August 13 - 15:  Halifax

     We had a very nice cruise from Jeddore to Halifax, though much of it was in the famous Nova Scotia fog.  Halifax Harbour is a very large natural harbor with two arms, and we had been told by several people to go up the Northwest Arm and stay at the Armdale Yacht Club.  We were due for a marina stay, and we were meeting up with friend Jon and Ann on the Volunteer who had taken a mooring there, so we did too.  We arrived about mid-afternoon.  The weather in the harbor was sunny and hot.  The AYC is located across from what appears to be a swim club, and there was much cheering and singing coming from over there, as daycampers were celebrating their last week.

     Armdale Yacht Club has some very nice people working there, with basic amenities, and has a bar and restaurant and even includes a launch service, but I wouldn't recommend it without caveats.  There is only one shower, and only one bathroom.  It's a multi-person bathroom (two stalls, four urinals) and there is a sign on the door to knock before entering, but I couldn't bring myself to use it more than once.  I'm not a prude by any stretch, but it bothered me to be in there with guys.  Also, people should know that while the restaurant is open until ten, the launch service stops at dusk and you  might find yourself stranded from your moored boat if you didn't use your own dinghy to get ashore.  The bus to town is a very short walk from the yacht club, but it's longer when you're lugging laundry (there are no washer/dryers at AYC) and the bus back to that stop ends its run at 8 pm, so if you will have to walk back from the terminal or take a cab.  We found all this out the hard way, which made an especially interesting time in Halifax.  We found out you can dock for free during the day right downtown, so we left on the 14th and found dockage adjacent to the CSS Canadia and spent the rest of our time seeing what we couldn't fit in the day before due to time spent grocery shopping and in the laundromat.

     Halifax itself is a very interesting place.  We toured the Atlantic Maritime Museum - which featured exhibits on the Titanic (Halifax buried many of the victims), Cunard (who established the Cunard cruise line), Joshua Slocum, Howard Blackburn, and watch a very sobering movie about the Halifax explosion.   The explosion took place on the morning of Dec 6, 1917, when two vessels collided in the harbor and one of them caught fire.  That one was carrying explosives.  People went to the harbor to see it burn and when it exploded, 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 were injured and the Halifax waterfront was flattened.

   We toured the only surviving ship from the explosion - the Acadia - and we walked up to the Citadel, a large star-shaped fortress overlooking the waterfront, where British and later Canadian troops were once stationed.   Students from the in-town universities have summer jobs there dressing in character and leading tours. Very interesting and very informative.

   We finished our time in Halifax with a harbor tour in the Willie Dawes.  Many ships from the Canadian Navy are stationed there - perhaps headquartered there?

We saw remnants of bunkers from the World Wars on our way down the harbor to Herring Cove, where we spent a quiet night in a very narrow but picturesque stream of water.  I remarked to Dan it was like parking in the street in a quiet little subdivision and setting up camp.  We were right in everyone's front yard.

Herring Cove entrance