Lunenberg, Halifax, Rogue's Roost and Port Howe, Nova Scotia

We arrived in dense fog at 7 p.m. in Port Howe and anchored in 15 meters of water. If there is a port here, or anything at all, it was not visible. The fog has lifted some now, revealing uninhabited islands. 

We had a brief period of sunshine around 7 a.m. this morning when we left the anchorage at Hardwood Island, but the fog soon descended. The sun broke through the fog around 10 a.m.; by the time sunscreen was applied, the sun had disappeared for the rest of the day, and visibility was about a quarter of a mile. We started out motoring, but were able to sail with a 12-15 knot southwest wind shortly after noon. Later, it picked up to 20 knots, and sea conditions became rougher, with seas at 4 to 5 feet with short intervals between crests. It is calm here in the anchorage, although we can hear the wind in the rigging.

Let me go back to Lunenburg now. In addition to the houses and commercial buildings, there are several churches with distinctive architecture, most notably St. John's Anglican Church. 

Enis and Peter in front of St. John's Anglican Church

On the waterfront, the 179-foot barque Piston Castle is moored. Built in 1928 in England as a steam-powered fishing trawler, she was used as a mine sweeper in World War II, returned to fishing for about ten years after that and was a coastal freighter. She was purchased in 1991 by Captain Daniel Moreland, who was looking in various ports throughout the world for a ship that could be converted into a real blue water square-rigger. In 1996, she was taken to Lunenburg for a refit. Now, the Piston Castle provides a sail training program.

The Picton Castle

Near the barque is the Memorial to Lost Fishermen and Ships. It is not unusual for the same surnames, sometimes in multiples, to appear on stelae for different years. We were told that grandfathers, fathers and sons stopped sailing on the same vessels about 100 years ago to prevent the entire male side of families from dying in the same tragedy.

Memorial to Lost Fishermen and Ships

After our first day of exploring Lunenberg, we returned to Mantra after dinner ashore and enjoyed a relaxing evening as the town lights began to shine as the setting sun created a glowing yellow layer of bright color above the treetops. 

Lunenburg at sunset

On Tuesday, July 8, Peter and I visited two museums in town. The first was the Knaut-Rhuland House Museum, a well-preserved dwelling built for Benjamin Knaut in 1793 in the Georgian architectural style. He was a merchant, privateer and sheriff in Lunenburg and the son of one of the most prominent of men among the first settlers. He sold the house in 1813 to Conrad Rhuland, a mariner and privateer and the grandson of another original settler. In 1826, he sold it to John W. Creighton and it remained in the Creighton family until 1889, after which it belonged to several owners until 1907, when it was acquired by the local chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows and used by two families. 

The two-story interior has two rooms on each side of a wide hallway that runs from the front to the back of the house, allowing for a breeze to blow through (on the few days of the year one might find it too hot!). The two front rooms on the first floor provide examples of the style of furnishings and clothing that would have been used by the first two owners. An exhibition in another room displays old Bibles and prayer books, including some huge ones dating from the time of the "Foreign Protestants" who came to settle Lunenberg in 1753, and information about the churches in town, which are among the oldest Protestant churches in Canada. The other of the four rooms on the first floor depicts 18th and 19th century home industries, particularly the process of turning flax, which grew well in the region, to linen. Upstairs, the bedroom is decorated in the Victorian style and displays a number of interesting objects, including a basket crafted from porcupine quills and inlaid ivory from Ceylon, a barber's bowl and a sewing bird alongside an antique sewing machine. The sewing birds were very popular in Victorian times. Clamped to a table, the bird has a hinged beak opens by pressing on the tail and was used as to hold fabric taut for hand sewing.

Early 18th century style furnishings and clothing in the dining room as the Knaut family may have had it

Parlor furnished and decorated in the Regency style (1795-1837)

Victorian bedroom

Porcupine and inlaid ivory basket

Barber's bowl

Sewing bird

Loom for weaving flax

In the afternoon, we had lunch at the Old Fish Factory and then viewed the exhibits at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic until closing time at 5:30. Rain was pouring down then, and we looked around the gift shop while waiting for a break in the weather, with Peter bought a heavy, lined flannel shirt, anticipating even colder and damper weather. We made a dash for the dinghy dock when the rain stopped, but it was a brief lull, and we went into the Bluenose II store to escape the downpour. Luckily for us, the employee started a video about the first Bluenose, and we enjoyed watching that for about 45 minutes until it was time for the store to close. (The Bluenose was a Lunenburg fishing boat that won every race it entered for the International Fisherman's Trophy between Lunenburg and Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the 1920s and 1930s.)

Model of the Bluenose in the center, Fisheries Museum

It was not raining when we reached the dinghy, but it was holding a couple inches of rainwater, which Peter bailed out. On our way back to Mantra, we stopped to chat at another sailing vessel, pleasantly exchanging information until the rain began again. We bid a hasty goodbye and made it to the shelter of the pilot house before the rain would have drenched us.

Peter bailing out the dinghy

Meanwhile, Enis had stayed on the boat to work. I had washed a load of bed linens in the morning and hung them on the lifelines to dry, expecting mostly sunshine in the afternoon. Poor Enis had to bring the sheets and pillowcases in, then hand them back up when the weather cleared, repeat this process again in the afternoon and finally bring them in one more time and hang them from hand rails on the ceiling as they were still not dry. Luckily, with a couple small heaters on, our linens were dry before bedtime.

Late the next morning (Wednesday, July 9), under perfect blue skies, we left Lunenberg Harbor, having greatly enjoyed our time there. There was a brief period of fog (not as dense as today's), but mostly we enjoyed crisp views of the mainland and the islands as we passed them. 

Leaving lovely Lunenburg

Morning fog

The scenery became more stunning as we headed north along the east coast of Nova Scotia. Waves were striking the light-colored granite stones of Hopson Island and the headland south of the town of Prospect, the water fanning out into great white sprays of droplets. Occasionally, a seal popped up near us or a small pod of harbor porpoises cavorted in the blue ocean. 

Breaking waves

Nearing Hopson Island

Hopson Island

Seal passing by

As we passed Hearn Island to reach Rogue's Roost, a former hiding place for rum runners, we were awed by the surroundings, and Enis and I could hardly stop taking photographs. We explored the protected anchorage and finally chose to pick up a mooring ball in the upper arm of Rogue's Roost. Only one other boat was there, and it was unbelievably calm and quiet. We could have stayed for days drinking in the beauty. 

Enis on the bow as we enter Rogue's Roost

Rogue's Roost

Enjoying the sunshine and the scenery

Peter having a great time at the wheel

Enis took the dinghy to a nearby rocky islet and practiced using the drone, getting some stunning footage. Peter jumped in the clear 15-degree C water, scaring away two ducks who had come by hoping for a handout. We all took showers in the bright sunshine, and Peter and I tooled around in the dinghy to before sunset, stopping to chat with the couple on the nearby boat. From Québec City, they were well acquainted with the coast of Nova Scotia and provided us with a lot of useful information about places to visit and anchor.

Enis flying the drone

Peter scaring away two ducks

Clouds reflected in the smooth surface of the water

As the sun was getting lower in the sky, the guys got out the fishing gear. Enis was delighted to catch a mackerel, even if it was too small to keep for eating.

Enis fishing at sunset

Enis with his fish

Peter fishing

The next morning (Thursday, July 10), having made some improvements to the radar reflector, Peter was hoisted by me up the boson's chair with Enis helping him, to attach it to the backstay. With this task accomplished, we left Rogue's Roost at 12:45 p.m. under completely cloud-covered skies, noting that under these conditions we would not have been as impressed by the environment as much as we were the day before under brilliant blue skies.

Peter getting in position to go up

Peter making the installation

Motoring because we only had 2-4 knots of wind, we made it to Halifax by 5:15 p.m., docking at Bishop's Landing in the heart of the lively downtown waterfront. Shortly after we had secured the lines, we invited three boys, two brothers and a cousin, and their parents to come aboard because they had expressed interest. 

Mantra passing cruise ships

Three boys enjoying our boat

Then we set off to explore the waterfront, noted for its 4.4 kilometer boardwalk. There are many restaurants, shops, playground areas, historic ships and evocative sculptures as well as street musicians. (We were greeted by the dulcet tones of a Peruvian panpipe player as we docked.)

Royal Canadian Navy Corvette HMCSSackville, used in WWII

Kids playing on a fin sculpture

Enis and Peter in front of a wire sculpture of a ship

Three masted ship on the waterfront

From the waterfront, we walked up George Street to the Old Town Clock and the Halifax Citadel. The clock, formerly known as the Halifax Garrison Clock, is housed in a white, wooden, three-tier octagon tower which was built in 1801 that has seen reconstruction. The clock itself was installed in 1803 under the direction of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and has been accurately keeping time since then.

Town Clock

Built on a hilltop overlooking Halifax Harbour, the Citadel has been the site of four fortifications since the city was founded by the British in 1749. None were ever attacked. 

The Citadel

After our sightseeing, we were hungry. We finally decided on a restaurant near our dock, A Mana, and we were not disappointed with our food selections. 

At 10 p.m., we returned to Mantra. The next morning (Friday, July 11), Enis set off to use public transportation (ferries and busses) to run errands. Peter and I went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. 

Peter wearing his scarf made by Katya and his Irish cap, ready for cold, rainy weather

We were particularly impressed with the ship's chandlery, sail loft and shop for making figureheads. 

Chandlery at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Chandlery

Sail loft

The exhibit on the Halifax Explosion was particularly interesting. The devastating explosion  resulted from the collision of the Norwegian flagged vessel SS Imo, on its way to New York to load relief supplies for Belgium, into the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, in the Narrows of Halifax Harbour on the morning of December 6, 1917. The fire on board the Mont-Blanc quickly grew out of control, and approximately 20 minutes after the collision, the ship exploded. Nearly all the structures within a half-mile radius were obliterated. At least 1,782 people were killed by the blast, debris, fires or collapsed buildings, and about 9,000 others were injured. The blast released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT. 

Also in the museum were small sailing and motor craft. There are impressive large models of passenger steam ships and notable passenger ships of the Cunard line, including the Mauritania, sister ship of the Lusitania, and ocean liner that was sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, precipitating the United States' entry into World War I. 

Model of the steam vessel Franconia, with boot grommets for portholes

Also, there is an exhibition about the Titanic in which we learned that, while the rescued passengers of the sinking ship were taken to New York City, dead bodies were transported to Halifax by four Canadian ships, each of which left port with embalming supplies, undertakers and clergy. Of the 323 bodies brought back to Halifax, about two-thirds were identified. The majority of recovered victims were buried in three Halifax cemeteries, with the unidentified bodies marked with simple numbers. Such a sad role Halifax played in the Titanic tragedy.

As Peter and I were returning to our boat for a lunch of leftovers, we heard some cheering and joined in with parents and friends watching teenagers launching and rowing the boats they had made that week at the boat building camp at the museum. Nearby, we encountered a man with a Harris's hawk, a working animal used to scare away sea gulls. 

Teenagers boarding their boats

Handler with a Harris's hawk

Then I went to the Canadian Museum of Immigration, which occupies part of Pier 21 (Giant cruise ships use the other part.). Nearly one million immigrants were greeted and processed from 1928 to 1971 (most immediately boarding trains for other parts of the nation), and nearly half a million troops embarked for overseas during World War II. During and after the war, from 1942 to 1948, approximately 48,000 war brides, primarily from Great Britain, with their 22,000 children, arrived at Pier 21 to join the Canadian servicemen they had married.

Sculpture entitled "The Emigrant"

One large exhibition room provided a timeline of the First Nation's habitation in Canada and then immigration by people throughout the world to Canada for over 400 years, explaining where immigrants came from over this period of time, who was welcomed during certain periods and who was excluded. The history of exclusion, particularly of anyone not Caucasian, is similar to the pattern in the United States. 

That evening, after Enis had traveled to Dartmouth across the harbor and to Walmart (for slippers) in the suburbs, having various adventures and delays on public transportation, the three of us chose The Henry House for dinner. The restaurant is in a solid-looking, freestanding, two and a half story stone house, built of granite blocks and ironstone for a prominent mason and real estate developer, John Metzler, in 1834, and is named for its first tenant, politician William Alexander Henry. We found the interior to be subdued and inviting with dark colors and low lighting, a reasonable representation of a refined room in a British pub, and the food was superb. 

Enis and Peter at The Henry House

After dinner, Peter returned to the boat, and Enis and I hurried to the supermarket less than two blocks away, as it was already after 9 p.m., and the ice cream shop near our dock, Cow's (which had been recommended to us by our visitors on board the day before), closed at 10 p.m. We took separate shopping carts and split up. I picked up vegetables and fruits, eggs, cheese and other items on the perimeter of the store while Enis cruised up and down the aisles for bread, an ample supply of Diet Coke, juice, chips--all things on the list--and additional items such as cookies, M&M's and Nutella. In about 15 minutes, we met at the cash register as fast as we could. Enis booked a ride with Uber. He arrived in less than a minute, and we arrived at the dock at 9:50. Peter helped us carry the six grocery bags to the boat and we raced to Cow's, placed our orders and walked out the door just as they were ready to lock it. The ice cream was worth the race against time.

I put away all the groceries, and we all went to bed by 11 p.m.. The next morning (Saturday, July 12), with me peacefully sleeping, Enis and Peter cast off the dock at Bishop's landing shorty before 7 a.m., and ten hours later we anchored by Hardwood Island, having motored the whole time because of light winds. While we were underway, I did two loads of washing, and the laundry actually dried before sunset! 

Motoring along the coast of Nova Scotia

It was sunny and almost warm with plenty of hours of daylight left. Peter and Enis pumped up the new stand-up paddleboard we had bought in Easton, Maryland, and Peter set off to explore the shore at low tide. Enis got out the drone and took some impressive photos and videos of our location, the boat and Peter paddling around. Enis took a turn on the paddleboard after Peter. I had already showered and did not go out because I did not want to get wet in the water, which was 15.7 degrees Celsius. (The air temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and we have begun to think that this is warm!)

Enis and Peter getting the SUP ready

Hardwood Island

Peter padding to shore

Enis flying the drone from the roof of the pilot house

Enis paddling

There were just enough clouds on the horizon to make the sunset amazing, but the next morning we awoke to the fog mentioned at the beginning of this post. 

Calm water at Hardwood Island

Sunset

Foggy view from the pilot house

I think I have caught up! It is after 1 a.m., but I was determined to get this done. Besides, I can always sleep in as I have the last two mornings and let the guys do the work! The wind has picked up, so maybe the fog will be gone in the morning.