Englishtown Ferry and Northwest Coast of St Anns Bay

This view, taken shortly before boarding, looks a bit east of north down the length of St Anns Bay. Haze is already in the air, but not yet too heavy. At the left, the western shore of St Anns Bay is still pretty clear out to Bentinck Point, just south of Little River; the Cape Breton Highlands rise above, with Cape Smokey appearing in the far distance just to the left of Bentinck Point.

The Englishtown cable ferry is here seen taking on vehicles on the Englishtown side of its short run across the entrance to St Anns Harbour; the Jersey Cove side is not visible in this photo. This ferry runs year round, except when the channel is made impassible by pack ice, as it sometimes is during late winter; unless the traffic is very heavy, as it may be during the summer months, it saves considerable time over the more meandering route of the Cabot Trail around St Anns Harbour, which it joins on the western shore just south of the bridge over the Barachois River. Just north of that bridge is the St Anns Bay United Church, which hosted fine cèilidhs on Tuesdays and Fridays this past July.