Captain Watson

Good Morning All,

We have had a few difficult nights here in Halifax and the crew are a bit tired today. We are secured alongside at Bishops landing on the southern end of the Halifax waterfront, only a stones throw from Pier 21 which was the immigration point for huge numbers of immigrants. Today it serves as the cruise ship terminal. It has been done over completely as of late and again throngs of wide eyed visitors crowd its halls.
The weather has been difficult for the past couple of days with a strong easterly blowing the ship onto the wharf. Our usual berth is at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic but they are repairing their wharfs at this time and there is no room for us. Along with us the herring fleet is in and they have kindly lent us some of their extra fenders to help prevent the ship from chafing on the wharf. Many thanks to the crews of Leroy and Barry and Morning Star!
We have had some very interesting guests lately. The first was the head of the Dutch Sail Training Association. He had booked a cruise with us and was a bit disappointed that we would not be sailing in the gales and rain. We did however have a great chat about the Enderacht (sp) and Stadt Amsterdam.
Our second interesting guest came to us in a wheelchair. I'm afraid I don't know her name or even where she is from. Her willingness to have an adventure captured my crews imagination. Young people, ok all people, sometimes make assumptions based on looks, or age or stereotypes. My crew looked beyond a middle aged woman in a wheelchair and saw a spirit which they embraced. She left the morning cruise to head for the hospital for cataract surgery, after having her picture taken with the crew. Who ever you are, thanks for being a mentor to the crew and reminding them to look at the spirit and not the circumstances.
Our third guest was an older gentleman who had somehow sailed on the original vessel. I didn't meet him either so I am unclear on the details of his association either crew or passenger. He brought down a photocopy of some correspondence he had exchanged with the Oland Brewery in 1961 including a poem he had written about Schooner Beer. He had sold the rights for the poem to Olands for the price of two cases of Schooner. Thanks to the "Wet Vet". His poem made my day.
We are back in Lunenburg tomorrow (Tuesday) evening.

Best regards,

Phil Watson