Logs of Veleda IV: log #52f Halifax

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

July 24, 2011

Hi Folks,

We are here in Yarmouth, ready to venture across the Bay of Fundy to Grand Manan Island, then down to Maine, New England and the ICW to South Carolina for mid October. The weather has been on and off frequently. We had a couple of nice sunny days in Shelburne and a couple of windy cold stormy days as well. We have motored down most of this coast since Halifax as we are going southwest, into the predominant wind pattern.

This log talks about Halifax, an interesting historical city, home to our east coast Navy. I am attaching several pictures related o the log, but will have many more on my Picasa site to which you will be invited to view hopefully in a few days when I get it organized and get access to the internet.

All the best,

Aubrey

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Log #52f Halifax

Shelburne, NS

July 23, 2011

Our entry into Halifax Harbour on June 29 was in typical Maritime weather; cool and foggy. We could not see both sides of the channel while entering, and could not see Halifax proper as we motored to starboard around the north end of McNabs Island over to the Shearwater Yacht Club. We picked up a buoy close to their floating docks (44 37.752N, 063 31.355W), but were uncertain as to the method of securing to it, as it had no bridle or ring on top to grab. We looped a line under it and secured both ends to a single cleat on the foredeck, hoping the tension of the loop would be sufficient. We were later informed that there were shackles beneath the buoy to which we could attach. Hauling the buoy out of the water to attach a hawser underneath was a messy job with all the slime and growth mucking up the dinghy cover as well as our hands. However we were secure here in Halifax.

The Shearwater Yacht Club is operated as part of the Canadian Forces Sailing Association and must have a serving military member as Commodore. The membership is loosely restricted to Armed Services active and retired personnel, but expands to include any federal employees and probably anyone else interested. Shearwater is a military community on the Dartmouth side of the harbour out towards the Eastern Passage fishing community. It is the air detachment for the Navy, with the 50 year old Sea King helicopters, and now getting the new helicopters, finally after the cancellation of the EH 101 copters thanks to our former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien over 12 years ago. Prior to the choppers the base was home for the Tracker antisubmarine aircraft initially carried on our only aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure, but phased out when the carrier was scrapped (just after a multi-million dollar refit, another government screw up) 30 plus years ago. The large wharf adjacent to the base protecting the club’s floating dock and mooring field was originally for the “Bonnie”, and now serves the Fleet Diving Unit.

The base has memories for me, as the airfield was used as the Halifax airport, a low white clapboard building beside an old WW II hanger, when I first flew here as a young 18 year old officer cadet in 1957. Halifax International Airport is now located 35 miles out of town, a modern terminal. Toronto at that time was not that much different, in that the airport was located, again in a white clapboard building, at Malton Airport. Now it is the gigantic three terminal Pearson International Airport.

Canada Day

Birthday cake at the Shearwater Yacht Club

July 1 is Canada’s birthday. Confederation was July 1, 1867, and was called Dominion Day until the late 1960’s when, unfortunately, it was changed to Canada Day for political correctness. It is the first long weekend of the summer and a time for all kinds of festivities. The Yacht Club had their Sailpast and a barbecue as part of the weekend activities. For the Sailpast the boats were festooned with banners and flags, the more and gaudier the better (see attached picture). We participated and dressed ship. The procession motored past the stern of the Naval Memorial WW II corvette, HMCS Sackville, where the salute was taken.

Boat decorated for sailpast

At the barbecue prizes were awarded for the best dressed vessels. We won! The executive and judges were impressed by the five strings of flags we flew, which represented Veleda’s experiences. The two aft strings contained our large national flag, and the courtesy flags of over 40 countries that we have visited and a dozen or so yacht clubs that hosted us in North America and Europe. The two forward strings were cruising and racing flags awarded by our home club. The starboard spreader had no flags, as unfortunately we did not have a Nova Scotia flag we could have flown as a courtesy flag. On our port spreader we had our home club pennant, and other flags and pennants of various organizations such as the Seven Seas Cruising Association, the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron, our Toronto CPS Squadron, and the Bayfield Award given by the Great Lakes Cruising Club.

Halifax skyline at dusk

During the afternoon and evening we visited on a few yachts and had several people aboard Veleda, which we had alongside for that period.

At dusk we set off down the harbour to linger near

Canada DaY Fireworks

the Angus L. MacDonald Bridge to watch the fireworks, with the city lights of Halifax

behind us. It was a most pleasant way to celebrate Canada Day, as even the weather co-operated, giving us our first really warm sunny summer day.

Gunkholing around Halifax

We spent over a week in Halifax harbour, using the SYC as our base. We had the first two nights free and paid only $10.00 a night for an additional two nights; the other nights we were anchored in Bedford Basin or around McNabs Island. Our first night at McNabs was at anchor in Wreck Cove (44 36.235N, 063 30.550W), aptly named due to the several wrecks showing above water near shore. There are several mooring buoys owned by locals who bring their boats out for weekends and holidays. The island is now a provincial park with no military presence and only a few privately held seasonal cottages.

I had not been on McNabs for over 50 years, the last time for a “Banyan”, a navy ship’s party ashore. I saw a road from our anchorage in Wreck Cove, so Judy and I dinghied over to check it out. We noted an osprey flying around earlier and now saw it in its nest on top of a pole at the end of the road. It was a pleasant day and so we wandered up the road, not sure of what we would find, as we had no map or information about the island.

Judy at Fort McNab gun emplacement

We came across Fort McNab, a National Historic Site, originally built in 1889 to fortify the entrance to Halifax Harbour, using the newly developed breech loading guns. It served as an examination battery in WW I and WW II, with the main gunnery platforms across the passage at York Redoubt and Point Pleasant Park. The concrete ramparts, gun control bunkers, blockhouses, and magazines are still silently guarding the main entrance channel. I kid Judy about my exploits as an officer cadet here where we took our girlfriends to Point Pleasant Park to watch the submarine races. Fort McNab is being restored, but the basic structures are there, including the 130 year old breech loading guns still on their carriages, pointed out across the channel. I enjoy meandering through old fortifications, imagining what their strategies would be in the event of hostilities and what life would be like for those manning the units.

Next morning we dinghied over to the fishing village of Eastern Passage

where we visited the local museum, bought some lobsters ($8.00 a pound), seafood for chowder, and a tea cozy for Judy. It is attractive, but a bit touristy. It is also an active fishing port.

Another day we motored up the harbour past the Navy docks, the shipyards, the Coast Guard base, past the new large container piers,

into the large Bedford Basin.

Royal Canadian Navy City Class Frigates

This was the gathering point for the Atlantic convoys

during WW II. We noted from our plot charter system

a bay on the east side that looked like it should be a protected anchorage. It was. We dropped anchor right beside the Dartmouth Yacht Club (44 42.106N, 063 36.847W), and noted the plastic pipe wave barrier that they recently moored off the club. Apparently Hurricane Juan which hit Halifax a few years ago destroyed their docks and many yachts with its tidal surge.

On our way back through Halifax Harbour next day we moored to the jetty beside the Sackville (see attached picture). Halifax allows yachts to moor alongside the downtown

wharves free of charge during the day. We were right downtown

Veleda at the Sackville dock

and did some banking and had a lovely seafood meal at a dockside restaurant. When walking the docks (Halifax has a very good boardwalk along their downtown waterfront) we stopped and talked with the crew on Sulana, the English yacht we met up in Little Harbour on the Bras d’Or Lakes last month, and another British yacht that was flying a Tot Club white ensign pennant. This is the Royal Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda that we joined several years ago when we were in Antigua. We got news of a few friends down there. Small world!

Atlantic Fleet Diving Unit

Large and small portable hyperbaric chambers

We stopped at Shearwater Yacht Club to check for the mail which we had arranged to have forwarded to us, and to get on the internet to read papers and do E-mail. We were befriended by a Navy diver, Rod Goodwin, who took us through the Fleet Diving Unit and one of the large diving tenders moored there. One of the tenders was called HMCS Granby, a venerable name in the RCN; it was originally assigned to a minesweeper, then was the main base for the diving unit before it moved to Shearwater. I trained as a navy clearance diver on the original Granby and her successor, a frigate that was used for several years. This present unit is well equipped for a wide variety of diving tasks and uses quite modern technology and equipment, a far cry from the old twin hose regulators I trained on in the early 60’s. It has a large hyperbaric chamber and a couple of portable

ones that can be transported to any diving accidents at sea.

Remote underwater rover

Remote controlled robot

Divers trained in mine and explosive devices were sent over to Afghanistan to help with defusing the IED’s that are so lethal to our troops there.

A variety of underwater rovers, both manned and computer driven provide a flexibility in underwater search activities. I was impressed with the unit which could compete or assist with the technology of any private underwater industries.

After the tour Rod took us over town for a wide variety of shopping at a chandlery, grocery store, gas station and electronics shop. At the electronics shop we had to get a new EPIRB 406 distress beacon. Our old one needed a new battery, but the cost for such was not that much less than a new unit. We did not want to take a chance with ten year old technology for a lifesaving distress unit, for all that we hope never to use it. The 406 is a valuable part of our lifesaving equipment. If we are in danger of sinking or have a life threatening emergency, the beacon can be activated and will send a signal to a satellite which will divert it to the nearest Search and Rescue Unit, any place in the world, and help could be expected (either a ship in the area or a fly over by aircraft) within a six hour period, on any ocean. The signal will not only give the position of the vessel in distress, but will also incorporate the name and type of vessel and the names of the regular crew as well as the emergency address and family phone numbers. Thanks Rod for your hospitality.

Similarly the Commodore of the SYC, Shaun, took us over town for a variety of tasks another day. Thanks Shaun. A very friendly club!

Problems on McNabs Island

Muzzle loading gun at Fort Ives

Another day we anchored at Ives Cove on McNabs Island while I went ashore to explore the north end of the island. My hike included Fort Ives,

which was started in 1864, and updated in 1890

with two rifled muzzle loading guns for harbour defence, and again for WW I. I enjoyed clambering along the west shoreline along the overgrown encasements, bastions, and old searchlight emplacements. On my way back inland I came across a couple of summer mansions, abandoned, most with all their furnishings. A park ranger I met decried

Abandoned mansion

the state these old homes were in and asked me to contact my provincial Member of the Legislature to lobby for more funds to preserve these structures. Their preservation would be a worthwhile project for an organization such as retired teachers to provide volunteers to maintain these period pieces. However, I am not from Nova Scotia, so have no such provincial representative.

Wreckage hauled up on the anchor

That evening a strong north wind came up, blowing into Ives Cove where we were anchored. After supper I heard a fog signal a couple of times and thought it was a start of a race at the club across the channel. When I looked out, I saw it was a chap on shore waving at us. We were dragging our anchor and approaching the shallows in 25 knots of onshore wind! I waved thanks to him and flashed up the engine while Judy went forward to raise the anchor, fouled with streamers of kelp. We didn’t want to re-anchor in this cove with a strong onshore wind, and so motored around the island back up to Wreck Cove where we had been a few nights ago. It was sheltered and we anchored further into the cove to get out of the wind. We were secure for the night, but in the morning when we tried to raise the anchor, we were stuck on a large timber we hauled up from – guess what – a wreck! We finally dislodged it with a boat hook, and accelerating ahead and astern to free us from it. However when we motored out I noticed a tapping of the shaft, and so we returned to re-anchor, but when I went astern the problem seemed to resolve itself. Off we went back to SYC where finally some mail we had forwarded to us had come in.

On our final return to the SYC, I watched the recovery of a yacht which burned and sunk at

Recovering burnt boat

the dock while we were away. It was a very sad situation, not only for the yacht destroyed, but yachts on either side were damaged from the heat. The Diving Unit responded immediately by coming over and removing the adjacent yachts before they caught fire. After picking up our mail, we went over to moor across the camber from the Sackville to do a bit more business in town before we finally departed Halifax on July 10^th.

ADDITIONAL PICTURES