Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 7 Aug 2007 12:54
|
45:36.775N 61:21.885W
It's Monday (8/6/07), and we are in Port
Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia on our way south through the Canso Strait which runs
between the Nova Scotia mainland and Cape Breton Island. Tomorrow we plan
to exit the Canso Strait into the Atlantic Ocean (finally, the ocean!) and head
southwest along the Nova Scotia coast to Halifax. We are hoping to reach
Halifax by Friday (8/10) so the next few days will be fairly long hops along the
coast (40-50 miles a day which doesn't sound like much until you consider the
'slow' factor associated with sailboats).
It was a long trip from Pictou to Port Hawkesbury,
but positively beautiful even though the wind was light most of the way.
We saw a bunch of seals - no pictures though - they are most definitely camera
shy. Every time the camera comes out when they are around, they
disappear. However, the whales were quite happy to pose for the camera
(see below). We saw lots of these whales today - they aren't belugas
and they aren't huge, but they were everywhere. Cool.
Also pictured below is the lighthouse at Cape
George. Cape George defines the tip of Georges Bay, which funnels down
into the Canso Strait. This was also the area where we saw so many
whales.
We went through one lock in the Canso Strait -
our last lock until the Panama Canal. This is a good thing. The
owner of the catamaran behind us in the picture below came over to chat while we
were in the lock and mentioned that they are also headed south to the
Caribbean. We figure we will see them again along the way.
Last, but not least - when we arrived in Port
Hawkesbury and anchored near the yacht club, a bagpiper in full dress was
playing on the shore. It felt like he was playing just to welcome us to
the port, but probably not. Cool anyway. Attached is a picture of
the piper - sorry it's so far away - but we are here and he was there and
that's the best we could do.
And by the way....remember that story about the
American national anthem being played for us as we sailed by on the St.
Lawrence river in Quebec? Well, we've heard from others that this is
done for all vessels that sail by that particular location. The owner of
that property used to be in the military (presumably the Canadian navy?),
and has made it his life's ambition to honor every vessel that goes by with
their home port country flag flying and national anthem playing full blast
on massive speakers. We were glad to hear that this was a real phenomenon
and not just some wild hallucination of ours. Everyone has different goals
in life. I'm glad this guy chose one that seems so simple, yet
touches so many.
Anne
|
