A new perspective on one of Nova Scotia’s most beloved landmarks
Peggy’s Cove has a permanent population of only about 30 people yet, depending on your source, hosts 500,000 to a million visitors yearly. It’s a fixture for bus tours and one of most popular day trips for cruise visitors. It’s also a pilgrimage for many Nova Scotians, who visit at least once or twice a year.
The result is that on an average visitation day in summer season the uniquely beautiful place is packed. The combination of the iconic lighthouse, the impossibly narrow cove with its painted boat sheds, and the dramatic granite shoreline make it irresistible.
But only a small fraction of those visitors see the lighthouse and the surrounding area from the water. Ever since 2009, former Quebec native turned Nova Scotian Peter Richardson has been operating Peggy’s Cove Boat Tours that offers several types of tour to see the lighthouse from the water.
The Olivia Margaret is a 42-foot Cape Islander carrying 20 passengers per tour. June through October, it offers a variety of tours. In September and October, which is the busiest time of year for cruise ships, the company offers a 20-minute tour, which features just the cove and the lighthouse. It’s aimed primarily at those arriving by bus and only have a short time in the area.
The most popular excursion is the one-hour Sightseeing and Marine Life tour. This excursion is a photographer’s delight, starting with the departure through the cove’s narrow mouth and then rounding the granite headland to reveal the lighthouse and viewing platform from a perspective you can only get from the water. For the next 10 minutes, the lighthouse is visible from three angles, making for unforgettable photo opportunities.
Gradually, the people on the shoreline peter out and soon the rugged Atlantic coastline shows few signs of civilization. For much of the tour, there are views of the glacial erratics (large rocks scattered throughout the area by retreating glaciers during the last ice age) that dot this landscape.
About 20 minutes out, the boat passes a small island with geodesic domes that seem like something out of a science fiction movie. This is Nova Glamping and these sites are available for rent seasonally at a range of styles and prices. novaglamping.holidayfuture.com
As the boat comes nearer to West Dover, there are several collections of abandoned anchors on small islets that are almost works of art in themselves. These once held down nets for now closed inshore fishery.
The village of West Dover differs from Peggy’s Cove. Instead of boats tied to a government wharf, which is typical of most lobster fishing villages, in West Dover each licensee has their own small wharf with boat, traps, and fishing sheds. As the lobster season is closed in this area in the summer, the boats are tied up and the traps neatly stacked on the wharf, making for more great photo opportunities.
Depending on the weather, the tour may circumnavigate Privateer Island at the head of Dover, a great choice for marine wildlife sightings. Whichever route is taken, the tour will almost certainly see grey seals, some quite close. Other possibilities include porpoises, sea turtles, sunfish, or even bluefin tuna.
The final highlight of this tour takes place back at the lighthouse, when the captain positions the boat so that anyone who wants a picture of themselves with the lighthouse in the background can get one, with the help of the ship’s mate.
From June to early August Peggy’s Cove Boat Tours features a 2.5-hour trip to Pearl Island at the mouth of St. Margarets Bay. This is a must trip for serious birders and anyone who loves puffins. Not only puffins, but razorbills, murres, kittiwakes, and petrels nest on the island. Aside from the nesting birds there are four species of shearwater that have been spotted on this tour. On Saturdays the tour is accompanied by local naturalist Jason Dain who can help spot and identify birds that are rarely seen from land.
Every day in the evening from June through September there is a two-hour sunset cruise which goes in the opposite direction of the one-hour tour. It heads out to explore St. Margaret’s Bay with Boutiliers Cove and Southwest Cove as the principal destinations and includes the castle on the water on Owl’s Head Island. Built by Max Manger, a Halifax engineer, for his wife Gigi who always wanted to live like a queen, it is reason enough to sign up for this tour.
Lastly, every morning at seven from June through August and eight in September and October, the Olivia Margaret heads out for a two-hour fishing trip. Even if you are not an avid angler, this is when the light is the best for photography. As a bonus, there will be few if any people around the lighthouse at this time of day.
The boat moors to a buoy about a kilometre offshore and fishing for mackerel, cod and pollock begins. Success is almost guaranteed and the crew will clean your catch for you.