Sorry, I couldn’t help doing a little word play there. Now I will try to explain. First the Brass Door is approximately how Judy and I pronounced the name of lake here in Cape Breton. The French spelling is Bras d’Or and the locals pronounce it like “Brador” with emphasis on the second syllable. It is a lake in name, but the water is salty and it has a bit of tidal range. The North end near the town of “Big Bras d’Or” is open to the sea. The lake is huge and as we drove down the length of it, there was a period of time where we couldn’t see the other side. It scales at about 25 kilometers wide on the map, so it is not as large as the Great Lakes.
Now for the “Lock” thing. We drove the length of the lake from Sydney to St. Peter’s. It was about 64 kilometers or forty miles. Up until 1864 the south end, at St. Peter’s, was closed by a granite rock isthmus a few hundred yards wide. For fifteen years they dug and blasted a canal through from the lake to the Atlantic Ocean. There have been several improvements over the years and the current locks are in a Canadian National Park and the area is quite beautiful.
Because of the way the Atlantic Ocean and the Lake interact the water level in the lake is at times higher and at times lower than the sea. These locks are therefore unique in the North American continent. They must have two sets of doors at either end. They must be able to oppose a higher water level from either direction. The difference can be as much as five feet from lake level to tidal sea level.
Judy and I walked along the canal and watched a boat lock through. We also sat in the shelter of the Lockmasters Office to avoid the rain showers. Today has been a whole series of rain showers, one right after another. Like true Oregonians, we just did our thing any way.
Tonight we are boondocking again. This time we are just off the Salmon River in Truro Nova Scotia. We were able to watch another tidal bore. We could get up at six am and watch the next one too. I suspect that we will not do that, however. It is getting a little boring. I just saw the moon and it is almost exactly half, and that means we are at the neap tides, so the bore is at its lowest intensity bor-ing! Still we had a fun time standing around in horizontal rain chatting with some new found friends from Duluth Minnesota.
Our first experience with the tidal bore phenomenon, on July 21st., was much more dramatic. It was on a larger river, the Shubenacadie River, and we got there on the day of the full moon so the tides were spring tides with a maximum tidal range.
You can check out the photo of the lock with double gates on the web site, www.dinsmore-enterprises.com. You can also review my earlier discussion of tidal bore on July 21. 2005.
That is it for now. We send along our love to all our friends and relations. Good Bye until next time, Gary and Judy.
