Enroute to Lockland, Maine
Aug. 8, 2011
Hi Folks,
We just left Isleboro where we had an enjoyable gam with other cruisers from the SSCA. This Maine coast is indented with even more inlets peninsulas, bays channels and islands than is Nova Scotia; great gunkholing! When in Bar Harbor we went up in a glider to drift around the Mont Desert Island area. More about this area when I get to writing up the logs.
I hope I can send this while in Rockland, and hope we can meet up with Ken Lewis on Fairwind, a sailor now there, whom we met last year coming down the Seaway and the St. Lawrence. He helped us get our chart plotter working while in Longueuil. He is an intrepid single handing sailor, literally. He is sailing by himself most of the time, even though he has only one useable hand, his other amputated long ago.
The weather is still variable with a couple of good days, then several of rainy, grey, foggy, windy days.
I have attached several pictures to this log of Lunenburg and Shelburne, and will be setting up a Picasa album with more pictures shortly.
All the best,
Aubrey
~~~~(\_~~~~
Log #52h Bluenose Coast – Lunenburg and Shelburne
Isleboro Island, Maine
Aug.7, 2011
On another grey rainy morning, we hoisted the main, weighed anchor and motorsailed past the Lunenburg Yacht Club heading out the peninsula to go 17 miles around to the town of Lunenburg. Where we were at the LYC, the distance to town by road was only three miles, but we had to go out around the peninsula and back into the town harbour. At least we were able to sail most of the distance for the first time in many days. Going southwest along the Nova Scotia coast, we are heading into the predominant winds most of the way.
Heading into the harbour we saw a pod of dolphin feeding, and we were eyeballed by a couple of harbour seals. Once we rounded the final point with its traditional white clapboard lighthouse, we anchored in the main harbour (44 22.287N, 064 18.525W) with the panorama of this classic seaport before us.
 |
| Lunenburg shoreline |
It stretched from the modern concrete Highliner fish plant at the entrance channel around past a couple of old shipyards with their large hangarlike sheds and slipways, to some large fishing boats, including the aged black-hulled Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling ship used by the Farley Mowat Foundation
 |
| The Farley Mowat |
A designated UNESCO World heritage site, the old town above the harbour proudly preserves the original layout of a planned rectangular colonial settlement established in 1763. The settlement was supplemented by the “Foreign Protestants” as was the town of Mahone Bay mentioned in an earlier log. These settlers came from Germany, Switzerland and Montbeliard region of France. Lunenburg was named for one of the German Territories, Luneburg-Braunsweig, ruled by the then King of Great Britain, George II. The town developed a fishing industry and built the boats and ships that plied the expanding fishing grounds from local and coastal waters out to the Grand Banks and up to Labrador.
The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic is an excellent display of fishing history and development, from jigging in dories to long lines and scallop draggers. The room on Lobster Lore gives interesting information on lobsters and the lobster fishing industry. The traditional old wooden slatted arched lobster traps are no more as lobstermen are now using baited rectangular metal cages which sit more solidly on the bottom; any movement of the trap frightens away the lobsters. Another room displays the rum runners with pictures and historical anecdotes of the era during Prohibition. Canada too had prohibition, but it was started and ended province by province and did not last as long as the U.S. proclamation, giving Canadian smugglers an advantage.
A clean clear aquarium allowed us to see many of the species fished, including the flat fish halibut and a large live 40 pound lobster. In the Vessel Gallery was a display on the building and career of the Bluenose with several of the trophies this famous schooner won. A whaling display, a collection of marine engines, a carpentry shop for building of dories, and a display of a dory equipped for fishing, with an old salt there to explain how it was used, added to the understanding of these industries. Touring the scallop dragger on the wharf gave a better comprehension of the procedures for such complex operations. The schooner on the wharf allowed us to go inside from stem to stern seeing how it was used in fishing, how the men aboard lived and how the vessel (originally built in Lunenburg) was constructed.
 |
| Lobster and Mussels at the Fisheries Museum |
To complete our visit we had a delicious lobster supper upstairs in the Old Fish Factory Restaurant with a panoramic view over the harbour, and were able to see Veleda out at anchor. It is an excellent museum!
We enjoyed wandering the town looking at the classic maritime homes and churches. We looked in at the Admiral Benbow Inn, a bed and breakfast Judy and I stayed at 31 years ago, our first year together. We listened to a local band and visited a musty cluttered used book store where I rented a few old musical DVD’s for a night, and bought an old paperback mystery. A restaurant with a WiFi hotspot enabled us to have breakfast and go on line for E-mail and read our Toronto papers. We were able to do a laundry, got haircuts, and even had showers! In a large boatyard shed we saw the new keel and ribs of Bluenose II being reconstructed. It should be ready for the water in 2012.
 |
| Bluenose II hull being reconstructed |
In the anchorage area were several sailboats; popular ones around this area are the gaff rigged boats, large and small. In addition to mooring balls and boats at anchor there is a small moored platform with a shack, veranda, barbecue, and picnic benches used by some local boaters as a party house after the weekly races. I thought at first it was a floating bar serving boaters who came over alongside, but learned it was a private establishment. There were a couple of floating
 |
| Floating Party Shack |
docks beside the high wharves where we could tie up the dinghy in the downtown area. I was able to fill up jerry cans of water to fill our tanks on board from taps on the docks. The Yacht Shop marina mentioned in our pilot book, “Down East Circle Route” is not operational. The derelict docks are still there, but no services or marina offices were available. Even though Lunenburg is a bit touristy it is not tacky. It has many good restaurants, interesting stores, and has maintained the character of this fishing, boat building community along with the charm of history in this World Heritage colonial town.
 |
| Denuded trees |
The weather was good the three days we were there, but was rainy and foggy when we left to motor the 44 miles to anchor behind Spectacle Island near Port Mouton (pronounced Matoon) off a wide sandy beach sheltered by a couple of shoals to seaward (43 54.503N, 064 49.018W). While there we saw several seals as well as terns and cormorants dwelling in the area. In fact one of the islands in the bay was denuded
of tree branches because of the nesting of cormorants.
On our way out next day we stopped to talk to the people on Bluebird, a friendly couple who invited us to join them for a pancake breakfast on board. However we had 40 miles to make that day and so declined with thanks.
 |
| Shelburne waterfront |
It was a clear sunny day, but we had to motor the entire 40 miles to anchor off Shelburne, another interesting Nova Scotia town. (43 45.496N, 065 19.581W). As we motored in the long bay, we saw several fish farms and a large cruise ship under repair at the shipyard outside of town. There were several buoys off the Shelburne Yacht Club; we anchored outside them. The Yacht Club was quite hospitable, charging only $3.00 a day for use of the dinghy dock and WiFi. About 100 metres aft of us was a raft with a mockup of a sailing ship with a couple of sails and a British flag flying. We were to later find out that it was Founders Weekend, celebrating the Loyalist founding of the town in 1783, and the raft was to be used for a mock battle between pirates and British forces, and burned up in the process. We had a front row seat!
 |
| Fifteen foot and five foot dories |
Shelburne is another pleasant small historic town, site of a couple of movies with late 1700’s and early 1800’s settings, some of their 200 plus year old buildings modified for them. Along Dock Street are several shingled and clapboard warehouses, shops and stores in good repair. We enjoyed particularly the J.C. Williams Dory Shop which was opened as a museum by Prince Charles in 1983. This museum retains the original equipment used to make the double ended fishing dory in this original musty timbered building, with a couple of dories in the process of construction. The museum will still make dories to order, from five feet for children to over 15 feet for serious dory work. It was interesting to see the way in which the flat bottoms were attached to the hulls with ribs made from two pieces of milled lumber joined at the appropriate angles with metal fasteners, and tapered overlapping planks fitted outboard to form the hull. The dory has a flat bottom so it can be stacked one on top of another and lashed on deck of the fishing schooners. Several dories were active in the water for the mock battle this festive weekend.
Across the street were two more museums: the Shelburne County Museum with displays of Mi’kmaq, Loyalist, African and Welsh heritage, as well as a fire pump from 1740 and memorabilia from the town’s rich boat building history; and the Ross –Thompson House and Store, the oldest restored wooden store, which dates back to the early town in 1785. These several 200 year old buildings are in good repair, some still unused since their industrial demise 50 to 100 years ago.
A part of the Founders Weekend was an encampment of reenactors of the 3rd Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers, a unit which came to Shelburne as Loyalists. A Mi’kmaq encampment was also featured during the weekend. While ashore, I met up with Harry from Bluebird, the yacht that invited us for breakfast a couple of days ago off Spectacle Island. The boat was returning from the Marblehead-Halifax race in which it placed second or third, a significant achievement for this international ocean race. Harry invited us aboard and we enjoyed some of his single malt whiskey. The staged sea battle
against the pirates was put off for a night due to windy weather.
 |
| Port side Jib sheet properly trimmed |
Our second night there I went
out on the yacht club race night on a fast Kirby 30 sloop, the
Ali Kat. No spinnakers were
flown. I was the port side winch handler for the jib sheet. We won
the race.
Then came the mock battle and the firing of the pirate ship, after which a good display of fireworks ended the evening. I was invited to crew in the two races next day, but we wanted to get going next morning after refuelling and watering. It was an enjoyable two days in Shelburne.
 |
| Tall ships based in Luneneburg |
 |
| Model of the Bluenose |
 | ||
| Trophies won by the Bluenose |
 |
| Workers on the keel of Bluenose II |
 | |
| Small island at Spectacle island anchorage |
 |
| Cruise liner being repaired at Shelburne shipyard |
 |
| Warehouse on Shelburne Waterfront |
 |
| Re-enactment camp |
 |
| Fish farm pens |
No comments:
Post a Comment