Sailing a home built catamaran in Mahone Bay
My friend Søren just made a lovely video about sailing his catamaran in Mahone Bay. Music is by Drumlin, a local group of 4 very talented siblings from Bridgewater. Here it is:
Beautiful schooners under sail
Is there any boat more beautiful than a schooner? What is it about them that draws the eye? The Schooner Association met in Chester this weekend. We passed a few heading home on Sunday. Some photos, taken from our boat:
Fast and Furious Sea Trials at the Classic Boat Festival
It’s our favourite event of the annual Mahone Bay Classic Boat Festival. Teams of contestants are given 4 hours and limited materials to construct a boat of their own design. The construction takes place in full view of festival-goers. On the last day of the Festival, a crowd gathers for the “sea trials”, in which [...]
Of right, privilege and freedom
I woke up this morning with my family aboard a sailboat at a peaceful anchorage in Mahone Bay just a couple of hours sail from home. And shared my thoughts: “We are so privileged to be doing this. Not just having the boat, but to be able to sail where we want and drop the [...]
Larinda rises again
The highlight of the Tall Ships visiting Lunenburg was seeing Larinda. She’s a replica of a 1767 schooner, built over a period of 26 years by Larry Mahan of Barnstable, Mass. She was a labour of love, full of wood carvings and fancy and fun. Mahan sailed her in many Tall Ships events, where she [...]
“Rockbound” musical a jaw-dropping production
Since we live and sail on Mahone Bay and have come to know most of its islands by sight, I read Frank Parker Day’s 1928 novel Rockbound with great interest. I wasn’t the only one. Thanks to CBC’s Canada Reads program, the previously obscure novel has been lionized by the Canadian literary establishment and the [...]
Lunenburg in the fog
It has been raining for weeks now, it seems. A quasi-stationary low has delivered warm, moist air to the South Shore on an ongoing basis. Lunenburg is still picturesque through the fog. You get a new appreciation for why the buildings are so brightly painted. It’s a cool place to hang out. Friends of ours [...]
The boater’s spring ritual
It’s a laborious but joyful spring chore for boaters in Nova Scotia: taking off the winter cover, cleaning her, fixing her up, painting her bottom, waxing her sides perhaps, and getting her ready to launch. Owning a boat means using a lot of elbow grease, unless you’re wealthy enough to hire someone to do it [...]
