If our crossing the Reversing Falls a week earlier was turbulent and wild, our crossing Friday morning was almost serene. Brio says "almost" because there were still tidal eddies and swirls together with threatening debris that made our trip down River tricky. But when the time approached for slack water, when the height of water in the Harbour is close to the height of water in the River, we headed down and were amazed at the relative serenity. Our trip to Yarmouth held still more surprises. Read on, McDuff!
Here are some of the tidal swirls at the head of the Reversing Falls. As Brio entered these eddies, she spun around, changing course governed by what the tidal pools did and nothing from the helm. It was fascinating to watch these tidal pools moving around the River, first ahead of us, then aside us, then moving away from us, then moving towards us. The hydrostatic forces must be immense. This was all happening immediately upstream of the Falls, which are only about 12 feet deep at low tide.
The only real worry here was the debris that was being carried up the River by the tide. Logs, planks and branches were being distributed around the River as the eddies played with them as if they were soccer balls being kicked back and forth around the field. These things could damage Brio's props, something we were very vigilent about now.
Our goal was to get down River and the time came when the River almost appeared placid below these eddies. Down we went, towards the bridge below.
We passed the yellow buoy on the right, then Split Rock on the left where we met the firehose jet on our starboard side when we rounded it coming up the River a week before. Now all was quiet and we entered the Harbour below.
Now we aimed to leave the Harbour, past all of the shipping docks, ocean-going freighters that were unloading cargo, and the Canadian Coast Guard Station. Out into the Bay of Fundy where we could increase our speed, knowing our activity was being monitored by Fundy Traffic through our AIS system that identified Brio to all who wanted to know and who followed the marine traffic just as air traffic controllers follow planes.
Now we had to be mindful of shipping on our own. Traffic Separation Lanes are established to keep ships from running into each other. The Bay of Fundy has these, too. So we kept to the outgoing lane to respect the orderly nature of Fundy Traffic.
Here is the chart of our 100 mile trip down The Bay. This is a "heads-up" display, showing the direction in which we are headiong as the top of the display. Our waypoint is the flag off of Meteghan. The 656 circle is the depth contour. That area of the Bay is where whales might be because it is so deep. Actually, the deepest reading on the chart is about 750 feet. Sadly, we did not see any whales on this leg of the trip.
Fog is an ever-present threat. And so it was for us at about this point in our crossing. We entered a thick fog bank. We slowed to 10 to 12 knots. We turned on our own fog hour, which sounds a ten second blast every two minutes. And we turned on the radar. Thank goodness for radar! We only saw one image on radar. It must have been a large ship. It was about 1.5 miles to our east, traveling up the Bay in the Inbound Separation Lane. But we never actually saw it. The radar image was very large and distinct, but the fog was too thick for our human eyes to spot it.
Eventually the fog began to dissapate and we sped up. Off went the radar and the fog horn. But the waves became too large for comfort, so we throttled back again. Look at the chart again where it shows Long Island. We guessed that if we could go through that long peninsula by the channel that cuts the peninsula diagonally, we would then travel in protected waters because the waves were coming from the southwest.
So we changed course and headed for that diagonal channel. It meant traveling down wind and down waves, immediately more comfortable. We soed up again, all the way to the diagonal channel. Then that same fast speed through the diagonal channel, and then around the curving coast, beyond the edge of the chart, to Yarmouth and our home for Friday night.
We docked at Killam's Marina, the town dock. Being the weekend, it was time to celebrate! There was a stage and chairs set up for a concert to show off local talent until 10 p.m. Most of the bands were pretty good. The best part was seeing so many townspeople enjoying themselves, applauding heartily and listening intently to the music. It was a good time! Welcome to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia!
Cheers,
Brio
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