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...
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.
