June 30, 2013, Pictou, Nova Scotia

spending the 4th night, in Pictou, hoping to head out tomorrow morning for Ballantynes Cove,

in St. Georgas Bay, Nova Scotia, Mother Nature willing ...   hoping for cleaner smelling air too !

Dave and MaryLou Bath, travelled from New Brunswick to spend the night with us on the boat, 

ML brought us supper, and we had a great evening watching a movie, on board, 

of the Bras d'Or Lakes. We are going to hook up again in a few weeks to enjoy the lakes together.  

Yesterday a beautiful 50' Hunter arrived, to get out of the windy conditions.  I wonder were she is from !!!!   s/v Adriana 1, is from Wiarton, Ontario ... about half an hour drive from Owen Sound, our home port.  Bill and Shawnie Wildeboer, are finishing there Great Loop Adventure, they left August 2011, and are heading home to Wiarton..  Thank you for sharing your stories and lending us some charts for our adventure...  we will return them when we return this fall to Owen Sound.

pizza on the BBQ tonight, forgot the anchovies !!!! (mine only)

we also want to thank Al Fraser, for spending time with us, telling of good anchorages in the Bras d'Or Lakes, and of the different ways to the Maggies, and Bay St. Lawrence, and we hope to meet up with Al, on his boat " Deliverance ", in the Lakes

to our family back home this is were we are going to be travelling in the next few days!!

June 29, 2013 (part 2)

this is a borrowed picture of Ship Hector, with her masts up ... today she has no

masts, they have rot and had to be taken down.

we paid our $7.00 each for a self guided tour ... it is well worth the money

in the blacksmiths shop we found candle holder, workmanship fascinating 

lots of block and tackle everywhere

wrought iron 

stay away from this Captain .. he means business

we were shocked to see the masts all laying down, with rigging still

attached on the ground,  we understand they removed it a few weeks ago from the ship

it has been raining for weeks and it all looked disappointing for the Hector

Modaki, 2nd sail boat on the left pointing out !!

a view looking at the Blacksmith Shop and Wood Working shop

in the Captain's quarters ... hey the hat matches  my wind breaker

the Captain in the Captain's Quarters, in the stern of the boat.

Ship Hector is 123 ft long, 22 ft. wide, can carry 200 tons, draft 8 ft.  main mast, from keel 93 ft.,

foremast from keel  84 ft.

missen mast from keel 62 ft.

8 square sails, and 9 fore and aft sails

built of American White oak, planking, ceiling and decking is native wood 

the masts are Douglas Fir from  British Columbia

the bunks, in the hold, go rights right from the bulk head to the bow, and there was approx. 189 passengers and 10 - 12 crew,  each family would receive one bunk to share.

13 died of small pox, mostly children on the 2 1/2 month crossing

in the belly of the ship

not much room for 200 people for 2 1/2 months, in rough or calm weather

the wood carvers shop, all hand carved for the Hector

we did another walk around, lots to see here in Pictou

walked all the way up this hill, just to turn around and look down

this reminded us both of the Caribbean

a very interesting house, painted purple, on the top of the hill, with a widow walk, it must of been a fantastic view of the bay.

beautiful stone buildings

and of course tons of art on the buildings,  we understand that there is a walking tour of 

this artist work, around the village .. next time !!

June 29, 2013 (part one)

this is the old rail museum, too bad it is closed up

an old school house

we found out that the lobster season in this area closes today

fish bait being loaded on to a freighter to be shipped to the fish farms in Newfoundland, it will take 8 - 9 hours on the water, and they ship by boat every 2 - 3 weeks.

another fisherman arriving with his lobster traps, that he pulled for the season

the wind was really gusty, but these guys sure know how to handle their boats.

a baby star fish, left in one of the traps.

this fisherman still uses wooden traps, but has the metal ones too.

he told us that he has 280 traps, to haul and store inland

he wanted to know what we paid for lobster in Ontario.....then he just shook his head !!

The fishermen sure don't get paid much for all their hard work, dangerous work too !!!

June 27 and 28, 2013 heading to Pictou, Nova Scotia

Maasdam leaving the port of Charlottetown, at 6pm ... Modaki is the small sail

boat to the left beside the blue sail boat ... we are glad we got AIS and Marine Traffic, we can keep

track of were the freights and cruse ships are!!

Wed night was spinnaker race night, 19 boats took part, it was quite windy, but they all

had a good time.  Most of them were in their bare feet !!!!

Mahjoubi, shared some stories with us, he is from Tanzania, and spent his career with the French

Army and now lives in Montreal.  Mahjoubi, bought a 32c Bayfield and is on his way back

to Montreal with it.

after the race there was a free Curry Rice dinner, that we got invited to ... good !!

it is hard to see, but we saw a few Northern Gannets.

we spent 8 1/2 hours dodging lobster pots,  it looked like a minefield out there.

each fishermen have their own colour coding on the bouys.  There was no wind, so we had to motor

all the way to Pictou.

also it was very cold on the water,  ..... we took advantage of the tide going out of Charlottetown, and got a 1.5 - 2 knot boost...then we got the tide going into Pictou and another knot boost .. the trip usually takes 10 hours, but we did it in 8 1/2 hours.

Joe reading up on the entrance to Pictou, and what Marina's are there, and making plans on

the best place to spend a few days.

there is 2 ferries crossing from Wood Island, PEI and Caribou, Nova Scotia, so Joe did the Marine Traffic check and saw that both have left the port and sure enough as we got closer, we saw the one

leaving Caribou, N.S.

then looked back and the other one from Wood Island, PEI, was coming up beside us ... 

lots of cormorants

in the ship yard, there is a big military looking boat being build

this is some pictures coming into Pictou, by water

there is 3 marina's, the first is a private yacht club, that has fuel,

the 2nd one is on the wharf, looked very small, and you are a block away from the washrooms

and showers.

the last is the Hector Quay Visitors Marina, were we wanted to stay

Hector is on the left of the picture, no masts up !!!

this is our tract Thursday, 50  k.m.

the Northern Pump Mill is across the day.

we are not too sure how this all worked out but our friends, from GYC, in Owen Sound arrived in

Pictou, by car on the same day that Joe and I arrived by boat.  We had a great visit, with drinks and went out for supper, The Lobster Bar Restaurant, (just across the road).  The next morning, Allan and Marsha, lent us there car and we drove to a grocery store a few miles away. They are on a 2 week vacation and are visiting Nova Scotia, PEI, and Cape Breton. 

some of the houses, fresh coat of blue, it looked so nice

We toured the Lighthouse Museum and Research Centre, the picture is of all the

light houses in the Maritimes, and they blink on and off to the second. The same as the

originals ones do.  

We also visited the Northumberland Fisheries Museum, lots of good displays of

the Lobster Strock Enhancement Research Project.  The actually size of a lobster larva is 3/4 inch

and they actually look like the big ones.  Students from the Nova Scotia Community College, built the light house and the lighthouse display.

lovely old buildings, lots of them house art galleries and gift shops

the main street of Pictou

a lobster trap chair, cool idea ... too big for the boat !!

Tomorrow we will visit the Hector and get the tour ... MODAKI, docked close by !!!