Captain Watson

Mahone Bay Harbour

Hi All,
It's been a busy week here aboard the Bluenose II. We continued our twice daily harbour tour trips and managed to get over 300 people out for a sail aboard the ship. Some of the trips were slow and leisurely, other fast and exciting. That's life when you depend on the wind for power. Usually you either have to much or to little.

After "Tallships Lunenburg" we did manage to squeeze in a couple of maintenance days which we were in serious need of. Between Boston, Halifax and Lunenburg we had almost 33,000 people aboard to visit the ship. I'm sure you can imagine what your lawn or back deck would look like if you had that many visitors!

One of the highlights of the past week was a crew trip to ABCO. www.abco.ca ABCO is located just across the harbour from our dock and is a short 5 minute walk. Launched in 1947, the companies first customer was Capt. Lou Kennedy and his vessel, City of New York. ABCO is now a fine example of a company that looked forward and diversified adopting modern materials and building methods. With a crew of about 60 that includes an in-house marine and industrial design and engineering team they now build aluminum designs. They are involved in a wide variety of projects but principally build rugged, high quality workboats and food processing equipment. We saw the second of two 65 foot (18m) environmental research vessels in frame and several in a line of rotary vegetable blanchers for a UK firm. All amazing stuff. Yet another example of a small Nova Scotia company providing high quality products to the world! I'll try to write a bit more of their history as connected with Mahone Bay in my next log.

Speaking of Mahone Bay, jewel of the south shore that it is! (and also my hometown so forgive me if I wax poetic) we sailed in today at about 1600 and managed, with the help of gravity, to get the anchor on the bottom of the bay. I missed the intended anchor position by 300 feet or so but will live with where we ended up. We did stop traffic on the road which is always fun. As we passed Westhavers Beach an enthusiastic group set off fireworks to welcome us! Thanks to Nate, Kate, Sarah and Ben for the great welcome to home waters.

So you ask, why are we here? Well it is the annual Classic Boat festival. Lots of entertainment, workshops, a parade, fireworks etc. It truly is fun for the whole family. To the best of my knowledge there is NO ADMISSION CHARGE. I suspect largely due to the huge volunteer base within the town!

That's all for now.

Best regards,

Phil Watson
Bluenose II