August 26-27, 2025 Couple of Short Cruises

Tuesday August 26, 2025 Mahone Bay Marina to Young Island Anchorage 7 miles and 1 hour

Our week reservation at Mahone Bay Marina is up and they have a 65' Nordhaven coming in to take our place at the dock, so definitely time to go. But first we needed to move around to the side dock and see if we can get their short pumpout hose to reach our fitting. High tide, no wind and pushing the boat as far forward on the dock as possible gave us just enough hose to get it done. Mahone Bay is a fantastic cruising area with a large number of islands worth exploring. A conservation group has bought several islands and even installed mooring balls for public use. We headed for Young Island where the little cove on our charts looked ideal for protection from the west and southwest winds. Just a quick trip around a few islands and we were there. Grabbed one of the mooring balls and had the cove all to ourselves. All secured by noon gave us time to drop a kayak and do some exploring. Discovered the cove on the other side of the island has several waterfront houses making ours the better cove. Even got the drone launched for a few pictures. Nice Sunset too.

Drone shot - can you see us? by the pilothouse door?

Panoramic drone shot of the Young Island anchorage

Water is 10' deep here and you can see the rocks, seaweed and kelp on the bottom.
68 degrees and still too cold for us to go swimming

Sun keeps setting behind trees

It was still a beautiful sunset and evening

Short journey for August 26, 2025

Wednesday August 27, 2025 Young Island to LaHave Islands anchorage 36 miles and 5 hours

Sunset was nice but sunrise was even prettier. Weather apps have been forecasting Thursday as a good day to make the run to Shelburne. We decided to try cutting a few hours off that trip by testing the offshore conditions today and moving a few miles east if possible. Seas are showing at 4' but with a long period.

Came topside to turn off the anchor light and caught this magnificent sunrise

No hurry today so we took the scenic tour around Mahone Bay past Oak Island before heading out. Good to see them at work which will insure at least another season of the show. Of course, since they're still drilling holes and planting caissons, they obviously haven't found that elusive treasure yet.

Follow the yellow line for our detour around that Cursed Oak Island

Still drilling and hoping to find the money pit

Processing the drilling spoils by Smiths Cove

Heading out we could feel the swells building. Not waves - just big swells and predominantly on the bow. Never jarring like waves but a noticeable movement riding up and down. Decided after a few hours to call it a day and anchor in the LaHave Islands.

Passing some rugged shoreline

Came across these folks out fishing on a nice old woody

Swells breaking on the rocks

Not an area where you want to be having engine problems.

Charts showed several anchorages. First one was a bit further in which got us away from the swells but after repeated failures to get the anchor to hook we gave up. Must have been a solid rock bottom as we could feel the anchor and chain vibrating each time it dragged. This is the very first time we've had to completely abandon an anchorage. Moved over to Bell Channel between two other islands. Not as far inland so we feel some swells, but the anchor grabbed right away here. Still have some wind protection and swells should decrease further overnight. We'll be out early in the morning, so we'll make this work.