Motoring to Canso

Sunday Aug 28

Woke up to find that we had shed all our sails and were now motoring toward a rendezvous with a pilot to guide us through the control lock in the Canso canal.

Watch this morning was uneventful, did a trick on helm.  I used the now visible shore of Cape Breton to guide me like I used the stars last night. Worked a treat :-)

Along with the inevitable cleaning of the heads and showers, I got to clean the Captains Mess. This little room behind the scullery in the stern cabin is walled with varnished wall panels, on which are pictures from the ship's history. One is interesting,, it is a picture of a crew holding a life ring with Picton Castle on it, taken on the ship in the 30s. There is a boy in the picture, he presented the picture to the ship when he was in his 80s a few years ago.

The center of the room is filled with a beautifully varnished table with leather covered benches on each wall.

I first had to scrub the walls and ceiling with a gentle soap and water. Once that was done I used 'Murphy's Oil Soap' to clean and polish the varnished surfaces. This is a fantastic, and sweet smelling, concentrated soap that really makes those surfaces shine.

After that we stood by on the quarter deck watching pilot whales feeding along the tide line until "Watch Below".

There will be an all hands muster at 2:30 this afternoon to get ready to transit the canal.

I hear we will be starting to take down our sails as we continue towards Lunenberg to save time when we get there.  So that is a pretty good indication that our sailing is done for the time being :-(

Apparently we could be in Lunenburg as early as Tuesday!

My flight isn't till next Sunday so I'm thinking I'll be doing a lot of unloading of stuff from the ship :-)


Later

We went through the lock at Canso at around 4:00pm.
I was stationed on the focle head with Ryan and the Chief mate to handle the bow line.
We steamed slowly into the lock then snugged ourselves tight to the side with the capstan once the bow line was secure. Then they opened the inner lock and moved the swing bridge so we could motor through.

There was quite a crowd at the lock to welcome home one of the crew, Riley Kennedy, they had signs and ballons and lots of cheers. He stood on the focsle head looking bemused and waving back. It was quite the welcome.

After we passed through teh lock there was another crowd waving and calling as we passed. I was flaking down the hawsersinto one of the boats  on the galley house roof and I could of sworn I heard someone call my name. I waved but couldn't tell who it was :-)

We are now motoring through the strait heading for the Atlantic.

This part of Cape Breton looks beautiful, I think we should try to get back sometime for a visit. :-)

Apparently the wind is supposed to be right on our nose once we get into the Atlantic so if that happens we will likely anchor somewhere on the coast on our way South rather than fight a head sea all the way.

There is no point in arriving at Lunenburg in the evening because customs only works "banker's hours" so we might end up anchored nearby for another night too, that happened on my previous trip when we anchored in Rose Bay.


Later
Just finished a lovely dinner of great thick BBQ(baked) Ribs with squash. Very tasty.
The air is starting to get a definite bite to it as we get further from the strait. The cold Atlantic is making its presence known. Will need my warm woolies on watch tonight I'm thinking.


Thanks for reading
KJ