LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 249:
Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Moored St. Peters Lions Club Marina on the Bras d'Or Lakes, Cape Breton
Is., NS
0920 We visit the Village Grocery for some supplies and settle our fuel
and dockage bill with the marina. Fuel is $0.76 Canadian per liter or
about $1.89 US per gal. Dockage is $0.70 Canadian per foot or about
$0.46 US per foot.
1039 Underway. We move the boat to the north side of the locks and tie
alongside to call the lock/bridge tender.
1056 We secure the engine and wait for the bridge and lock.
1127 We pass through the canal thanking the lock tender and bidding him
a good fall and winter; we tell him how we look forward to returning to
the Bras d'Or. I personally believe Bras d'Or is one of the nicest
sailing areas I know. When it comes to large protected bodies of water I
think the beauty of the Bras d'Or in the summer easily rivals that of
the Chesapeake in the fall of the year.
1130 We push the power up to 2300 rpm (speed 5.7 kts) and take up a
south course out of St. Peters Bay; our destination is Canso Town on the
tip of Cape Canso, a distance of 21 nm. The wind is light (SSW 6-8 kts)
and pretty much on the nose, so we are likely to motor most the way
today.
1219 We pass abeam of Cap La Ronde on Ile Madame.
1332 Motoring between Green and Petit-de-Grat Islands, we turn SSW
across the 8 nm wide mouth of Chedabucto Bay toward Canso. The wind is S
15-16 kts and kicking up a chop; we push the power up to 2600 rpm to
keep the boat moving (5.0 kts) against the wind and sea; SOG is 4.5 kts.
1526 Entering Canso Harbour, we come back on the throttle to slow the
engine. The wild beauty of the islands is really striking: bald granite,
lush dark green shrubs/muskeg, and evergreen forests.
1600 We lower and set the anchor in 33 feet of water in front of the
Grassy Island Interpretive Center. After a couple attempts to set the
anchor, we veer 175 feet of chain and try again; it turns out that the
anchor needs the extra scope to hold in this bottom. Position: 45 20.222
N 60 59.368 W.
1630 We go ashore in the dinghy for a tour of the Grassy Island
Interpretive Center. Grassy Island is located in the SE portion of Canso
Town harbour. At the Center we watch a short video that introduces us
to the significance of this island as an active fishing center since the
1500s. The first Europeans who came here to fish were the Basques and
the French. The video explains that Grassy Island at one time was the
site of what was probably then the largest fishery in North America, and
the codfish was the major draw. It brought fishermen to the region for
hundreds years. Three or four centuries ago the codfish in the NW
Atlantic were so plentiful that fishermen would simply toss a hook &
line into the water from the deck of a sailing ship and pull up cod;
whole ship's crews would engage in doing this. During these years,
multiple-millions of codfish were harvested in the NW Atlantic per year
by hand lining alone. Today it seems hard to imagine that there could
have been enough fish in the ocean that this method of fishing would be
so productive! Yet there are further accounts from that era about how in
clear shallow water where one could see the bottom; the sea floor
appeared to be carpeted with codfish. Cod fishing, at the time, was
pretty much the major industry in the world for seafaring nations like
England and France; for England it provided more than half the national
annual income.
The following is excerpted from a pamphlet entitled Grassy Island
National Historic Park' published by authority of the Minister of the
Environment, Canada:
The Canso Islands have been an important fishing center for centuries.
Basque and French vessels first came here in the mid 1500s to fish on
the rich offshore Banks and to dry their catch on the rocky beaches of
the islands. In 1607, Champlain's companion, Marc Lescarbot, met a
French captain at nearby Whitehaven who had already made 42 voyages to
the area... By the 1690s, New Englanders were beginning to sail north to
trade with [fishermen here] The fishing industry at Canso [had become]
a vital part of the economy, not only of Nova Scotia, but also of New
England. [In time] prominent New England merchants dominated the trade,
sending fishing schooners and transport ships to Canso and employing
workers, known as  shorehands, to cure the fish... The present-day
settlement of Canso developed on the mainland early in the 19th century.
It became a prosperous fishing village and gained additional prominence
after the establishment of overseas telegraph cable-stations here in
the 1880s.According to one of our guide books: Cruising the Eastern Shore by
Mike Cox, During the American Revolution Captain John Paul Jones burned
the town [of Canso] to the ground.
1730 We take a nice walk along the shore before returning aboard Lord's
Prayer.
1830 Two swimmers approach the boat; I hear their voices while I'm in
the cabin. I step into the cockpit. Two young men are swimming together;
they have swum a pretty good distance in 65-degree water. They rest for
a bit holding onto the boat and we chat. Both men are youthful, round
faced, and somewhat round of body, which no-doubt helps keep the chill
away. After several minutes, they swim for the wharf at the Interpretive
Center.
2000 We hoist the dinghy onto the foredeck with the outboard motor still
on the stern and secure it there. We will be making a long run tomorrow
along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia; if the sea gets rough it will
be better to have the dinghy aboard. In addition, we should be able to
move a bit faster without the drag of the dinghy in tow.
END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 249
.