Passendale and the Ypres Salient!

We traveled to Lille on Monday 7 October with our BBF to meet with Glenn and Gwen from Canada to visit the Battlefields of WWI. We had been before and wrote about it

A tourist day in Lunenburg!

It started to blow and rain a bit in the night, but we were all cosy and warm below so we slept on. Around 08:30 hrs Brec was the first to surface. The men slowly got going. Our BBF made breakfast and tea. Brec made a phone call about work and they sat and chatted after that! 

Brec refuelled the dinghy and bailed out the rain water ready for going ashore. 

Our BBF made a whole load of Tuna Pasta salad, enough to feed a platoon let alone two old codgers in a boat at sea. 

Then we all went ashore to do washing have showers and visit museums! The men put the washing on first and as there was someone in the shower our BBF went to the Post Office to buy stamps! He then saw that the Laughing Whale cafe was open and went in to have a really good cup of coffee and a muffin! He was unable to renew his Verizon SIM which runs out tomorrow as the web page was unable to process foreign credit cards! 

He then walked back to the shower block, but there were two people in the queue to use it! We did the touristy thing instead.

We Bears visited the gnomes and fairies in Lunenburg.



Then went with Alan to the oldest house in Lunenburg! 

The Knaut-Rhuland House Museum had a shoe placed in the wall to ward off the devil! 

We then went next door to an Antique shop and found a suitable gift to give John Morgan for his 70th birthday, but couldn’t pay for it as they only took cash! Alan went back to Brec who gave him enough change to do so. 

We then all went to the Fisheries Museum which had some nice models of sailboats as well as enlightening exhibits! 

This model shows the Grand Banks and the Continental Shelf with the various currents that have an impact on the fish and the climate! 

This model of a Cod Fish is also the size of the largest ever caught! 

In the beginning the men fished with hand lines from the decks of sail boats. They stood in these casks which kept them dry and they also had wind shields which you see here!

Later they fished from dories like this one!  

This model shows how they did it and shows well the swell they would have had on the ocean! 

One room was dedicated to all the fishermen lost at sea over the years! 

Alan posed for a photo

And so did we! 

We returned to the Zwickert Wharf where our BBF went for a shower and Brec moved the dinghy as it was being blown on to the muscle encrusted dock sides! 

The humans now had Tacos and Beer in one place but as they had no wifi went for Cocktails and desert to another that did.

We will leave Lunenburg tomorrow, Wednesday around noon to sail directly back to Provincetown so will be out of contact for at least four days! Till then! 

Back to Lunenburg

We were up early as we were going back to Lunenburg and Brec was keen to get going! The start of the day in New Glasgow was overcast very with light rain showers as we got on the road about 09:30 hrs. It cleared more and more as we traveled on. We stopped once for fuel just North of Halifax by the airport.

When we arrived in Lunenburg at around 12:00 hrs we drove straight to the Zwicket Warf to check on OTTER. She was riding peacefully on her mooring in flat calm water as if there had never been a Hurricane that passed through here!

OTTER can just be seen above the bow of the dark yacht!

However, evidence that a Hurricane had been here there was! We had seen broken trees and branches, many already cleared aware. The worst though was that there was no power in Town at all! We were able to check into our room in the Dockside Inn, but they had no power and their restaurant would remain closed.

We unloaded the humans and our kit into the hotel. Then the men left Sandy and us there while they went to see if they could get access to the dinghy! They returned without success, but had heard that the supermarket was open as they had a generator. Together with Sandy they went there to revictual the boat and to have stuff to eat for lunch.

With the stores they returned to the hotel where our BBF made lunch! After lunch the men went to the Filling Station by the supermarket as Brec was keen to get one more Jerrycan for diesel. That way he would be fully sufficient in fuel to motor all the way to Provincetown if necessary! They were successful in this and Brec also bought a small torch which he and Sandy did not have with them, plenty on the boat just not in their luggage and the bathroom has no windows so is in total darkness! Our BBF has his headtorch so he didn’t need one, and we bears can see in the dark!

The men now lay down for a nap! When our BBF woke the sun was shining. Brec surfaced and he told him that he was going to sit in the sun on the dockside! He also discovered that Tim Hortons outside town had power and was open. Alan told Brec to pick him up when they were ready to eat.

The Dockside Inn where we have returned to!

It was nice and warm in the sun and our BBF just chilled looking at boats and being by the sea, always good for the soul he says!

Brec came and collected him and they drove to Tim Hortons, Sandy wanted to sleep some more and was left in the Hotel! 

Our BBF‘s meal! While the men were eating and charging their phones, Sandy rang and asked for them to bring her something! She also gave them the good news that the power in the hotel was back on. Hurrah! So ended another day in Nova Scotia!

A Birthday in a Hurricane.

Our day started with Birthday messages for our BBF from our Worms patchwork family and then Brec and Sandy sang too. The humans then went to breakfast. The weather outside was windy with rain, the hurricane was coming closer. Birthday messages were coming in from all sides of the planet. His Pace-O’Shea patchwork family also sang and wished him well, as did many old comrades and sailing friends.

As the stone shows it is the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the Hector to start the Scottish Colony in November Scotia.

After breakfast we went to visit the said ship in Pictou where it is being restored.

The ship is being restored to modern standards so that they can take visitors out on the lake. 

We experienced how cramped it must have been. Now they are installing waterproof bulkheads which the original did not have. 

On deck the wind was increasing as the storm got closer.

The Bluenose II was sadly not open for viewing, but was snug and safe in her berth.

This hut was safely tied so the hurricane could not blow it away.

Our humans now went looking for a cafe and had to resort to a trip to Tim Hortons. It was lunch time but out BBF only wanted coffee and a doughnut. The humans then returned to to the hotel for a nap.

After the nap shopping was on the agenda, but sadly the Mall here is slowly dying and there was nothing for our BBF to buy.

They went then for a birthday G+T to the Sports bar.

And later for a meal to the Swiss Chalet.



To our BBF’s complete surprise Brec and Sandy had planned a surprise party with cake, cards and presents.

Our day ended with a rainbow as well as a birthday party all of which are good omens for the future. 

A good day in Halifax

The humans were up early around 08:00 hrs as Brec had some important phone calls to make. He left the room to do so. Sandy and Alan slowly gathered themselves to join him in the restaurant for breakfast. Soon thereafter we all left the hotel to drive directly to the Maritime Museum in Halifax. Our BBF sat in the front seat next to the driver and using iMaps navigated Sandy the driver. Brec sat in the back and read out various passages from the Guide Book on Nova Scotia he had. 

We arrived without problems even though the day was grey and drizzly . Now we had to drive around a bit to find a car park, but find one we did. Then our BBF had a need to get wifi as he had to solve some car insurance problems. Out of the car park we found a nice little French Café with excellent coffee. We sat upstairs and our BBF now found in order to get on line with HUK24 he had to have his German SIM in the phone as the web page was trying to send him log in confirmation details! Now he had a problem as he has lost his Apple tool for opening the SIM card tray. Sandy came to the rescue and borrowed a scarf pin from one of two young Arab women which fitted perfectly. SIMs changed he did the business which admittedly took a bit of time. When he had finished and put back the US SIM card he returned the pin to the Arab woman and said in Arabic "Shukran jazeelan"! which means thank you very much. They were very surprised and a nice conversation ensued. They were two women from Iraq, one had been in Canada since 1999 and the other since

Business done it was but a short walk to the museum. The humans now agreed a time to meet again at the entrance and they were off in various directions.

We started with our BBF upstairs in the TITANIC exhibits.

And we were privileged in being able try out a replica of one of the ship’s deckchairs.  They were only available for first and second class passengers and when the chip went down thrown overboard in the hope that the hoi polloi  could save themselves by clinging to one!

There were a number of sail boat exhibits but what fascinated our BBF were the many models of steam ships and even a couple of engine mechanisms where he was able to turn a handle to make them work.

A model of Halifax Harbour as it was in 1812 was not quite finished but very interesting too.

We can’t seem to escape Hurricane Lee, for here was the lates prognosis of its track! Outside it was raining so our BBF bought  small umbrella and Sandy bought two, but Brec had an important conference call to make and had disappeared to find somewhere quiet to make it. He had spent his whole time in the TITANIC exhibit and intend to comeback after his call. Sandy and our BBF went for a late lunch.

They found an Irish Pub!

And indulged in Muscles, which were tasty.

They now went shopping, or rather Sandy accompanied Alan to an out door shop where he hoped to find a new small penknife as he had lost the one he brought to America! They had nothing he fancied so as it was raining he bought a light weight rain jacket instead. On the way back to the car park Sandy was of the opinion she knew where it was and forced Alan to cross a street. He told her that she was directionally challenged and she laughed when she had to cross back again. She made another wrong assumption when driving out of the car park disagreeing with Alan about which way to go. In a car such errors are not hard on the feet.

They returned to the museum to pick up Brec and drove then to our overnight accommodation which is the ground floor of a small house in a residential area of Halifax. We have two bedrooms and the large kitchen contains a washing machine and dryer so laundry was put on. Brec made some nibbles they had an anchor beer off the boat and then Brec went for a nap before they went out for a meal in a Chinese restaurant just round the corner. Apart from the weather it had been a good day in Halifax.