We were in the mood for more land activities. It was a surprise to us, but Nova Scotia has multiple wineries and makes really excellent wine, especially white wine.  We decided to try to go wine tasting in the Annapolis Valley, up on the north side if the province.  To get there, we would need to rent a car. Unfortunately, after multiple googles and phone calls, we found out that the only places to rent one were Halifax and Bridgewater, a fairly large town all the way up the La Have River. We pulled our anchor up and headed up the river under motor, timing it so that the tide would help cancel out some of the river current.

We made another quick stop at the La Have Bakery for lunch and a bit of walkabout, then wound our way upriver.  As the river got narrower and more more twisty, you definitely had to pay attenion to stay in the channel and not get pushed out by the current!

Once we arrived, we had a little bit of a rodeo getting tied up to the dock which was crossways to the river current, but luckily some locals at the marina helped us.  We had to put one of the lines on one of our winches to pull the boat upstream into the dock. I’m still learning a lot about WildHorse, including slow-speed maneuvering,

The next day, we got our rent-a-car, with the plan to go for a little hike first, then go wine tasting in the afternoon.  However, since we had folks aboard, had been cooking all summer including baking, and had a car, I thought that I would quickly go refill the propane tank that morning.  It was getting pretty empty and I didn’t want to run out with our friends abaord.

Well, you soon learn that any task on a boat takes three times as long and costs twice as much as you planned for, and simply filling a propane tank is apparenly included in that.  I took the tank over to Canadian Tire, where the folks at the marina recommended a fill, but they didn’t have the right adapter.  I then took it to a local fuel service company, and they noticed that the tank hadn’t been inspected and was about 10 years overdue.  Grrrr.  I had filled the tank a couple of times in New England, and this was the first time anyone had said anything about that.  I guess they are more strict in Canada.  However, luckily it was a slow day for the company and they said that they could do the pressure test and fill the tank while we waited, about a half hour. 

Mark and I went and did an errand, but when we came back apparently the tank needed a new valve, which they didn’t have in stock. They could get a new one but had to have it shipped from Halifax and it wouldn’t get there until the next day.  Now, the tank was completely empty since they had removed the old valve to test it, so we couldn’t cook or even make coffee on board!  They called Mr. Propane in Dartmouth, very close to where we had the boat moored itinitally, and they did have the part.  We decided to all go up to Halifax and get the tank filled on our way to our days’ activity. So, we loaded up the car, and off we all went to Mr. Propane!  We hated to make our friends deal with this too, but that’s boat life, I guess.

After about 3 hours of dealing with the propane tank, it was finally full, certified for 5 more years, and were able to contiue our day.  Remember, 3 times longer, 2 times more expensive…

We had found what looked like an interesting trail up at Cape Split, and it did turn out to be a nice hike, ending up overlooking the Bay of Fundy.  The Bay of Fundy has the largest tides in the world, and Cape Split is one of the places that has the largest ones. The tidal range there that day was 34 feet!

Cape Split

Whitewater from tidal current at the cape. Those standing waves at the top are in deep water, not the shallows. Glad that we didn’t try to take WildHorse up there!

After our hike, we went to a couple of wineries and tasted their wines. It ended up being pretty late in the day by the time we went, so we had dinner at one of the wineries that also had a restaurant, which was excellent!

Grand Pré winery, which also had a great restaurant.

Overnight and the next day it started raining pretty heavily and we didn’t feel like moving the boat in the rain, so we kept the car an extra day and went back wine tasting again.  We tasted some good wines and picked blueberries, then went out for dinner again and had enormous plates of pasta, also really good.

When we got back to the boat that evening, we found that the La Have river was in flood stage from all the rain. It was all the way up to the banks. The docks were floating docks, and they were so high that they were only about 18” from the ends of the support pilings… Not good!

Next morning, although the river was down a bit, the current was still raging.  We were on the downstraam side of the dock, and the dock lines were so tight that they actually played a note if you plucked them.  We had to figure out how to get off the dock without being swept downstream and crashing into other boats and so that nobody got hurt.

Luckily, Elaine and Mark are big whitewater river rafters and kayakers, and this was right up their alley. However, instead of a 2,500 lb raft, this was a 28,000 lb sailboat. We couldn’t have anyone on the dock, since once we untied the boat, we would be moving fast and they might not make it back on board. Of course, the helpful locals were not there…. We decided to put loops around the cleats with both ends of the lines on the boat, then uncleat one end and quickly pull the line in. The danger would be that if the line kinked or got stuck on the cleat, with all that force you could lose a finger, or, if we had to cut the line they could snap back with enough force to really hurt someone.  Jack was at the wheel, line handlers were geared up with our bike helmets and thick life jackets for protection, and we executed the plan, which fortunately went perfectly smoothly with no body parts lost or boat bumper car action. Whew!  We then had a speedy ride back downstream and out into the ocean again.

Successful Line Handlers