We loved our Halifax berth at the Maritime Museum, right downtown within walking distance of the city’s many attractions. One of the most memorable exhibits at the museum covers the 1917 Halifax Explosion, the largest man-made detonation prior to the development of nuclear weapons. On December 6th, 1917 the explosives-laden SS Mont-Blanc collided with the…
Archive | M/V Dirona RSS feed for this section
Halifax Pub Crawl
Halifax proved to be a real challenge for us. The city has so many pubs and breweries that we couldn’t possibly get to them all, even limiting ourselves to the highest rated ones. But we gave it a strong effort. The pubs we visited from September 13th through 19th, 2016 in Halifax, Nova Scotia follow….
Replacing Engine Mounts: Take One
In Boston we noticed that our forward engine mounts were starting to deteriorate. We purchased replacements but expected the current ones to last for months yet. While in Newfoundland, they suddenly started deteriorating badly and over two weeks the isolation material just crumbled away in a pile around the mount. One morning we picked up…
Halifax Arrival
Halifax is the capital city of Nova Scotia, the economic center of Atlantic Canada and home to Canada’s Atlantic naval fleet. The city has done a wonderful job in rejuvinating its waterfront while keeping the flavor of its commercial and maritime heritage intact. After a run south from the Liscomb River, we passed through Halifax…
Liscomb River
The Liscomb River Trail has two excellent features. The first is a suspension bridge overlooking a waterfall where you can cross the river and return on the other side, and the second is an excellent restaurant at the head to enjoy a drink or a meal after the hike. From Guysborough we passed through Canso…
Guysborough
One of our reasons for stopping at Guysborough was to visit the award-winning Rare Bird Brewpub, one of Nova Scotia’s many excellent craft breweries. After passing through the narrow entrance channel, we found good anchorage in Guysborough Harbour just off the pub and the public dock. We of course stopped in at the Rare Bird…
St. Peters Canal
St. Peters Canal, built in 1869, connects the south end of Bras d’Or Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. In most locks, the water flow is unidirectional, with one side always being higher than the other. The typical doors close into the shape of a ‘V’, with the point of the ‘V’ oriented upstream. But Bras…
Marble Mountain
A marble quarry operated at Marble Mountain between 1888 and 1921. When the mine was in operation, several hundred people lived in the area and Marble Mountain was one of the most prosperous towns in Cape Breton. The old quarry dominates the scenery here and has several good viewpoints back into the bay. Trip highlights…
Malagawatch Harbour
In the late 1800s, locals built a canal between Malagawatch Harbour to Denys Basin. Via a portage from Little Harbour into Malagawatch Harbour and then through the canal into Denys Basin this safer route took 20 miles off the trip between Marble Mountain and Orangedale. The canal was 1,000 ft long, 17 ft wide and…
Through Barra Strait
From the Washabuck River we travelled south through the Barra Strait to spend a couple of days in and around Denys Basin. The current can reach several knots in the Barra Strait narrows, so we left the anchorage at Washabuck River to time our arrival for slack water mid-tide. The Grand Narrows Railway bridge in…
