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Monthly Archives: July 2015

Nova Scotia: Shelburne, Lunenburg, Halifax

Posted on July 18, 2015 by ScottMacDJuly 18, 2015

We left Southwest Harbor, Maine on July 10. We crossed the Gulf of Maine and pulled into Shelburne, Nova Scotia. The trip took exactly 24 hours. The weather cooperated and we had very smooth seas and light winds. Cath took her usual 8PM to midnight shift and said it was uneventful. However my shift got very busy at about 3AM. In the span of two hours no fewer than eight southbound sailboats crossed my path. Two encounters required course changes. These boats, it turns out, were returning to their respective ports having just competed in the Marblehead to Halifax race. It was fun to track them all on radar.

Shelburne is an official maritime port of entry into Canada. The Shelburne Yacht Club assists visiting boaters by allowing them to tie up at the fuel dock to contact Canadian customs. Our call went very smoothly. Often they will come to the boat and inspect you but we received our document number over the phone and were done.

We anchored in Shelburne Harbor for two nights. Shelburne is a small but beautiful hamlet founded in 1783. Many of its building date to 18th century. It still has an active fishing industry and shipbuilding industry.

Sunrise on the Atlantic

Sunrise on the Atlantic

Shelburne, NS

Shelburne, NS

Shelburne Yacht Club

Shelburne Yacht Club

Big Smile at anchor in Shelburne Harbor

Big Smile at anchor in Shelburne Harbor

Lunenburg was our next port of call as we began our slow crawl up the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. The eleven hour trip was again perfect with no wind and smooth seas. We did have the thrill of seeing many Minke whales. One we almost hit but at the last second it dove under the bow. I was not able to photograph any of them but below is a pic from the web. This is what we saw; back and fin only as they briefly surfaced.

Minke Whale

Minke Whale

Cath on the lookout for whales

Cath on the lookout for whales

Lunenburg is a town of fair size with a population more than double that of Shelburne. The harbor has plenty of room to anchor and is fairly well protected. Founded in 1753, Lunenburg was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The town is replete with restaurants and shops many in historic buildings. The town has been a factor in many wars from the early 1700’s through WWII. The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic is here and the replica schooner “Bluenose II” is operated by the museum and based here. On our second day in port we watched the Bluenose depart. Turns out it left for Halifax, our next port of call, and we would be its neighbor on the Halifax piers.

Bluenose II

Bluenose II

Charter boat "Eastern Star" passes Big Smile

Charter boat “Eastern Star” passes Big Smile

Lunenburg is also home to the Canadian Dory Racing Association. Below is the fascinating history of this Association and its sister club in Gloucester MA.

In 1951, Lloyd Heisler of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia and Tom Frontiero of Gloucester, Massachusetts, met in a bar in Lunenburg. They began a conversation that turned into a debate about which dory rowers from which fishing town were the superior rowers. They decided that the only way to settle the matter was to challenge each other to a race. Tom took the idea of this challenge with him back to Gloucester and the process of the International Dory races had begun.
In June of 1952, Lloyd and his dory mate arrived in Gloucester, Massachusetts to settle the bet. Although the race did go to the Canadian team, the competition and comradery that developed between the two fishing towns could not be forgotten. Every June since 1952, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia sends their best teams of rowers from each category to race against their American counterparts in Gloucester, and every August since 1952, Gloucester teams take their turn coming to Lunenburg to race in Canadian waters. This year will mark the 63rd anniversary of dory racing and the tradition is still going strong. These past 63 years has continued to strengthen the bond between these two fishing towns, and every year we once again look forward to some fun and competition with our American friends. Dory racing is a part of our heritage and we hope to continue this tradition many years into the future.

Lunenburg dory

Lunenburg dory

We loved the town and will stop again on our return to the states.

Fog. We weighed anchor at 6:30AM in pea soup fog. With our fog horn automatically blasting every two minutes we crept past Battery Point light house and down the bay to the Atlantic. The fog remained and we navigated the six hour trip by radar and chart plotter. As we approached Halifax harbor the fog lifted slightly but than returned not lifting till we were just off the commercial piers.

Halifax Harbor

Halifax Harbor

Three masted charter boat

Three masted charter boat in the fog

The next couple of days would bring near perfect weather and no fog. Our pier assignment was also perfect. There is no real marina on the waterfront and a development group runs the piers and assigns the berths. As luck has it we were berthed next to Bluenose  II. We were also the smallest boat berthed. About a half mile down the waterfront are the cruise ship berths. In for two days was the Queen Mary 2 prior to departing for Southampton England.

Halifax is a small, manageable city with a population just under a half million. Named after the Earl of Halifax it was founded in 1749. The harbor is the heart of the city but also saw one of the greatest Canadian disasters in history. Know as the Halifax Explosion, this catastrophe occurred on December 6, 1917. The SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully loaded with wartime explosives collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo. The French ship caught on fire igniting her cargo and causing a cataclysmic explosion. More than 2000 people were killed and over 9000 injured. The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons.

Aftermath of Halifax explosion

Aftermath of Halifax explosion

The current city is a major cultural center. It retains its maritime and military traditions and is home to a sizable Canadian navy. Fort George located on Citadel Hill was first fortified in 1749. The Citadel was never defeated because it was never attacked. The story told is that numerous commanders including General George Washington spied on the fort but declined to attack due to its impenetrable design.

78th Highlanders Regiment of Foot re-enactment

78th Highlanders Regiment of Foot re-enactment

The waterfront is the heart of the city on the weekends and we really enjoyed the crowds and show.

Big Smile dwarfed by Bluenose II

Big Smile dwarfed by Bluenose II in foreground

The Halifax Public Gardens are a must see. Established in 1867 the Victorian style formal gardens encompass 16 acres. The original bandstand, circa 1887, was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and still stands today.

1867 bandstand

1867 bandstand

In the gardens

In the gardens

 

Berthed at Museum wharf we had a really short walk to the Maritime Museum. It is a fascinating museum with scale models, full size boats, and exhibits about the Halifax explosion, the Cunard family (Cunard Lines) and other historical events.

Big Smile from inside the Maritime Museum

Big Smile from inside the Maritime Museum

Farmers Market

Farmers Market

We rented a car for a day and drove to Peggy’s Cove, a picturesque cove an hour from Halifax. I was last there 40 years ago and tourism has taken over. It’s still a nice landscape and cove.

Peggy's Cove lighthouse

Peggy’s Cove lighthouse

On the road to Peggy's Cove

On the road to Peggy’s Cove

The cove

The cove

Exploring the coast

Exploring the coastal towns

We leave tomorrow and won’t see another marina for at least a week. Our last night in town will probably find us at The Old Triangle Irish Ale House. There is a band playing tonight who we caught a couple of days ago.

Big Smile

Big Smile

 

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Southwest Harbor, Maine

Posted on July 9, 2015 by ScottMacDJuly 9, 2015

We never would have thought that seven weeks could go so fast. We arrived Memorial Weekend and now several days after July 4th we are finally letting go the dock lines and departing Dysart’s Marina. It’s been a wonderful experience.

Mount Desert Island or MDI is a diverse island with friendly people, great food and an incredible shoreline. Acadia National Park located on MDI is a gem in the National Park Service system. We bought a year pass that allowed us to visit the park and use all of the facilities whenever we like. We took advantage of the pass as often as possible. The numerous hiking trails are well marked and incredibly scenic. There are miles of carriage trails available only for foot traffic and horse drawn carriages. Many of the hiking trails hug the granite cliffs and rarely do you find a fence blocking access to the cliff edge. We downloaded an App that provided running commentary as we drove the 24 mile perimeter route that culminated on Cadillac Mountain. We found June to be a perfect month to visit. Cool weather, perfect for hiking, no bugs and few visitors. With a year pass to use we will be back for a few more hikes in the year ahead.

Beech Mountain Fire Tower

Beech Mountain Fire Tower

View of Southwest Harbor, Somes Sound and Cranberry Isles from St Sauveur Mountain

View of Southwest Harbor and Cranberry Isles from St Sauveur Mountain

Cath at the edge of Cadillac Mountain

Cath at the edge of Cadillac Mountain

Bar Harbor in the background from the top of Cadillac Mountain

Bar Harbor in the background from the top of Cadillac Mountain

June was not all land based exploring. One of the reasons for planning a month in Maine was to have a couple of shake down cruises. Big Smile spent a winter on the hard at Hinckley in Southwest Harbor. She had never been out of the water for more than a month prior to this winter. We knew some of her systems would need attending to but what we did not plan on was the repairs that would be necessary due to shoddy work by Hinckley.

The first problem noted was our non-working inverter. We rely on our house bank of batteries and our “Outback” brand inverter to provide 120 volt AC from our 24 volt DC system. While our genset handles most of the AC loads and all of the 230 volt load it only runs a couple of hours a day. The inverter needs to work and it was not working. I hired a tech from Outback and he discovered that two of our six house batteries had been disconnected and in fact had suffered a collapse. These are special AGM “Absorbed Glass Mat” batteries and are quite pricey. Replacing the two batteries and properly reconnecting the system fixed the inverter issue.

Our first trip out was a five hour down east run to Mistake Island. This pristine anchorage is noted for its seal population and as we were the only boat in the small anchorage we had a front row view. They seem almost human as they lie about on the small islands at low tide, grunting and playing the day away. As the tide rises it becomes feeding time and dozens swam around us.

Seals at Mistake Island

Seals at Mistake Island

A curious Seal

A curious Seal

Moose Peak Lighthouse on Mistake Island

Moose Peak Lighthouse on Mistake Island

While lowering the large Delta anchor Cath noticed that the port chain wheel on the dual capstan appeared to be spinning off. She was operating the starboard side, the side that had been repaired. Fortunately there is a device called a stripper that keeps the chain wheel from falling off. However we did not want to strain the system so the next morning we weighed anchor and cruised back to Southwest Harbor. Hinckley came by a couple of days later and fixed the problem.

The last problem was one that really bothered us. The bimini had been removed by Hinckley in the fall to facilitate the lowering of the electronics mast. In the process they bent the stern bimini support. When the bimini was installed by us, (should have been re-installed by Hinckley) it now had a huge belly in the one year old fabric. We decided to take another one day cruise to check out more systems. This cruise, up the beautiful Somes Sound was a delight. However, during the night a deluge of rain came through dropping possibly an inch overnite. In the morning we heard a loud bang as we sat in the pilot house. The bang was our entire bimini collapsing under the weight of the collected water.

Back at the dock with a collapsed bimini

Back at the dock with a collapsed bimini

 

Hinckley was contacted and told to fix the mess.

Fortunately for us we had planned to get to our house at Lake George for two weeks leading up to July 4th. That gave them time to fabricate new stainless supports and make any other repairs to the system that were required.

At the lake: The main reason for the lake trip was to see our next door neighbor and help another friend launch his sailboat. The weather cooperated and the launch was successful. We managed to get in a couple of fantastic sails pitting our neighbors Capri 18 vs our friends Capri 22. Perfect weather and perfect company. The 22 always won but no-one cared.

John's Capri 22 blowing by  Bob's 18.

Bob’s family grinning as they pass us

Andrew and Mitch managed to join us for a couple of days and we sailed and fished in that short period of time. Mitch easily won our informal fishing contest.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A fabulous rainbow

A fabulous rainbow

The winner

The winner

 

 

 

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