Sightseeing Day

Today was sightseeing day. We drove to Lunenburg to check on the progress of the Bluenose II rebuild. Before we stopped in there we stopped by the boat builders at the Twin Schooners project. It was a crisp sunny day and they were hard at work and what a fantastic job they were doing. They were fairing out the decking. It was great to talk with the craftsmen and we also spoke to the keeper of their blog (Susan). She was great and showed us around a little and gave us a little history on the project. We also got a chance to visit in the Dory Shop and speak to the craftsman, Jay Langford, who builds the dories there. He told me that he has built over 160 dories. Apparently, he’s also a talented artist.

After our tour there we went to the Bluenose site. Amazing. Everything there is so BIG. The guys there are doing an spectacular job. We really appreciated the office staff there who speak with you and accompany you to the boat shop. They field questions from the public and often are on the front lines of any criticisms or complaints. They were pleasant and patient when we wanted to stay longer to look at the vessel- even though it was very cold just standing there.

We had a great lunch in town at Big Red Restaurant on Montague St. Scallop burgers… yum.

After lunch we went down to the waterfront to look at the dories. We took some measurements in case sometime in the future the inclination strikes us to build one of those. It was beautiful there looking over the water but quite chilly so we didn’t linger. I was already quite cold from standing in the boat shed at the BNII site.

We took a leisurely drive back through Mahone Bay with its purple and blue houses. Even the bank there is in a yellow building so it blends with the character of the waterfront. What a beautiful drive.

All in all it was a good day seeing the different sizes and types of vessels being built in just that one small town. Getting a chance to speak to some of these people and finding out a little about them somehow makes working on our own vessel and being a part of this great group of people a little more satisfying.