Day 45 – Yarmouth to Brier Island

We left Yarmouth early while the harbor was very calm; I cooked eggs and English muffins below deck while Andrew navigated out the channel. The engine ran smooth. With the current, we did seven knots up to the narrow passage between Brier and Long Island. The charts were dotted with markings for six knot currents there. Isla does about 5.5 knots at 2000 RPM, but with planned timing, the strong currents would aid our arrival. However, as we approached they were surprisingly weak, and we were left to wonder when, if not midway through the flood tide, did six knot currents occur?

We pulled into the breakwater and picked a lobster boat for a rafting buddy. Andrew confirmed we wouldn’t bottom out at low tide, it was deep enough, and we set off on a loop around the southwestern half of the island.

We reached Brier Island Light; a woman stopped her car to tell us with disbelief, “The seagulls are roosting in trees here!” That might have been unusual, but you can imagine a gull in a scrubby evergreen, underwhelming.

I talked to a Haligonian birding on the point; he was watching guillemots, gannets, and eiders through an enormous spotting scope. Andrew and I walked into the nature preserve, past seagulls and trees, the rookery, and along the wandering sea side path.

Monarch butterflies were following the shore, stopping on the purple thistle flowers dotting the greenery. As I crouched down to photograph one, Caly misinterpreted my drop to her level as play time, ran over and jumped up, pushing my camera hard into the bridge of my nose. Eyes watering, I angrily clarified that I did not want to play.

Birds migrating to and from the Arctic and less northern parts of Canada rest on the island, and we watched raptors and seabirds flying overhead. Towards the end of our loop, we came to a monument for Joshua Slocum. Slocum had lived on the island before making his famous solo circumnavigation, the first of its kind.

Scattered nearby were the polygonal rocks. We had imagined perfect hexagonal columns; they proved only slightly more interesting than the tree roost-ers. Cormorants and gulls were floating out the channel between the point and Peter Island, pushed along at speed by the ebbing current.

We walked back towards the harbor and noted the gas station opened at eight o’clock. We ate dinner on Isla and got some good rest.