Shelburne Day Trip

Guest post by Matt:


Today we sailed from Shelburne Harbor to ... just outside Shelburne Harbor.

So after the inferno that was the Nova Scotia heat warning yesterday we decided to postpone the shopping trip to today. 

Just as we were discussing the walking route at the yacht club a woman who had come in to pay for her son's sailing camp offered to drive us to the store a km out of town! We seem to have a whole army of guardian angels popping up just when we need them on this trip!


Before shopping Bonnie needed to get started on an article that she has been commissioned to write about our trip. 

Apparently someone has been noticing these (meaning hers, not mine) updates and it's turned into a paid writing commission, awesome! So anyway she set herself up at the next table while us three munched through a mountain of pancakes and got their tablets restocked with ebooks and audio books for the longer passages ahead.

It was a lovely cafe but the owner insisted on keeping the radio loudly tuned to a faraway station that was 95% static. Didn't bother Bonnie though once she got into her flow.

Groceries followed and then the downhill walk back to the marina, and ferrying out the groceries in 2 dinghy rides. So buying one cartload of groceries took up most of our day. 

That's boat life. After seeing that there were only a few hours of decent weather to get around Cape Sable tomorrow we decided to give ourselves a headstart and dispose of our trash and fill up with diesel and water today so we could motor an hour back towards the ocean and anchor just off McNutts Island. The wind will swing 180° tonight but this spot looks like it should be protected from either direction.

The bad news is the rain just started and I've had to leave this update for a while as I climbed about the deck in the cold wet darkness to try and stop the water that's coming in down the mast then dripping off the ceiling of our main salon. I think I managed to do it finally using industrial strength garbage bags and a trailer tie-down. I will judge my success in the morning. Now it's time to dry off and get back to bed. 

Having a boat and living at anchor is a bit like having a newborn. You never really get a deep sleep, often interrupted so you have lack of sleep and often lack of money but you wouldn't trade it for the world. Most of the time. That's boat life.

Kids ploughing through the Hungry Man breakfast while
Bonnie ploughs through a 1,500 word article commission.

The ragged convoy pulls the groceries home through the streets of Shelburne.

Sometimes we shrink the kids to make the boat seem more spacious.

Bonnie practising bow yoga. Admire her anchor salutations.
Or maybe she's practising to be a figurehead.

Managed to hook a mini tree while extricating our anchor from the
gloopy black stinky (but very good anchor-holding )mud of Shelburne Harbor.