Belle Isle

We sailed from Houat to Belle Isle, we had decided to go to the inner basin as the reports of being in the outer harbour were not very good. As it turned out it was unlikely we would have been able to go to the outer harbour because the boats were mooring stern to the wall and we would have been too long.

We arrived at the right time to enter the lock but we were met and were told that the inner harbour was closed that morning because a fuel ship was in unloading but we could take a buoy and go in in the evening which is what we decided to do.

After we were tied up and had some breakfast we decided to go and explore the town and to take a look at the harbour. We were ferried ashore we did not need to launch our dinghy. We were underwhelmed by the harbour it looked rundown and shabby.

After lunch we decided to walk to the citadel which overlooked the harbour. It was an amazing sight, the walls were huge and looked pretty impregnable. However we British were able to capture the Island and only relinquished it after the French agreed to swap it for Nova Scotia. We could not enter it as it was all locked up but it looked like there was nothing inside the outer walls in any event.

After returning to the boat we decided that we would just stay on the buoy for the night and would not go in.