Heeling

It was a beautiful September morning with a breeze and temperature in the high teens Celsius. The boardwalk was busy as families took advantage of a holiday to take the kids out to see the animals. The shoreline, busy with migrating birds for the last month, was quiet except for the gulls.

Out in the Summerside Harbour, a number of sailboats were headed out past the lighthouse and breakwater for the Northumberland Strait. 

My husband’s reaction to the sailboats was predictable. “This is close enough for me,” he said as he looked out at the boats while I took photos.

My husband had a close call in a fishing boat or rather out of a fishing boat when it capsized. He was lucky they were close to shore. The next year when he visited his uncle in Ontario, while out in his uncle’s sailboat, a freak storm caused anxious moments. Needless to say, he doesn’t go on anything smaller than the Titanic now, and we know how that ended. I concur. While I’ve never been in a sail boat, heeling looks frightening to me. Regardless, the sailboats were a lovely sight for these two seniors as long as others were in them.

Some of the boats looked small from the shoreline, barely visible but for their white sails. How many such boats or tall ships have passed beside the Indian Head Lighthouse since 1881 when it went into service?

 

During the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017, tall ships came into the Summerside Harbour. We watched as some of the vessels left port. I love this photo of one ship beyond the breakwater as the other approaches it. 

The distant vessel looks like a ghost from the past. Back here in the present day however, the boats are smaller, the voyages much shorter and the sailing for enjoyment.

One of the boats, the Sunrise, catches the southerly breeze as she clears the lighthouse/breakwater and heads towards Confederation Bridge. 

The southerly wind causes her to heel to port. She was a beautiful sight as were the others when they joined her there.

Along the shoreline a Ring-billed Gull looks out to sea as if watching the sailboats.

No canvas sails required here.

Answer to a question:

Anita from beautiful Norway at https://lastreasures.blogspot.com asked what kind of camera and lenses I use. 

My camera is a Nikon P900. The camera is 16 megapixel, user friendly, with excellent optical and digital zoom and allows automatic settings for various conditions. It is sufficient for my needs. I have no interest in anything beyond this point and shoot camera.

In the harbour

The harbour at Summerside hasn’t been dredged for a number of years and the process began this past November. There isn’t much boat traffic before the harbour freezes every year, so the dredge boat was an unusual sight. The dredger worked at different locations and when my husband and I photographed it one day, it was positioned near the Indian Head Lighthouse.

We took the first photos in the harbour looking out towards the lighthouse. The sun on the structure highlighted the repair work done over this past summer. 

From the inner harbour, you could see the dredge work on the channel wasn’t far from the lighthouse. 

Zooming in on the activity off-shore in the Northumberland Strait revealed what I thought to be a tug boat with a barge.

One of my favourite images of the two has a crow or raven in the shot as well.

I learned later a barge is pushed into place by a tow boat not a tug. The bow of the tow boat is constructed to allow it to make contact with the barge to manoeuvre it. Below you can see the tow boat pushing the barge.

The barge works in tandem with the dredger. Once the barge is manoeuvred in place, the crane on the dredge boat lifts the soil into the barge. Later it is towed off shore to be dumped.

The harbour will be able to accommodate small cruise ships following this work.

After the Nor’easter

It was a bad storm late last week, possibly the worst this year. The usual culprits, tons of snow, high northeasterly winds and drifting were joined by thunder and lightning, our first experience of that phenomenon during a snow storm. It was a good time to stay inside.

My husband and I hadn’t been past the harbour since Wednesday. Three days later, we were surprised to see open water there. 

The high winds, coupled with high tides, moved the ice off shore. The day before this latest Nor’easter, the sea was ice covered along the southwest coast. 

The Summerside Harbour on March 21/18

March 24/18

Linkletter Park on March 21/18

March 24/18

Evangeline on March 21/18

March 24/18

Meanwhile the shoreline has pans of ice, 

while off-shore some pans are grounded on sand bars.

The 24th was bitterly cold with the Northeast wind making it difficult to steady the camera. I would not have been able to set up a tripod. My hands were near frost bitten. 

On the brighter side, at least the ice is gone! 

What a difference a cloud makes

Cloud cover has a huge impact on light. This is especially evident at the harbour in Summerside this time of year. Ice and snow make a white blanket which reflects the light filtered through the clouds.

A overcast day recently had deep blue gray cloud cover. It reflected blue off the white frozen surface of the harbour. 

Another day, white clouds barely covered the sun and the surface of the harbour reflected silver.

Then there are those days without a cloud in a sunny sky, like this one last April. The sea and sky became one.

Perfect.

The geese at low tide

Over the Labour Day weekend, Canada geese returned to our shores and fields from their summer excursion to the north. Here they will fatten up in preparation for their journey south which usually begins in late December. 

Somehow, they have marked their internal calendars to return to Prince Edward Island when the fields are ready to be harvested. Soon, they will flock to the fields in our neighbourhood after the crops have been removed. We hear them before we see their V configuration in the sky. We are often drawn outside to watch them.

Not leaving anything to chance this year, we decided to spend some time watching the geese at low tide in the harbour at Summerside.

 

There they feed on seaweed which is abundant and fresh at low tide. Camera at the ready, I walked in the red mud flats, amid the pools of water near the geese. Along the way, I saw some sandpipers on the beach 

 

and blue herons take flight.

 

Although I was anxious to capture the geese in flight, I did not want to disturb the flock.

 

Later, rather than approach them, I stood on shore opposite their preferred area and observed them for an hour. There were hundreds of geese in the mud flats out to the channel through the harbour.

 

While I was there, a vessel, either a Canadian Coast Guard or Fisheries Patrol vessel came into the harbour. I hoped the birds would take flight, but even those near the channel ignored the vessel as it cruised in the bay. 

 

Some geese moved around the bay during that hour,

 

in small flocks, often noisy as they flew. When stood, they faced into the southerly breeze, 

 

stood on one leg, with the second leg tucked under their upper bodies. Often their heads were tucked down as well. They showed tremendous balance and strength.

On occasion an argument broke out, with one bird noisy and aggressive towards another,

 

 neck extended, to nip at the other. Arguments didn't appear to last long but bullies are not limited to the human species.

 

The time passed all too quickly as I watched, feet wet, camera busy. Next time I'll bring my rubber boots and a tripod.