Towards the north end of the Bras d’Or lakes, 30 miles from St. Pierre, lies the town of Baddeck. This is the big city hereabouts, with two boat yards, a municipal pier, lots of restaurants and shops catering to the tourist and yachting crowd.

There are lots of moorings, and in the high season (which starts in July) it might be tough to lie on your own pick close to the action. But right now there is plenty of space for us (being the only non-local boat around).

As we have found throughout Canada, the locals are very welcoming.

They are late launching their boats. Weather has been less than pleasant this spring. In fact, this is the first really nice day they have had in a long time.

Baddeck Marine stores boats over the winter and does projects for the owners. Late spring they put their docks back into the water and begin to launch and rig boats. It is a busy place right now. They have a nice marine store and friendly staff.

There are a variety of boats waiting to go back into the water. We were taken with the shape of this little yacht.

The Baddeck Yacht Club is a hive of activity during the short cruising season – July through mid-September. But right now it appears to be in hibernation.

Taking advantage of the dry weather, we remove our flying bridge and house side awnings, rinse them with fresh water, and give them a cleaning prior to storage. Although summer is coming on (in theory at least) we figure we will not need these awnings in Greenland or crossing the North Atlantic. Might as well keep them out of the sun, such as it is, for now.

Baddeck has charming residential streets.

This caught our eye. The entire shed, including the area to the right of the truck, is filled with wood. Do you think this is an indicator of the weather?

Local gardens are taking advantage of the brief summer, and are in full bloom.

Alexander Graham Bell had a home in Baddeck and conducted many experiments here. There is a fascinating museum dedicated to him, with wonderful exhibits. Included is a recreation of a record-setting hydrofoil boat with twin aircraft engines. They also have extensive grounds with irresistible wildflowers.

Activities on the water were limited to installation of moorings and this schooner, taking school kids for a sail.

Chris and Anna, aboard this fiberglass Atkins-designed Ingrid circumnavigated in the same era as ourselves (olden days) and have made many visits to Greenland and Labrador. We had a fascinating dinner together learning about cruising with ice. Note the two water dogs aboard.

It only requires a few minutes of sunshine to take your breath away with colors and contrasts.

From Baddeck it is just 40 miles to Ingomesh, on the north coast of Cape Breton Island, a good jumping off spot for points north. This takes you out a well defined but narrow channel which is listed in the tide books, but for which we could find no tidal current data. In the photo above you are looking at four knots of current, favorable for a change, during what is supposed to be the point of minimum tidal height. If there were a Norther blowing against this current you would have breaking seas.

While it may be overcast, the clouds have lovely shapes to wonder at.

In the days before Sat Nav and GPS, a quick glimpse of the sun like this would have us reaching for the sextant.

Having left Baddeck at 1500, we were at anchor by 1930 with enough time for a pear tartin to be produced in the galley.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we tackle the Cabot Straits.