We left Cape Breton and spent a week at the house. We heard from Seahawk and they were on their way to Halifax from Cape Cod. We were watching the forecast as Hurricane Bill was headed for Nova Scotia. Seahawk arrived on Thursday, and Bill was scheduled to arrive on Sunday. On Friday they headed off for an overnight to Cape Breton, and we headed down by car. On Saturday we took Bird from Baddeck to Washabuck River, and Seahawk headed from St. Peter's to Washabuck arriving around suppertime. The kids had a great time swimming in the warm waters of the Bras D'or and we all had supper together. It was great to get caught up. On Sunday morning we stripped the boats down and waited for Bill. There was lots of rain, but not a whole lot of wind in our snug little anchorage up the Washabuck River. The storm was over in the late afternoon, and Dave took this picture of Annie, Kristen and I swimming over to Seahawk after the storm. On Monday we took the boat back to Baddeck and then headed up to Dave's parent's in Whycocomagh to start some projects there. 
On Tuesday, Seahawk came up to Whycocomagh, and Annie, Kristen and I took them for a hike up Salt Mountain. This is a picture of Annie and Karol looking over Whycocomagh. The weather remained unsettled for the rest of the week and Dave worked hard to get projects done at his parents so we could take a few days off and go sailing. In the end we didn't get much of a cruise. We spent the night on the boat in Baddeck on Friday night and went for a walk and got ice cream with Seahawk. On Saturday we headed back to Washabuck to batten down for tropical storm Danny! It was another wet and windy storm, but we'd certainly seen worse, and we felt really secure in Washabuck. Originally, we had planned to take Bird back to Pictou this weekend, but the weather was too unsettled, so on Monday we drove back to Pictou.
On Thursday, the kids went back to school. It was quite a bit different from starting school last year!! On Labour Day weekend we headed back to Cape Breton. We left after school on Friday, and got some pizza in Baddeck. After much debate, we headed out of Baddeck around 7:00 on Friday night to head for St. Peter's. It was beautiful night and we had a lovely peaceful crossing of the south lake. The channel from the lake up to St. Peter's is pretty tricky and we were glad to have the help of an almost full moon to pick out the buoys. We tied up by the lock around 11:30. On Saturday morning we were locked through by 8:20 and headed back to Pictou. We were expecting it to be pretty windy in the afternoon so we were pleased to have reasonably calm seas crossing over to Cape George. We pushed right through to Pictou as the wind was forecast to be over 20 knots on Sunday. We arrived in Pictou at 11:30pm. On Sunday morning we got up and got the second car and headed back down to Cape Breton to pick up the truck. We finally got back home in the middle of the afternoon, only to find out that we had to move the boat to another slip! We were really tired!
We thought Monday was going to be a day off, but we were excited when we got an email from Three@sea, friends we hadn't met yet, who were on their way to Pictou. We spent the day tidying up the house and trying to scrape together some supper with all the stores closed. They arrived around 5:00 and we had a great visit with them. They also have a 12 year old daughter so it was fun to meet another "cruiser kid" now that we have returned home.
On Tuesday, Dave headed up to Halifax to start his new job. On Friday, I met with my old employer and was offered my old job back so I will be back to work in the middle of October.
In the meantime I'm keeping busy getting the house painted and cleaning all the closets and cupboards -- maybe going back to work won't be so bad after all!!
We really enjoyed our trip. We look back at it, all the great places we went, all the great people we met and we can't wait to pack up and go again. We were so fortunate with weather and with how well the boat and all the systems worked, but I give Dave all the credit for that with careful planning and lots of maintenance. I hope you enjoyed reading this log of our journey. It is pretty weird putting this together when you have no idea who is reading it(if anyone). If you enjoyed it, I'd love to hear from you - drop us a line at Birdonawireboat@gmail.com.
Cathy
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