Massachusetts Pictures, October 2008

Boats on moorings off Ten Pound Island in the outer harbor of Gloucester, Massachusetts.









In front of the brown house he used to live in is this engaging statue of the artist Fitz Henry Lane, internationally known for his seascapes. The statue was created by Al Duca.









Here you can see a mixture of many elements of Gloucester, a proud fishing port which also welcomes cruisers and sailors and is home to all manner and size of boats.









Along the road between Lake Tashmoo and Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard there were definite signs that summer was ending and cooler weather was on its way...















A schooner is being refitted at the Gannon and Benjamin boatyard - the same one where we were able to get scraps for wood for burning in our fireplace. As well as doing repairs they build beautiful wooden boats here.






Richard walking along the beach by the moorings in Vineyard Haven on a cool day. Dinghies and other small boats line the beach above the high tide line.

October 2008, Visiting Massachusetts

We left Halifax twice. The first time was already later than we had planned to leave, but as usual the work we had done had taken longer than planned. So we were eager to go and left on the first good forecast, casting off with help from friends and setting off across and out of the harbour in brisk winds. By the middle of the day the winds that had been forecast to be behind us were still heavy and on the nose, and we were beating into cold seas. Since things were not improving, and we were still within range of Halifax we turned back and sailed up the North West Arm to drop anchor for the night.

The next morning we set off again, hoping that the forecast for more favourable winds was right. We did not worry unduly about not being able to coax the engine into life that cold morning, since it has never been fond of starting cold. Eager to set off, we sailed off the anchor and down the Arm. Bob on Sprig met us leaving the Arm, and we had a brief chat; then it was away down the coast headed for our first port in the US, Gloucester Massachusetts. That first day went well, and so did the next - it was the third day out we ran into a nasty storm which kept us hove to and then on the drogue for a while. We were very grateful then our new hatch Steve at Dura-Tech had helped us make. Even when the winds blew hard and the waves were high no water came in to the cabin. During the storm we hunkered down and stayed dry and waited. Then, as often happens, the weather cleared and we had a beautiful sail the rest of the way to the outer harbour at Gloucester.

Richard had taken a look at the engine on the way, and we had reluctantly come to the conclusion that it was not going to start without new parts. Not a problem, really, since we were a sailboat; we would just look for parts on the way down and fix it when we could. Gloucester, it turned out was not the place to find parts for our unusual engine, but we stayed long enough to see nearby family and enjoy looking around the town.

We checked in with help from the harbourmaster on duty, who came to pick us up and took us back to our boat on that first trip in, showing us the safe passage and the hazards along the way. He was happy to help us on a quiet day... We met the representative from Customs and Immigration at the Harbor Master’s Office, and spent a couple of hours ashore trying to get used to the feel of solid ground under our feet before we went back to the boat.

The next day we found the Chamber of Commerce and information on where to find such essential things as the laundromat and groceries. Then we wandered around, and found that this was one of those towns that are small enough to walk to just about everything and one where people were happy to help if you asked for directions. That sense of acceptance of visitors increased when we found free wi-fi - and someone who was excited to have us use it. The air was cool, but the reception was warm. Then we heard a forecast for winds that would make being in the outer harbour uncomfortable. We sailed away planning to come back a little earlier in the year the next time we passed through....

From Gloucester we sailed to Martha’s Vineyard, to see friends we had met in Antigua. With no engine we did not take the more traditional route through the Cape Cod Channel, but sailed on to the sounds around Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard through Pollock’s Rip; inside we dropped anchor for a while to wait for a more favourable tide to continue our travels on. Currents here are strong. and must be taken into account. The tide turned in time for us to be able to sail to Vineyard Haven. We dropped anchor outside the harbour as dark was falling and stayed there overnight. The next morning, with the wind shifting out of the north and the water growing rougher, our friend Dennis contacted us from shore to tell us about entering Lake Tashmoo and where we could drop anchor inside it. A short wait for a favourable tide, and then we were able to ride tide and winds to and into Lake Tashmoo, where we found very good shelter a mile’s walk away from Vineyard Haven. And we certainly appreciated the shelter when the fronts came blowing through.

For a while Lake Tashmoo was the centre from which we explored. We did some of those essential things - reactivated our US cell phone, to make it easier to call in to Customs when we moved to a new place, found the shipyard that would let us take wood scraps for our fireplace so we could stay warm, found the grocery store and tried to find the part we needed for the engine. Dennis was our guide to local resources, and even spent a day driving us to the laundromat, and to get more wood, (and gave us a piece of wood to replace one that had been bruised on the way down) and to his house for a short visit with his lovely Julie.

We enjoyed our walks in to town, along leafy streets where we sometimes passed wild turkeys feeding in the gardens of houses, past the big church on the corner down to the shops along the Vineyard Haven Harbor. But we could not stay in our cosy anchorage. We needed to leave Lake Tashmoo on south winds, and we needed north winds to continue our travels south. So we needed to be in Vineyard Haven. As luck would have it we found ourselves mooring free in the harbor during a grace period, after a half day of waiting patiently in Lake Tashmoo for the predicted wind shift, which had to coincide with the right tides and currents for us to get out... Sailing in these waters without an engine requires patience and discipline.

From the mooring we could easily walk along the beach to the grocery store, boat yard and marine store, and to the ferry terminal where we could use the free wi-fi. Everything was close by. We stocked up on food and wood and charcoal, and got ready to leave when Herb of Southbound II declared that we had a window.

Finally the time came, and we slipped the mooring and headed south for Cape May, and further adventures.

Pictures of Late Summer 2008

On a wet August day, one of many, this was the view looking out from our cabin. Water, water everywhere...











Taking a pogo stick to new heights at the Halifax Busker's Festival down on the waterfront.










Sometimes it takes a little help from the audience to keep things stable. These are the Aerial Angels, based in the U.S., performing at the Buskers Festival.











A testimony to the foolish ways of birds? Hopefully they're not thinking of nesting in the tyres on this tug...










Our new nesting dinghy takes its first trip on the water. It floats!













The ducks have been feeding and feasting on the rich growth on the poles and floats - and sometimes boats - in the marina.










A view from the porthole as the sun goes down behind the MacDonald Bridge.













Getting ready to move on again, with our new main hatch and doors in place, and our nesting dinghy strapped down in front.

August 2008, And The Rain Came

August was a wet month. Even the weather experts agreed it was the wettest August in many years. So wet that farmers lost crops and outside workers lost time and we had many delays in the work we had planned to do on the boat. Between rain and fog the damp seemed to get in and linger everywhere, and we dried the boat out every opportunity that offered. But there were good days sprinkled through the wet ones.

There was Natal Day. Festivities began on Thursday July 31 and were supposed to continue through a four day weekend. On August 1st we enjoyed the Joel Plaskett Emergency from the boat, and looked forward to the activities scheduled for the rest of the weekend. But then rain shortened the talent show and dampened the festivities that was scheduled for Alderney Landing. That evening the fog descended before the fireworks could rise, and the weather remained damp and foggy for the next few days. Which meant that we missed the fireworks from the bridge for the second year in a row. Maybe next year? In the intervals between rainy weather people enjoyed activities on the Macdonald Bridge, runners of all ages completed the Natal Day road race, and we glimpsed the Natal Day Parade as it too crossed the bridge. The weekend was like the month - wet - and people did as they usually do - enjoyed what they could, in spite of the weather.

The weather was a little better for the Halifax Buskers Festival, and we went across on the ferry to check things out there one relatively sunny day. Areas were set up along the waterfront with “stages” and in some places areas for people to sit and watch, and there were musicians and booths and lots of people wandering along the harbour front, gazing at visiting ships and boats as well as at the performers . We paused by a didgeridoo player and stopped to watch a young man performing high leaping feats on something that bore a vague resemblance to a pogo stick and further along three women who twisted and turned and swooped down cascades of silk as part of their act, and kept up a lively exchange with the crowd as they worked. We wandered past a loud and lively children’s area and heard commentary on high flying trampoline performers from another area sponsored by a radio station before we moved on to do other, more mundane things, like buy groceries.

We often crossed the harbour and walked to stores in downtown Halifax, and sometimes we would come upon concerts and buskers performing along the harbourfront as we walked. Coming upon an unexpected performance is one of the best ways to discover a performer you like - we came across Jordan Croucher, singing a capella when his backup tape failed and obviously not needing the music in the background to help his voice to soar. He was performing on the deck of the Sackville, Canada’s last Corvette, now maintained as a floating museum and Canadian Naval Memorial. The performance was on behalf of Democracy 250, which is promoting recognition of the 250th anniversary of the establishment of parliamentary democracy in Nova Scotia and reaching out to young people to encourage them to understand the political process, be involved and vote. And that in itself tells you a lot about Nova Scotia.

And then there was the boat work we planned and set out to accomplish - with a lot of help from some of our friends. We built a new nesting dinghy, and installed mounting blocks so that we can carry it safely on top of our cabin. Our dinghy splashed into the water in the second week of August, complete except for the details. We can report that it rows very well, and we’ll soon know how it sails. And we designed and Richard (and our friend Steve) built a new entrance to our cabin, with a hinged hatch and doors instead of the old sliding hatch and boards. Installed it has lines similar to the old hatch but is much more waterproof and more easily opened and closed.

As always, there is maintenance - wood to be sanded and oiled, deck and cabin to be painted, and the dodger to be restitched. This time we handed the dodger over to Greg at Atlantic Canvas, who did a masterful job of stitching everything back together. The rest we tackled ourselves. The outside of our cabin is now a pleasing white, and so is our cockpit - there are still some small deck areas to be done, but we’ll do them where the weather is more pleasant.

Finally there are the things that broke unexpectedly. Our galley foot pump decided it had done enough work, and quit, to be replaced by one with a slightly higher flow. Our starter, newly installed in May, refused to work in September and had to be removed and replaced as well. Our main halyard developed chafed areas after rubbing against one of the spreaders in high winds and we changed it rather than risk it failing at an inopportune time.

One of the best things about the cruising life is seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We’ve seen a few old friends here and met many new ones, and once again our boat sails away carrying much that reminds us of people we have met and those who have helped us in many different ways. There have been many who offered us friendship and practical help and encouragement, and some who stand out because they have been so generous with their time and help. Thank you, everyone - we will remember you as we travel and plan to see you next summer when we are back in Halifax again.

So now, after all the help and work, the boat is back in cruising trim and all we need is the right weather to start moving south again. September has been eaten up by our preparations to move on, and the stormy season is upon us. It’s time to go...

Pictures from Summer 2008

Halifax was one of the stops in the 07-08 Round the World Clipper Race. Here the race boats, Clipper 68s, parade in Halifax Harbour shortly after their arrival. Ten boats, representing ten ports, leave Liverpool for a race around the world. Over the next ten months they round the world, stopping at different ports - by now they have returned to Liverpool, after calling at Sydney, Nova Scotia, then crossing to Cork, Ireland before returning to their starting point.




Trees, flowers, water, birds - Halifax Public Gardens is a beautiful example of nature tamed and coaxed and molded into a public park.










The Gothic facade of St. Mary's Basilica seen from Spring Garden Road, reputed to be the oldest Catholic church in North America. The building soars into the sky, and the facades is full of detail, with beautiful stained glass windows. The only thing lacking is enough space to step back and take the whole structure in.








We went all the way to Halifax to listen to the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force Steel Band, marching in the Tattoo Parade on Canada Day.










A re-enactment of military drills from the time of muskets and kilts at the Citadel, the fortress that has stood guard over the city of Halifax, in one form or another, since 1761.











Of course, Canada Day meant fireworks. These were from a barge out on the harbour, part of a very nice display.









Hundreds of feet below the Cape Blomidon Lookout the farmland stretches to the shores of the Minas Basin, where the Fundy tides rise and fall, exposing great banks of red mud when they are low.










A wild rose bud hides among the leaves and stalks in a planter by the marina. The thorny wild rose bushes provide shelter for small birds and rose hips in the fall and winter for those birds that overwinter.

A Busy Dartmouth/Halifax Summer

It has been a busy and interesting summer. We have spent the season at Alderney Marina, enjoying the conveniences of sitting at a dock - easy access to water and a little extra power for keeping us warm when the weather turned cool. Sitting on one of the outer docks left us a little more exposed to weather that we would have been in a slip further in, so there were interesting times when wind and waves picked up and made the boat jump against her moorings. But turning our bow out into the the harbour helped, and so did being lucky enough to be able to move to a more sheltered spot vacated by another boat when the remnants of the storm called Hanna passed through toward the end of summer.

We’ve also enjoyed being a short walk away from the Dartmouth Farmer’s Market, where we buy local vegetables and fruit, eggs and cheese, and the occasional baked treat. In spite of the vagaries of weather the quality of everything we’ve bought has been good - and one of the best things has been being able to bite into fruits and vegetables that are fresh and full of taste. Even though it has meant getting up early to get there in time to choose from the best of the selection.

Then we had all kinds of activities to choose from. Halifax is a busy place in the summer time. There are boats and ships visiting, festivals and holidays to be enjoyed, and a wide choice of museums and galleries, large and small, and activities and performances and places to visit. We found our way to some and happened across others this year - but next year there will be more new-to-us places to visit and things to see.

Our summer in the harbour began with a visit from the ten sailboats taking part in the around The World Clipper Race. They stopped in Halifax after racing from New York, and when we saw them they were gathered in the harbour for a sailpast, each boat showing the flag of the country it represented proudly on its mainsail. The race is based in England and gives people of many different backgrounds and ages a chance to take part in a round-the-world sail on boats sponsored by and representing different ports along their route. Each boat is skippered by a professional captain, but anyone hardy and adventurous enough - and with sufficient funds - can join the crew. Crew members are trained and sign on for one or more legs (each leg is four weeks). Some do the complete ten month circumnavigation. The boats lay berthed in the harbour for a few days while the crews were feted and welcomed and took advantage of the opportunity to rest and replenish. We went across on the ferry to see them at their berths and admire, along with many others. Preparations for the next race are well underway now - if you are curious, you can learn more at www.clipperroundtheworld.com.

Canada Day celebrations were the next high point, starting with a pancake breakfast at Alderney Landing, continuing with the Tattoo Parade through downtown Halifax and a visit to the Citadel, followed by concerts back at Alderney and winding down with fireworks over the harbour. And that was only a sampling of the things we could have done - museums and historic sites all over the city were open and could be visited free. There were performances, picnics and events scattered around Dartmouth and Halifax, including a large run/walk around the city for the athletic.

Halifax’s Canada Day Parade reflects the towns military and naval roots. The parade is made up of groups from all over Canada and the world who are in town taking part in the annual Nova Scotia International Tattoo - the largest annual Tattoo in Canada, according to Wikipedia. The parade was led off by two mounties, their horses gleaming and strutting, followed by dancers and singers and costumed groups and by military groups and bands from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Britain, Australia - and our favourite, the steel drum band from Trinidad and Tobago. We stood on the sidewalk on Spring Garden Road, watching as the streets were closed down and the parade approached and enjoying the reactions of the crowd to the passing bands as well as the spectacle passing in front of us. Then after the parade had passed we followed many in the dispersing crowd to the Citadel.

The Citadel, the fortress sitting at the top of the hill which used to have a clear view of the harbour and beyond, is very much part of Halifax’s and Dartmouth’s naval and military heritage. Even now, with more modern (and less elegant) buildings confounding the once clear view of the harbour and obscuring many of the remaining historic buildings clustered around the old port, the view holds hints of what it must once have been. The Citadel itself was full of activity, with music and cake to celebrate Canada’s birthday, re-enactors playing the part of soldiers from the days of muskets and kilts, and people visiting the museum and gift shop and wandering the grounds and ramparts. The museum traces the development of the fort, from its beginnings as a wooden blockhouse to its final, larger and more durable form when it was finally finished in 1856. Many people worked on it during its various construction phases, including Maroons transported to Nova Scotia from Jamaica in 1796, many of whom later moved on to Sierra Leone. We explored the museum, watched the people, and enjoyed a slice of cake before we moved on.

After our visit to the Citadel we crossed the harbour on the ferry, heading back to the boat and then to the outdoor concerts at Alderney Landing, beside the marina. The concert was lively and fun and included something for almost every musical taste; we particularly enjoyed the R and B of Asia and Nu Gruv, a group we first heard last summer at the Jazz Festival, and the very entertaining Celtic-based music of the Barra McNeils, and listened from the boat to a lively performance by Big Fish. Then we finished off the evening watching the fireworks over the harbour. A full and fun day.

July continued with music. We spent some time at the Jazz Festival, and our find this year was Coco Love Alcorn, whose set we thoroughly enjoyed. We enjoyed some other very good performances too and were particularly impressed by some of the younger musicians - the Matt Giffin Trio (Matt Giffin, Keith Doiron, Will Fisher) played incredibly well, reaching out to the audience and each other through their instruments, the groups that developed their performances in the Creative Music Workshop jumped into some very interesting and risky work, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Big Valley Swing Orchestra. If we had had the time to go to the festival every day it was on we would probably have an even longer list of the things that we enjoyed!

We did take some time away from music to explore and enjoy the Halifax Gardens, a cool and pleasant place on a warm day. Friends introduced us to more of this beautiful province, driving us through farmland and small towns and up the slope to the Cape Blomidon Lookout. And, as usual, we saw new parts of Halifax and Dartmouth as we walked or rode the buses from place to place. Walking gives us a chance to notice small things, read notices that flash past when we are on the bus, see the faces of people we pass by, enjoy the parks and the lakes that dot the Dartmouth side; the buses take us along routes we probably would not see otherwise. Between work and exploration time flew past, and by the time we looked around it was August, time for more festivities and for more serious planning for the time we will be heading south.

Pictures: Winter into Spring 2008

There were days when it seemed as if Winter would never leave - although we knew it would. A late March snowfall blanketed the city, and encouraged us to enjoy its beauty from inside the apartment we were renting.






Technically it's Spring. But, in spite of the sunny skies, it's cold and the boats are not going back into the water in any hurry. So the docks at Dartmouth Yacht Club are sitting waiting...








When we hauled the boat we found out why we were moving so slowly, and the boat had a tendency to pull to one side - mussels. Lots of them. Hanging on to the bottom - at least until Richard took the shovel to them. If the water here were cleaner we could have had a nice boil-up!






Here she is, back to normal, with fresh anti-fouling paint to keep the mussels away and the waterline stripe raised and repainted with hard anti-fouling paint. Hopefully that will keep below the waterline, wherever it may be, clean.








A warm day before we left Dartmouth Yacht Club - boats in the water, people exploring the shoreline.










Back at Alderney Marina, brightened up with fresh paint, lively colours - and flowers crowning the poles the docks are attached to! A different approach to things...

Getting Back On the Water Again

It took a while for the weather to get warm enough for comfortable work. Winter kept teasing, and Spring was coy. Now, while it is certainly not as warm as it would be further south - where, of course, we plan to spend next winter - we have managed to do some work and paint and move back on to the boat. The whole process went something like this:

At the beginning of May the boat came out of the water. Finally, after three years - longer than we had planned - we had the chance to take her mast down, clean the accumulation of plants and creatures at and below the waterline and put new antifouling on to keep those clinging sea creatures at bay. And it was past time, as we saw when Into The Blue was finally sitting in the slings - mussels had decided she made a good rock and had taken up residence en masse. They were literally hanging off the hull, in curtains. Not much wonder the boat had been dragging through the water, and showing a tendency to wander off in one direction! Happily, those mussels came off quite easily, and in the end it was a cleanup, scrape-off job that was not nearly as bad as it originally looked. Then we had two weeks to get our out-of-the-water jobs done and some hard work ahead.

So: on the list, the usual things. Cleaning, sanding, painting, touching up, mending. And a few new things - headliner, to help keep the forward berth warm and dry. New curtains, to replace the now well-worn ones we left with. Beginning the job of repainting the inside. Rewiring and removal of unused wires. Running new wires through the mast. The only problem was the normal one - time. So when we started work we did the most crucial jobs first.

We started with the bottom of the boat - mainly Richard’s job - sanding and washing and fixing the odd spot here and there, followed by masking and repainting our waterline stripe with hard antifouling paint in a suitable shade of blue. Then we recoated with ablative antifouling below the waterline. With the mast down, this was our opportunity to fix our mast-top anchor light and redo the wiring in the mast. Or rather, as it turned out, replace the anchor light, which fell to pieces in Richard’s hands when he tried to take the lens off to change the bulb. And the VHF antenna had also, as it turned out, been quietly falling apart. So it needed to be replaced too.

On deck I sanded and oiled the outside wood. Then it was into the cabin to clean the winter’s accumulation of dust and damp and mildew, and sand where we planned to paint. Then clean, and try to tidy up, and clean... But at the end of those two weeks the boat looked like a construction site and there was still work to be done. And she had to go back in. And the day we had chosen to be out of the apartment was fast approaching. The pressure of deadlines made life a little stressful.

Back in the water, we had only three days before it was time to leave the Dartmouth Yacht Club. We prepared to go with much left to be done, planning to finish our work down at Alderney Marina. Then a new wrinkle appeared. There we were, everything we had on board at the time safely stowed away, lifejackets ready, warmly dressed, chart on the counter in the cabin and GPS’s at the ready. Richard hit the starter button, planning to give the engine a few minutes to warm up. Nothing happened. No noise, not a click or a clunk, the engine did not even try to turn over. Was it the batteries? He tried charging them, boosting them with help from another boater down the dock - but nothing happened. The problem was unwanted but not unexpected: he had been nursing the starter along, but now it had declared itself past the point of being nursed - it had finally expired. Either we were going to stay where we were until we could get a new one, or we were going to ask for a tow out and try to sail down. That had its own challenges - we would have to go with the right wind and tide, to make it comfortably through the Narrows. And it was evening, and the light would be going soon. Either way, we needed time. We went to talk to the Club’s manager.

We were treated with kindness - Curtis, the manager, told us not to worry about having to take extra time, that our situation was understood. We gave the starter out and paid mightily for its replacement - something to do with ours being an old Renault engine and having to bring a starter in from the other side of the country. At least it was the other side of this country - there was a chance we might have been importing it from another one. We kept working inside the cabin while we waited - sanding, cleaning, putting up the headliner. Finally the starter arrived, Richard installed it, and right afterward we were lucky enough to have a good day for leaving. We reversed out of the slip at Dartmouth Yacht Club in our own unique way (one of the interesting things about having a full keel boat being that it likes to pick its own direction when going backward). A couple of half-circles, backward and forward, and then we were leaving Into The Blue’s winter home...

The wind came and went, and we half-sailed, half-motored to our summer spot at Alderney Marina to continue getting the boat ready to move back on to. First, finish the work we had started, then clean the boat and move things on, then clean the apartment... Now that part of the work is done. We are back on board, and it’s feeling like home again. Still things to do, but also time to look forward to taking breaks and doing some sailing and enjoying the festivals and events around town.

Starting with the visit of the Clipper Round The World Race boats. But that’s a tale for another time.

Winter Pictures from Dartmouth

Back in winter clothes again - something we had planned not to do! A winter walk on a sunny day to Albro Lake, not far from the apartment we are spending winter in.



This is Albro Lake, one of the many lakes in this city of lakes and just down the road from our apartment. This day it was frozen enough for the ice fishermen to venture out on.




The view from one of our windows after the snow has fallen and the plough has cleared the parking lot next door. Snow and more snow...














True to the pattern of this winter - after the snow, the thaw, and a day that is warmer, wet and rather windy.








There were ducks at the lake. We watched as they came in for three-point landings, sliding across the ice and occasionally into each other or a nearby seagull. The signs told us not to feed the birds, but they came over to check us out as a source for possible goodies anyway.

Dartmouth Winter

Winter continues, even as Spring tries to make her presence felt. Into The Blue has spent many days pulling at her ropes at Dartmouth Yacht Club; we visit to check on her and them, and to dry out her insides and contemplate the coming work we will tackle in Spring. On his last visit, Richard found her demanding attention now, water inside the boat above the floor boards. Marine growth has blocked her cockpit drains again, and water will go wherever it can find a way. We are grateful for promises of warmth, though the weather systems full of wind and snow and rain continue to blow through. It is difficult still for us to do much, but time to do what must be done and what we can. When we visit we often hear others working on land, under tarps and covers - the sound of sanders and grinders and other various electrically driven tools. We are planning and deciding on our priorities, and hoping that not too many things leap up to demand they be moved to the head of the line. Top of our list is pulling the boat and doing all the bottom paint and checking the rudder - not because the rudder is giving any indication of problems, but because it is awfully hard to sail without a rudder...

Meantime the Halifax Boat Show has been a welcome sign that winter will end and we will join the many others out on the water in their boats. This boat show is a little smaller than the Toronto Boat Show, and a little later - but a great place to seek out resources, talk to people and learn what’s new and what’s hot - like electric outboards and all kinds of self-powered craft. We were able to talk to manufacturer’s representatives and distributors, and see, touch and ask questions about a few things we were particularly interested in, like the Cobb Cooker and the Klepper Folding Kayak. And a place to spend an enjoyable and interesting day.

A good variety of seminars were presented. We would have liked to have visited more, but on the day we were there we chose the ones which interested us most, and not surprisingly those had to do with sailing the oceans. Derek Hatfield, Canada’s entry in the single-handed, round the world Vendee Globe race, gave an interesting talk illustrated with slides and clips showing the building and testing of Spirit of Canada, his present Open 60 ocean racer, and from the Around Alone he competed in in 2002. His slide/video show had wonderful pictures of life at sea in all kinds of conditions. His story is one of persistence and courage, and of reaching out to Canadians of all kinds to offer and seek support. He is carrying the names of thousands of supporters around the world on the hull of his boat as he races, and will send them news of his race as he goes. And the burgees of clubs that support him will travel with him around the world aboard the Spirit of Canada before they make their way back to the clubs they came from, autographed and bringing a touch of history with them.

If Derek Hatfield’s story is one of sailing as fast as possible, Hubert Marcoux’s is about taking the slow route, and enjoying the stops along the way. His book “Around the World in 18 Years” tells the whole story, but we got a taste of it - some highlights of the special places he stopped at, the interesting people he met, his loss of his first boat and the building of his second, his arrival in Halifax, and the subsequent arrival of Hurricane Juan. The images of his boat driven up into the garden of a house by the Bedford Basin were haunting. He is rebuilding his boat here, and hopes to be back in the water this summer; we plan to keep an eye out for him and hope to see him from time to time on our travels.

In our wanderings around the show we came across some interesting booths. One was for the Mahone Bay Islands Conservation Association. In so many places we have visited islands are being sold, taken from the public domain, overtaken by development and in too many cases destroyed by it. Some of the destruction is obvious - erosion and vanishing shorelines and plants, made worse by attempts to control nature without understanding how she works. Some is much harder to see, but it’s effects will continue to be felt for years to come - the impact of such things as the invisible pollution of common chemicals and human waste. The same is true along the coast of Nova Scotia, where beauty beckons the developers in - and then, ironically, they destroy the very thing that attracted them in the first place. This association brings people and government bodies together to try to slow the process in Mahone Bay, where islands dot comparatively sheltered waters and offer interesting anchorages and places to explore. Rather than stand by and see destruction happen, the Conservation Association is working with some success to preserve the nature of the islands as much as possible, for ourselves and future generations to enjoy. We plan to sail to and explore Mahone Bay this summer.

Now we are thinking ahead to when we get back on the boat. Our sails have been assessed and repaired and are ready to fly again, we have found local sources for various things we need, we are feeling the itch to sail again. Now if winter would just turn into spring and spring to summer...