Nova Scotia and Maine August 2018

Halifax, Nova Scotia to Bar Harbor, Maine Aug. 21 to 26, 2018

Dad and Helga were in northern Nova Scotia for a 10 day cruise and we lucked into being able to get on the SarahBeth when they came home. 

There were clouds on the flight north but, from what I could see, there were lots of evergreen forest, bays with waves crashing, and a few houses along the water until we got near Halifax.

From our driver we learned that metro Halifax has about 750,000 people, which was a huge surprise to me since my frame of reference was a picture book about the explosion which I read on the flight and which stated that there were about 60,000 Haligonians (an odd term for the residents dating back to earlier boom times in the 19th century and thought to be a derivative of Haligoonians in reference to the sailor related riff raff that populated the city).

The airport is north of the city, across the bay, so we came in from the Dartmouth side  to the Richmond (Richmond named after Richmond Virginia which sent cotton to NS to be woven into clothing back in Civil War times) Halifax side across a big bridge. The Halifax harbor geography is shaped like a wine bottle with a tennis ball sitting on the top of it.

The SarahBeth was docked right in the middle of the harbor tourist area, very near the donut stand and ice cream stand and a beer garden with lots of folks able to look in the windows. The way we got on the boat was down some steps to a floating dock and then walking on at the stern (six feet of tide here as opposed to 50 feet of tide on the other side of the peninsula at the Bay of Fundy).

After lunch, we all walked into town (meaning just up the hill from where we were docked)- Gordon and Leesa and family to the Patagonia store where there was a 30% off sale and then more shopping, Connie and I just wandering. The eventual plan was to meet at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to see the exhibits about the explosion and the Titanic. Connie stopped in a knitting shop and I went to the Canadian equivalent of REI.

The explosion in the bottleneck part of Halifax harbor took place in December 1917, during WWI. Halifax was experiencing a revival of fortunes with the war on as a staging area for supplies and troops. A French ship the Mont-Blanc loaded with 6 million pounds of high explosives in NY was ordered to Halifax to join a convoy of slower supply ships. The ship missed the time when the port was open for the day of arrival due to raising of the submarine nets. On the other side a Norwegian ship the Imo with relief supplies for Belgium missed leaving Halifax due to slow coaling. The next morning these two approached each other in the Narrows but due to other traffic and possibly mistaken whistle signals or hard headed captains, and lax port discipline because of the war they rammed each other. The deadly mix exploded at 9:05, freezing the surviving clocks at that time. The blast leveled 500 meters around it, killed 2000 people, mostly spectators, and blew debris over 6 kilos away. It was the largest human made explosion in time other than nuclear bombs. It also was the largest mass blinding event in history. (See the book The Great Halifax Explosion by John Bacon). My take is that most of the lives and sight of the onlookers would have been saved if the Mont-Blanc had followed protocol and had a red “munitions” flag flying.

Halifax probably felt cursed: four years before it had been the port where the largest number of Titanic victims’ bodies were brought for burial. I read that one 19 month old baby who died in the sinking was not identified until 2009.

C and I walked a bit along the waterfront, took in two short movies on Right Whales and the local fishing and racing ship the Blue Nose, and then went to the museum. The Titanic exhibit was excellent, well laid out and very thorough. The explosion part was less organized, and coherent but it did have some actual pieces of the blown out and bent metal from the ships.

While walking around the harbor which was kind of like the Inner Harbor in Baltimore but much less of it we saw 3 very good tee shirts-

“I don’t need the internet because my wife knows everything”;

“Don’t rush me- I’m paid by the hour”;

and very simply “Fog Off”.
The following link is a story of a girl who got disgusted with "straight pipes" (sewage straight to the river or port in Halifax)- one person can make a difference: 
LaHave River is near Halifax

Back to the boat for dinner and a game of Wizards.

Wednesday August 22- Halifax to Lunenburg (about 46 miles)

On exiting the mouth of the Halifax inlet we very quickly passed Sambro Light on the port side. It is the oldest lighthouse in the Americas. The weather was foggy and the seas a little unsettled. When approaching Lunenburg, you see a wooded and grassy peninsula to the port (the golf course), sailboats moored, and then the town with its scallop boats. We docked at Zwicker Wharf right next to the scallop boat Maude Adams. There was much less foot traffic than in Halifax.

Gordon’s shark tracker told us there was a great white named Hilton that pinged right off Lunenburg about a week ago.

Again we all wandered the town. C and I found a nice little book shop and then I went to the Blue Nose store. In Lunenburg the Blue Nose II docks and takes folks out for short voyages as part of its scheduled rounds between Nova Scotia and Boston. The BNII is a reproduction of the famous fishing and racing sailboat the BN. In its day, BN engaged in races with the best boats of its class out of Gloucester MA and never lost a race. When retired it was sold and the new owner sunk it off Haiti (wonder if it was on the same reef where the first SarahBeth sank?). Schooner Beer offered to build a new BN in Lunenburg to use for its advertising and then sold it back to Nova Scotia for $1. It has since been refitted a couple of times and is used as a training ship. The term Blue Nose is used to describe the local people up here, in particular the sailors. I am not sure of the origin- some say their noses are blue from eating so many blueberries; others say it is from the cold wet winter weather; and there is a third reason offered which I can’t remember.

Connie and I found the Anglican Church and went to an organ concert by a local 11th grader. The church burned on Halloween 2001 but reopened in 2005. It is in a style called Carpenter Gothic.

After lunch we all took a great one hour or so walking tour of Lunenburg. Our guide had a sense of humor and good knowledge of the history (lots of Germans). As an example three of the churches in town claim 1753 as their starting date (Lutherans, Anglicans, and Presbyterians). That is because in 1753 when the town was founded, there was an ecumenical service outdoors for everyone. After the tour we wandered town some more and came home to a scallop dinner with scallops caught by the Maude Adams. Michael’s friend Josh was here for a wedding and joined us for dinner.

Thursday, August 23 Lunenburg to Shelburne 76 miles, and a hard 76 miles it was. The weather was overcast then clear then foggy then clear but the killer was the 6-8 foot swell that kept hammering us for the whole morning. Everyone was somewhere between mostly seasick and really seasick. 

Shelburne is a tiny coastal town dedicated to shipbuilding and barrel making in the old days and to tourism now. Many of the houses were built in 1784 or so. The town was settled by loyalists leaving the US after the Revolutionary War. Thin soil made many eventually leave and most of the freed African Americans found Shelburne did not match the British promises. Eventually most of them were resettled in Sierra Leone.

This was an anchor out night for the SarahBeth but in the harbor the only place the anchor would hold was in the middle of a sail regatta course set to be run Thursday night.

We were all glad to be on terra firma. We walked town for a while with no particular purpose in mind. When we reached Shelburne it was sunny and we were greeted by horseflies bigger than those on Williams Island, but as it got cloudier the flies disappeared.

When we were on the inflatable tender back to the SarahBeth we veered off to look at a setup of Atlantic Salmon aquaculture nets. The fish were jumping inside the nets. Each net holds between 15000 and 30000 fish. The sign said the fish occupy less than 4% of the volume of the farm.

The local regatta went right by the SarahBeth. There were 8 ships of varying sizes and two races started at the same time. Hard Eight won the longer race for the 3 larger boats. We were there cheering the boats at the start and finish.

Shrimp and scallop combo for dinner.

Friday, August 24 Shelburne to Bar Harbor Maine.

This will be an all day run and everyone is dreading the repeat of the swell, which we are just now beginning to feel as I type this.

Gulp.

However it turned out to be much, much smoother. Thomas and I could even watch Magnificent Seven without trouble. We got to Bar Harbor a little after lunch and almost immediately took off on a combination walk and tourist expedition. After going our own ways for a bit we met at the walkway to Bar Island which is accessible as the tide drops. (It is a charge of $150 if you don’t plan it well and want a boat ride back.) The tide is about 10 feet here.

Here we are also in a fish bowl with a couple of guys yelling over “what’s for dinner?”. I found out from Cookie that two people actually came aboard in Lunenburg while we were waiting for Josh.

Lobster a la Drew along with Chocolate Chip club sandwiches for dinner.

Saturday, August 25 Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor

All day docked at the same place. The Gs and the Gs caught the Island Explorer (free bus) to the trailhead for the Acadian Mountain hike. It was actually more of a rock scramble than a trail hike but we all made it and the views of the harbors and inlets were just wonderful. About 8000 steps but 56 floors according to the phone!!!

We then rode into Southwest Harbor for lunch at Eat A Pita (good food especially the chips and the lobster Reuben but the service was slow. When we did catch the bus back to Bar Harbor, I slept most of the way and then immediately got into the hot tub on the SarahBeth. Some of the others still had energy for shopping and for jumping off the boat (after a trip to a bar with very strong drinks).

Sunday, August 26 Home