Lobster Delight!

Having anchored at McNutt island last night meant that we could shave off about 1 hour of our journey today to Cape Sable Island.

We made good time in the end and anchored at West Bay Wharf at 3:30pm.

We tried to sail but to no avail. The wind was nowhere to be found and the fog, oh my! It was so thick again. It's lucky we have radar on the boat. Even though we can't see more than a couple hundred metres around us, we know if there is anything close by because of our radar.

Coming into the wharf was a bit tricky because there is no real write-up about this place since it's a commercial fishing wharf, not somewhere cruisers come normally.

So we had to get fenders and lines ready on both sides and just putter around very very slowly to see what was what.

In the end, 2 jolly Canadian Coastguards came out and directed us to a free berth at the end of one slip, and even helped us take our lines for us.

These docks are humongous and extremely tall. We arrived pretty much at high tide and in this part of the province the tide drops about 7 or 8 feet. So we had to make sure our lines weren't too tightly wound around the wooden pillars on the dock or we would literally find ourselves hanging. Not good!

We also used our fender boards for the first time to prevent us from bumping into the dock. Fender boards are basically long pieces of wood with a rope at each end where you can tie them between two fenders and have a continuous part where there is no risk of the boat rubbing up against the dock.

We decided to come to West Bay Wharf because we were meeting an old friend of mine from University days, and she happened to live in Cape Sable Island with her family! Denise Nickerson and Rob, and their 2 kids Olivia and Ben came on board for a BBQ dinner. They even brought fresh live lobster. Rob is a lobster fisherman so we had an expert to help us cook and shell these east coast delicacies.

Oh my goodness, I was in lobster heaven. I LOVE eating with my hands and this was just absolute bliss. After cooking them down below, we cracked and shelled them up on deck and threw what we couldn't eat into the water. So simple and so fun!

Thank you both for coming and showing us more amazing Maritime hospitality. Oh, and just as luck would have it, our propane tank ran out just as I was about to boil the pot of salted water to cook the lobsters in.

So Matt and Rob made a quick run to get a new one in Rob's truck. Honestly, it was the best timing because we would be stuck with an empty propane tank, no way to cook on board and gasp - no way to boil hot water tomorrow morning, which meant no coffee! Disaster averted.

It was so nice to share our journey with old friends. And so nice to meet their kids too!

Due to the fog, there is this automatic fog horn that sounds every minute or so. It is hypnotic and very loud. So all night we were soothed by this horn as we went to sleep. But after a passage and a late evening, it didn't take us long to fall asleep.

Tomorrow we head to Yarmouth. We'll spend a few days there, see some friends and then make the big jump to Maine.

Practicing some knots on passage.

Stugi nap

What we saw on passage most the time. F.O.G.

The kids found boulders to climb on.
Great to get some exercise after a longish passage.

If you look closely, the boat behind us is called High Maintenance.

The boat Rob works on.

This was my favorite boat decoration. This little boy is holding a sign that
says "When I grow up I want to be a fisherman like my Daddy."

Chip stand snack when we arrived.

A great little chip stand by the marina. Besides this, tons of fishing boats,
mountains of traps and the Coastguard building, there isn't much else here.

Behind the rock mural is the Coastguard office. 

Holding these wiggly and squirmy things.

Learning how to tell a girl lobster from a boy lobster.

Ready to take off their elastics and go in the pot.

One big hefty fella.

Ready to eat them NOW! 

Believe it or not, we did have a huge pot big enough to cook these 6 lobsters.
It almost didn't make the cut when we were packing. So glad it did.

Pink and delicious looking, hot from the pot.

The kids did some drawings after dinner!

Small fingers are great for getting that little extra piece of meat.

In my happy element, shelling lobster by hand. Kids loved it too!

Ok this looks a bit insane but I am REALLY enjoying this!