Setting Sail to Visit the Sable Island Horses
Snapping a quick picture of the double rainbow that preceded the squall, we head offshore with a course set for one of Nova Scotia’s fairytale islands. To sailors, its lore is known as a graveyard of the Atlantic – having the dubious honor of claiming more than 350 vessels. Now, with the reduced dangers associated with sailing, largely due increased navigational accuracy, the lore has shifted from one of doom and tragedy to that of intrigue and understanding. Described as an “ologigsts dream”, climatologists, neopaleontologists, archeologists, biologists, ornithologists and a host of whateverogogists have descended upon the island in recent history, at no insignificant effort and cost, to try to catch a glimps of its natural history.
The principle interest in recent years has of course been the fabled Sable Island Horse. Home to a population of over 500 feral horses, believed to be first deposited during the Acadian great expulsion. The horse population has been exploited in various ways for the better part of their rough dubious existence on this remote spit of sand.
Getting there is not merely a hop, skip or a jump. Approximately 175 km from the nearest point of land on mainland Nova Scotia, there is no ferry, no regular access, no landing dock or shore facilities to grant access to the golden beaches. Besides paying the exorbitant tourist tour fees to be flown in by helicopter or having access to the irregularly scheduled flights that bring National Parks and National Weather Service staff to the island, your only other option is to navigate the paperwork involved in applying for a landing permit and getting there with your own vessel. Once granted, the trip only requires that the weather to this unpredictable and tumultuous bit of land, lines up for your intended crossing dates.
With the assistance of the Ocean Tracking Network and shore support from the famed Zoe Lukas of the Green Horse Society, we eagerly sought to gain the shore – no simple task. Once back on semi-solid ground – the whole island is made of sand – it was clear that we had entered a stark realm where sand, surf and horses co-exist. It was an immediate engagement into the unbelievable existence of wild Sable Island horses.
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