everybody. Really appreciate it!

[Mark Thurlow]

We did this trip last year wonderful. Do go to the B’dor lakes; visiting the Conor trail from Baddeck.

We went up on the outside and back down the inside C and D canal and NY. Wonderful.

You may find the Salty Dawg Sailing Association and the Ocean Cruising Club running rally’s. Great fun - low cost and great knowledge. Have a look at the websites.

If you are US and US flagged entering Canada is a doddle and a phone call is all that is need. We being Brits had to go to the dock and have customs on board; mostly to talk about our Queen ofcourse!

[leveramikes]

Wow what an amazing thread. Much of the info I was looking for I found right here. Thank you all for contributing. I have a couple of questions. I'm about to purchase a sailboat and plan to sail her up to NS or PEI where I live. Sailing routes will be no problem. I'll want to equip the boat with radar. The boat has Raymarine electronics. What advice can anyone give me on purchasing radar. Secondly, I must have work done on the boat somewhere in NS and as close to PEI as possible. I will need to haul out for a time then relaunch where I could complete my upgrades. I'm looking at heating, radar, self steering, and additional fuel tanks as upgrades. I would appreciate boatyard/marina with travel lift options which can tackle this type of work. Or I am I better off doing the work in Annapolis where I would be coming from. I'd certainly prefer Canada because of the exchange.
Big Thanks.

[slug]

Originally Posted by leveramikes

Wow what an amazing thread. Much of the info I was looking for I found right here. Thank you all for contributing. I have a couple of questions. I'm about to purchase a sailboat and plan to sail her up to NS or PEI where I live. Sailing routes will be no problem. I'll want to equip the boat with radar. The boat has Raymarine electronics. What advice can anyone give me on purchasing radar. Secondly, I must have work done on the boat somewhere in NS and as close to PEI as possible. I will need to haul out for a time then relaunch where I could complete my upgrades. I'm looking at heating, radar, self steering, and additional fuel tanks as upgrades. I would appreciate boatyard/marina with travel lift options which can tackle this type of work. Or I am I better off doing the work in Annapolis where I would be coming from. I'd certainly prefer Canada because of the exchange.
Big Thanks.

Ive used furuno radars for the past 40 years

Open and closed ant

No complaints , never a failure , very good sensitivity

In calm water I can see seals poke their heads out of the sea and sea turtles recovering on the surface

I prefer mast mount

Radar is most valuable At range 0 to 4 miles

Have a pro spec your system o
and commission it

A stand alone radar is preferable

Charts on the radar screen are a distraction

Anything on the radar screen that is not a reflection is a distraction

The Waypoint lollipop is critical for finding bouys and know objects

[bicyclewriter]

Regarding the Cape May stopover, we've stopped over there a few times now, and I'm always tempted to use the canal at low tide, but with our air draft of 54'3 I always opt for the long slog around the shoals. I figure that the equipment on top of the mast adds about a foot, and even if I did it at low tide the margin of error is just too small to be attractive to me. I'd be interested if others have transited with an air draft similar to ours.


The other option that I also always reject is the passage along the shore, which on all the charts shows as an acceptable option but then I hear consistent advice that shoaling makes this a risky option. Our 4'7 draft is likely to be okay, but the conservative and risk-averse side of my brain has always won so far.


We're thinking that next time we transit using the Delaware we might just use Lewes as the stopover instead. Thoughts on Lewes as a stopover? Decent anchorage with dinghy access to town?

[walkabout08]

And be prepared to dress like you're heading out for a day of skiing. Otherwise nighttime watch in the fog and cold will be pretty unbearable. If you have a means to heat the cabin that will also make the trip more comfortable. I use a couple of backpacker gas lanterns which can take the damp and chill out.

[CaptWho]

Here's a youtube series that has a couple of young sailors passing through Nova Scotia on their way to Europe.

Starts at episode 190 of "Sailing Uma".

[Tim R.]

We did a trip to NS back in 2014. Here is our Blog. Start at May 2014. We did coastal cruising all the way there and back before heading to the Bahamas for the winter. Made it into the Bras' D'or lakes and did some touring on land and some mountain biking.

TKRonaBoat - Blog