Halifax Canada

Finally, after all the trauma, we have a full crew!  Lidia arrived as planned at Halifax, and E, M and I met her with no problems.  Very nice to meet her finally and the children have taken to her like the proverbial.

E and M drawing in a new sketch book from Cornelius

When we cleared in we mentioned her to customs and they took all her details, and passed them through to the airport, so she was received without problems.  Nice to know that some countries see sense.  The customs officers also recommended restaurants to us!

Which brings us nicely to dinner last night.  Richard had sought out advice on a good seafood restaurant to eat at, and was recommended somewhere in Bedford.  Not to be dissuaded by the name 5 of us drove to Bedford leaving Lidia to catch up on sleep.  Now we were all looking forward to pan fried fresh fish, or scallops, or mussels, and the seafood platter looked like a good bet.  E and M chose pizza.

Which raises the question, why was a seafood restaurant serving good fish (recommended by several locals) also serving pizza.  Well the answer was that if you didn't want everything deep fried to oblivion, then you should choose pizza!  The Atlantic cod fillets, scallops and mussels were virtually unrecognisable under the layers of batter.  0/10.

Another from the archive

Here's a shot of James in the single hander race of the Sweethearts of the Caribbean regatta, Tortola, February 2013:

Croix des Gardes sets off in Tortola single hander race

Approaching Halifax

Now running the last 20 odd miles to the entrance to Halifax Harbour. Running fast and surfing a bit, but all the crew seemed to have recovered from yesterday's bouncing about. Destination, the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron to await Lidia.

Position as I type, at 06:30 is 44 10.5N, 63 52.4W. All crew asleep and hopefully we will make it into smooth water before E and M want their french toast and omlettes!

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Croix des Gardes as she was in Antigua earlier this year

End of Day 2

Position 43 25N 65 17 W and about 10 miles south of Port la Tour in Nova Scotia.

It has been a uncomfortable then slow day. Thw ind has dropped right down to around 8-10 kts and our speed is down to 4. We are all dead tired from not sleeping much, except for E and M who are frustrated! Ah well we should be in Halifax in the morning!

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Second Dawn

Position at 0715 2/6/13 43 00N, 66 21W

A fast if rather uncomfortable night. Lumpy seas from astern had us rolling and corkscrewing all yesterday and through the night. Thick fog came in about 2300, with vis to less than mile.

Although the children seem completely unaffected (they spent the afternoon making dens in cabins) Cornelius succumbed as is feeling very unwell this morning.

Now about 170 miles from Halifax and about 40 from the southern tip of Nova Scotia, we expect to arrive tomorrow sometime before lunch.



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Departure and first night out

We slipped away from NYYC about midday after a busy morning doing last minute jobs on a glassy water. Motoring out we started to get some breeze at the entrance, and finally started working our way back east. To give us all a calmer first night we elected to sail through Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds rather than put out to deep water and o round Nantucket shoals.

Running up Vineyard sound at about 16:00 saw the wind drop to almost nothing and the tide go foul and we though we might anchor for dinner and maybe the night. However before we could even reach the anchorage the wind came up quickly and we had to reef and the anchorage became untenable. We pushed on and had a quick pasta dinner before the children and I went to our bunks.

A rather hectic night for all ensued, as we dodge round the numerous shoals, clearing out into deep water at dawn. I think Cornelius and Richard found it a rather challenging night.

At 0900 we are at 41 47'N 69 25'W, seas are smooth, wind SW around 15 kts and CdG doing 6-7. Lovely clear skys.


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