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| Symphony |
On Sunday afternoon, George from the Marina/sailing school arrived in his Rib and accompanied by his son to take Bonny out to the mooring. Pascal came out as well and with their help Bonny was soon secured to the most sheltered mooring in the harbour.
After getting Bonny moored up Chris and Amy hosted drinks for all the crews I had got friendly with whilst at St Pierre. The photos are crap due to facing the sun but....
Above (left to right) are Ali (with Andrez out of shot) from The Falklands whom I met last year in Shelter Cove, East Shore Nova Scotia). Then Pascal (his partner Loranne not there) then our hosts Amy and Chris. Out of shot were Michael and Sabina.
I stayed on board Bluaberre on Sunday night as the guest of Michael and Sabina and the following morning - Monday 30th June - Katy who manages the Marina/Yacht club kindly took me to the airport - it was 12 C.
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| The view from the plane above St Pierre |
The 1.5 hour flight to Halifax went without a hitch and the very helpful flight attendant arranged for a wheelchair attendant to get me through the airport at Halifax. I almost declined the offer but was very glad I didn't because it would have been an extremely slow trek on crutches.
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| View from the Armdale Yacht Club |
After killing a couple of hours I got the Maritime bus to Halifax town - about 40 minutes - it was 25 C - and then a taxi to the Armdale Yacht Club where I arrived just before Symphony hove into view. An hour and a half later Gary joined me in the Yacht Club bar for a beer and a very good fish and chips dinner after which we retired to Symphony for the night.
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| Symphony at the fuel dock |
The following day, the 1st July was Canada Day (there version of the USA's 4th July) and so after rising rather late we took a local bus into town. On the bus a friendly local got chatting to us and it turned out that he was the drummer in a Blues Band and was on his way into town to play a gig. "Why not come along?" Subsequently that's exactly what we did. Before then however we explored the waterfront which was extremely busy. We had Canada's national dish, Puchine, for lunch. Chips 'n' Gravy with chunks of cheese. Vince and I had it last year when we visited the waterfront. I found it rather more pleasant this time!
After lunch we split up for a couple of hours so that Gary could cover more ground. We both independently went to the excellent maritime museum. Then at about 6.30 we headed for the Blues Bar and enjoyed a great set by "The Relics". The evening set was by an extremely talented guitarist but despite his undoubted technical prowess he was not nearly so entertaining as his support act - 'The Relics'. The small crowd reveled in their ability to knock out classic Blues and Rock songs. The highlight of the set was Canadian, Neil Young's, 'Rockin in the Free World'. The crowd were clearly very proud Canadian's but there was non of the jingoism that one can imagine coming across elsewhere.
I'm not quite sure what happened to 2nd July - but Gary and I passed through it with very little effort certainly on my part. Gary must have tackled some of the inevitable boat jobs that are always hanging around.
On Thursday afternoon Vince arrived and Gary and I took Symphony across the inlet to the Yacht Club to pick him up and to fuel and water the boat. Well, I watched as Gary and then Vince busied themselves with all that. I did make a useful contribution on the way back by pointing out we were about to go the wrong way round a buoy and possibly run aground!
Later in the evening we took the dinghy to the Yacht Club for a couple of Beers and had a chat with locals who I met last year when knocking around with fellow OCC member Rhys. On that visit Rob arranged for Rhys and I to crew on his son's boat in the evening race. Well actually we didn't do much more than help the rest of the crew drink beer. Rob and Becky made us feel quite at home once again and later other locals came by and chatted with us.
Today (Friday) has been hectic. I managed to crash Gary's laptop and Vince spent a good couple of hours fixing it - good job he was here because it's highly unlikely that either Gary or I would have been able to fix it. Gary spent most of the day on repairing the dinghy - a job that will take a few more days to complete. The protective rubber strip around the outside is coming unstuck. The dinghy is now out of action for a few days whilst the new glue cures. Gary and Vince have therefore gone ashore to do the shopping in Gary's inflatable two person Kayak. Getting a week's worth of shopping back on board is going to be fun!!
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| Garry arriving back with the first of three Kayak loads of shopping |
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