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MetroMPG 07-10-2009 12:24 AM

Gone sailing - tall ships in Nova Scotia, Canada
 
I'm taking off tomorrow for another sailing adventure:

Last year it was a race around Canada's island province of Prince Edward Island : http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tall-4825.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/mi...rthumberla.jpg

This year, on the same ship, I'll be taking part in a tall ship festival in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia that will visit 5 different ports, starting with Halifax on Jul 16-20. Apparently 50-60 tall ships will be there... should be something to see.

Welcome to Tall Ships Nova Scotia Festival 2009!

Many of the ships that are going to be in Halifax on the 16th are in Boston MA right now / this weekend:

http://www.sailboston.com/

The trip starts tomorrow morning: the schooner owner, myself, two sailing buddies and an extra driver are leaving from eastern Ontario to the boat yard in Dayspring, Nova Scotia where the Mist of Avalon has been resting since last year's race. Since we've got a car full of drivers, we'll be going straight through, about 1600 km.

The vehicle: Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

Then it'll be a couple of days getting the boat ready, provisioning, getting additional crew on board, and then sailing up the coast to Halifax.

I'll update this thread if/when anything interesting happens.

alohaspirit 07-10-2009 02:52 AM

thats awesome


always wanted to learn to sail like that

SVOboy 07-10-2009 07:02 AM

Sounds like fun! Time for me to take care of things for a while ;)

bgd73 07-10-2009 09:52 AM

that sounds like fun...and always cold. ;)
The tall ships used to be abiug deal when I was kid in the bostoin area, grandpa was a yachter.
no stops in maine? I could go check one out at least sailing by...:confused:

MetroMPG 07-11-2009 07:05 PM

Well, not always cold! Today was a beautiful summer day spent getting the ship ready - minor repairs and cleanup after coming out of hibernation.

No stops in Maine though - the fleet is going to Halifax next.

Here's where we are and where we're going:

http://ecomodder.com/imgs/mist2009-map.jpg

The drive east was uneventful. Left eastern Ontario at 8:30 AM Eastern and got to Dayspring, NS at about 3 AM Atlantic time.

I got a kick out of driving my friend's Highlander hybrid. Here's a pic I just shot of his two hybrids, side by side... gas/electric and wind/diesel:

http://ecomodder.com/imgs/mist2009-highlander.jpg

The Highlander is EPA rated 27 mpg (US) city / 25 mpg (US) highway. It's not hard to get around 7.5 L/100 km (31 mpg US) in city driving. On the highway, in rolling hills at a 100 km/h / 60 mph target speed with a full load of passengers/cargo plus luggage on the roof :O, I was able to get 9.3 L/100 km (25 mpg US). Gliding down the backsides of the hills is necessary to pull that off though (lift the pedal and the engine stops).

It's a little easier in the Highlander to modulate the accelerator to pin down a true "neutral" glide than my sister's Camry hybrid. But of course not as easy as a Prius.

It was fun driving the hybrid, but I'm much more looking forward to sailing the schooner! If all goes well, we'll be fixed up, spiffed up, sails on, provisioned, fueled, watered and ready to leave the wharf on Monday morning.

An overnight stop in Lunenburg (where I spent the winter) is in the cards before we head to Halifax.

MetroMPG 07-13-2009 05:42 PM

Greetings from Lunenburg! Fantastic first day of sailing. Just tied up and enjoyed a dockside refreshment.

Spy on us until tomorrow morning with these two web cams:

http://bluenosegolf.homeunix.org/parentmain.html
USERNAME: bluenosegolf
Password: none required

http://ecomodder.com/imgs/mist2009-golf-webcam.jpg

Rum Runner Inn Lunenburg NS

http://ecomodder.com/imgs/mist2009-rumrunner-webcam.jpg

Matt Herring 07-13-2009 05:46 PM

Cool Metro...I was in Boston yesterday to see the Tall Ships in the harbor! Most were docked but a couple had the sails up and were headed out...presumably to your location.

Have a great time bro!

RH77 07-15-2009 10:04 PM

Hey Man...

We made it to Lunenburg on our vacation a couple weeks ago. Nice place! We ate at the Old Fish Factory (I think it's called). The people in NS are super nice. I accidentally strolled into a back office looking for someone to make meter change, and some random accountant made some change and recommended better, all-day parking. Even in Montreal, a city bus driver trusted we were taking the subway, so he gave us a "Reverse Transfer on Trust" -- aka free ride.

Your route looks similar to our cruise route -- We started in Boston on to Bar Harbor...Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, (Northumberland Straight), Quebec City, and Montreal. I hope your weather pans out better than ours (fog, mist, cold) but a what a great experience. Fort Louisbourg (and the town) was neat (had the best Pistachio Cake ever). Canada Day in Canada can't be beat either :)

Enjoy the trip and keep us posted! The waves were a bit choppy out of H-fax... I hope they smooth out for ya :thumbup:

RH77

MetroMPG 07-15-2009 10:34 PM

Hey Rick -

Glad you enjoyed (parts) of your trip, and that you made it to Lunenburg.

We're spending tonight in a fishing town just down the coast from Halifax - we'll head for the city tomorrow morning for the beginning of the big festival. 50ish ships. Should be interesting. I'll get some pics.

I've never been to Fort Louisbourg and am looking forward to it. I keep hearing it's a neat place.

Waves have been pretty normal. One seasick crew yesterday feeding the fishes (not me, but you can't always predict when it might hit - and past immunity isn't always a guarantee of future immunity). Today's leg was smoother, and the weather has been perfect. No complaints!

Hugh Jim Bissel 07-16-2009 12:33 AM

Sweet; you're making me water-sick! (like home-sick, not sea-sick:D) Have fun and be sure to to take (and post) lots of pictures!

jmf 07-16-2009 06:06 AM

When will you be going through the Northumberland Straight? I'll be up there next week and you are going right by my cabin. I would like to see 50 tall ships go by.

justin

MetroMPG 07-16-2009 07:20 AM

Climbed the ratlines up the main mast this morning. That's a first for me. (Bit of a wimp when it comes to heights). It's 100 feet to the tip of the main topmast, so maybe 70 or 80 to the cross tree where I stopped.

Nice thing about schooners is you don't have to go aloft to sail 'em. Just to occasionally fix stuff.

Justin - where's your cabin? A good chunk of the international fleet is peeling off after Halifax and heading back to Europe, so there won't be as many ships in the Strait. On top of that, part of the fleet is heading down the south shore of NS.

Here are the dates:

http://www.tallshipsnovascotia.com/u...p_Mar16-09.jpg

from Port Information

jmf 07-16-2009 07:37 AM

My cabin is in Little Sands PEI. It's a couple miles east of the ferry we can see Pictou across the straight. I think I'll be up there july 25-31. Maybe we'll see you go by.

MetroMPG 07-19-2009 04:22 PM

Ironically, I've had less available wifi in the biggest city on Canada's east coast than I did in the four small fishing ports before we got here.

Leaving for Louisbourg tomorrow afternoon. Maybe we'll have better luck there.

Some random YouTube of the boats in Halifax:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3In_3myOIA

MetroMPG 07-19-2009 04:27 PM

And if you want to peruse any pics of the Halifax event, I haven't taken any :)

Good thing there's Flickr (and better photographers!)

Flickr: Search

MetroMPG 07-25-2009 03:53 PM

Greetings from Sydney, Nova Scotia. Getting here was another fantastic day sailing the Cape Breton coast, right into the city harbour and onto the front page of the local paper:

http://ecomodder.com/imgs/mist-sydney.jpg

And here's a YouTube slide/photo show of the parade of sail leaving Halifax on Monday. The Mist of Avalon first appears around the 4:15 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdQmRhFccJM

blueflame 07-26-2009 07:41 AM

I envy you on this trip. I'm a fan of pacific proa's and have had a couple of keelers. Astonishes me how they never used to have an engine on any ship or boat.

Nothing like the meditative space one gets into on the wheel or tiller. Free safe clean energy is a beautiful thing.

Reading 'Astronomer Priest and Ancient Mariner' at the moment.

Happy Sailing!

MetroMPG 07-26-2009 08:03 AM

Thanks blueflame -

I was talking about "meditative sailing" last night with some of the others. The only downside to a big boat is it takes so much effort (relatively speaking in the grand scheme of things) to get the sails up and trimmed nicely, you really need to be on a loooooong tack to settle in to that state of mind.

And on the engine-less theme: a couple of ports back we saw a 30-ish footer keel boat on a mooring which was both engine-less and electrical system-less. The couple that owns it have been sailing around in the western hemisphere for a couple of years now.

RH77 07-26-2009 07:19 PM

Nice coverage by the paper! Did you get a chance to see the Fort?

By the way, what kind of engine does she have? Single-engine Diesel?

RH77

MetroMPG 08-07-2009 01:19 PM

Hi Rick - yes, toured Fortress Louisbourg. Too big to do in just a day. (Unless you're a marathon museum goer type, which I'm not.) Only a fraction of the original site has been restored, and I would have liked to hike around the remaining foundations to get a sense of how big it was back when it was one of the busiest seaports on the continent, right up there with Boston, N.Y. and others.

Coincidentally, we're now in Quebec City, which has a connection with the Louisbourg fortress: both fell to the English one year apart, defeated by the same general. After destroying Louisbourg (they knocked down every wall and building to discourage the French from returning/rebuilding), the English fleet would have sailed much of the same route that we just covered to Quebec from the east coast.

---

Mist of Avalon has a Caterpillar 3306 - 33L straight 6 cylinder diesel.

It ran almost non-stop for the past 5 days of 24 hour motorsailing. It (and we) are taking a one day breather in Quebec City before aiming for the St Lawrence Seaway and the 1000 Islands. The trip will wrap up in 4 days or so.

---

FYI, we had a writer from the Halifax Chronicle Herald on board for two legs of the Nova Scotia tall ships event. He just posted his first of three instalments about his adventure:

Sailing with Mist of Avalon is magical - Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca

MetroMPG 08-17-2009 05:41 PM

Here's a final (?) pic from the trip, when we were very nearly to the ship's home port of Ivy Lea, Ontario.

(The ship arrived home on Wednesday.)

It's the Mist of Avalon vs. Brockville, Ontario's Shark fleet on Tuesday evening.

http://forkenswift.com/offsite/Mist-...ockville-s.jpg

We're in the St Lawrence, tacking towards the Canadian shore (that's NY State shoreline in the background) as the Brockville sailing club's weekly races get underway. That's the the Shark fleet we're messing with (24-foot boats, for scale). I normally race on the boat on the extreme right in this pic, so the contrast is especially interesting for me.

RH77 08-19-2009 11:32 PM

Great thread, Darin. It's a great look into a sport (really, experience) that many of us can only live vicariously through posts, pics and articles.

A big :thumbup: for the coverage!

-Rick


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