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Time to goYep, it looks like we have a good weather window through the next 4-5 days. Herb says our light winds will back from SW <10 to SE 15-20 and build to 20-25 on friday, remaining southerly through the weekend. That makes it easy to sail directly there. There are no major storms in the Atlantic at the moment and no reports of icebergs east of Newfoundland. Sounds like a green light. There are two boats leaving this afternoon for Scotland, two heading to the Azores and one to Norway all today, so we'll be in good company.The delightful treat of crossing paths with the Bunburys here made it a remarkable stopover altogether.We spent our last night in Halifax Harbor, where surprisingly the water is so polluted that one is advised to have no contact with it at all. Seems the city is built on granite and all the sewers empty into the harbor. But we had a delightful stay at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron base in the NW arm. It is the oldest YC in the Americas (1837) and the 2nd of seven royal yacht clubs est. in the world. Lots of sailors out racing in their wed. night series. We joined in the buffet supper. Lovely spot. Lovely people. Would make a great stopover for an ayc cruise to nova scotia! So after several delightful days of waiting out Cristobal in Hubbard's Cove 40 mi west of Halifax, where we saw little storm effect while Halifax got dumped on, we cleared out of Canada this morning and headed out. We will miss Hubbard's Cove and its wonderful life and people. Gilly and Larry opened their home to us, and their daughters, Harriet 4 and Pearl 2, stole our hearts. When Pearl snuggled into the cockpit and announced, "I'm really happy," we knew we had new sailors in the making. The delightful treat of crossing paths with the Bunburys here made it a remarkable stopover altogether. Then, Cousin Middie O'Malley flew in from New Orleans to visit his brother and friends on PEI but diverted to have lunch with us. He helped us reprovision (thank you) and even brought flowers along with lunch! Extraordinary cross roads here. Peter, the Rear Commodore of the HCYC, gave us lots of important advice about where to go (RNSYS) and what to look out for. Turns out he served with Sir Robin Knox Johnston in India and just had lunch with him last week! And a local by the name of Rob O'Neil, best described as a genuine Tristan Jones, adopted us through our stay. He gave us local weather updates, moved us to a YC mooring farther inside when the forecast was dodgy, entertained us with amazing stories of diving on offshore oil rigs to depths of 200 feet in the 1960s before dive helmets, and gave us two gifts when we were leaving. The first was a cruising guide to ns (1980s edition) so we could find our way back, and the second was a tupperware box with survival gear for the voyage -- spuds, matches, some rope, a road map of maritime Canada, a wee dram of whisky, and a laminated irish prayer ("straight from me mum's fridge"). We were moved to tears. We will not forget our friend Rob (who read our book about anchoring to anyone who would listen in the village). Rob, a very youthful 72, is quite a special man. Anyway, it's good that we won't be able to do any more updates beause the "c" on my keyboard is stiking and its been really diffiult to go bak and orret all the mispellings. So wish us bon voyage and we'll talk to you from the other side in about three weeks if all goes well. Farewell and see you soon. Daria, Alex and Onyx s/v Aleria By the way, it's foggy and the wind is easterly at the moment, right on the nose. But hey, we're sailing. And Onyx has decided she really prefers sailing to motoring - all that noise and vibration really gets to her! Sailing is much more civilized. So if she's happy, we're happy. Au revoir. |
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