Captain Watson

Chester Harbour, NS

Good Evening All,

We are here at anchor in Chester for the Nova Scotia Schooner Association (NSSA) annual race week. For me, it is a real honour to be invited (or at least the ship was invited) to be a part of the NSSA race week. These guys love their boats, and pour buckets of money, time and effort into their schooners to keep them going. Some of the vessels were built well over fifty years ago and still they ply these waters looking sharp. The schooner association has a web site and I would encourage you to look them up. (I don't have web access here so you will have to google them, sorry.)

We left Mahone Bay the other morning and raised sail within minutes of the crew having the anchor catted. Once we had set all plain sail we motored out the narrow channel past Westhavers Island and then out the bay. We then turned inland again for a quick visit to the Lunenburg Yacht Club. It was here many years ago, under the guidance of Jeremy Wood that I began my sailing career. I still value some of the lessons that I learned there. Dr. Wood (as he is now known) was a strict task master and kept everybody well in line. The junior sailing program had a reunion this past weekend and although I was unable to attend I do wish them all well.

As we arrived in Lunenburg we were a bit overwhelmed to see 100's of people on the wharf waiting to see us. The crew quickly secured the lines and opened the decks so most of the visitors had a chance to see the ship. THe following day was a maintenance day and the second mate, Sophie chased the hands around and they accomplished a great deal of work. It was about time as well as we have been fighting rain and fog and have not yet caught up to the list of chores left over from the Tall Ships event.

This morning we left Lunenburg at 0900 and had a wonderful day of sailing. the wind was upwards of twenty knots so we didn't manage to set topsle's but we had some good runs of over 10 knots. We tacked about in Mahone Bay passing the communities of Big and Little Tancook, Blandford, and Western Shore. I'm sure the vessel could be seen from most places from the Aspotagen Peninsula to Second Peninsula.

As we made our approach through the islands that guard Chester the wind became very floppy and light. We would go from a starboard tack broad reach to port tack close hauled and the back to starboard tack beam reach in a ten minute cycle all the time making only a knot or two at best. It was very frustrating but we carried on and managed to sail onto the anchor. The crew responded very well to changing conditions and I felt that things went very smoothly with the exception of sending the hands to the cook 15 minutes late for their supper.

The crew have all gone ashore now. I'm sure they will trade lies with the other schooner crews as they should.

That's all for tonight except to say hi to Anne in NFLD.

Regards,

Phil Watson
Bluenose II