For our vacation this year, we planned a little sailing trip from Halifax to St. Margaret's Bay. The MacGregor 26 sailboat isn't quite big enough for long periods of time on the ocean, so we figured making the eighty-something kilometre trip down the coast would be a good adventure. It combined a mixture of open ocean with some shelter as we made it down the bay to our rented mooring for the week.

Day 1

The first day of our sailing adventure went exactly as planned - except for the things that didn't. We arrived at the boat early enough to start getting it ready to set sail on a week long trip. Even still, we didn't get away until just before noon; which was also planned.

The wind was really light to start off. It began to pick up more and more as we made our way out of Halifax Harbour. It wasn't until we were starting to get some good breeze farther out the bay when I realized I had forgotten to lock the truck and put up the windows. The lock on the truck I would have assumed the risk and just kept going. But the fact that the windows would be left open for a week made us turn around. At least it was only a few kilometres out and not a two days sail away.

It didn't take long to motor in there speedboat style, secure the truck, and speed back out to where we were. Maybe 45 minutes or so, but what we made up for in time, we paid for in gas. From there we kept sailing for a while and finished off the day motoring in around Sambro Harbour.

We noticed a lone mooring ball as we passed Sambro Island and as we took a look at all the other areas we could anchor in the bay, we eventually decided to head back out to the island and grab the mooring for the night. Anchoring works, but grabbing a mooring gives you a much better piece of mind while sleeping. The mooring was tested by all the boats before it over multiple hours and days. A set anchor was never really tested more than a few hours in one kind of weather condition.

It gave us some piece of mind so we could sit down and enjoy these delicious scallop skewers before calling it a night.

Day 2

The second day, although it finished off really nice, was not a day for the scenery. We ended up motoring out a few kilometres from land in complete fog almost all day. There was pretty much no wind and the swells out there were quite big, so the motor came in handy for this 53 kilometre leg of the trip.

Once we made it to Peggy's Cove, the fog lifted and we were able to see some scenery after a long day of nothing but fog, waves, and the odd bird. By the time we were a few more kilometres into St. Margaret's Bay, the fog was well behind us and we were treated to a great view all the way down to our mooring spot at the marina for the night.

In the evening, we were treated to calm skies and a great sunset.

@davidkingns even caught 3 fish.

Continue the adventure in Part 2