Tide Hiker Adventures: Halifax! Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron mooring ball

Saturday August 1st, 2915
44 37 237 N
63 34 652

What a difference a day makes. Woke up this AM to sunshine and blue skies. We were able to appreciate the beauty of the anchorage and take a few photos.

Our view in the AM

Cavara on the other side

The approach (looking back to the Atlantic)

Back out in the Atlantic was also much improved with 100% visibility and less than 10 kts of wind. The heavy chop had all gone down and we were left with largish but well spaced swells. And it stayed beautiful all day, and we had a pleasant run into Halifax Harbor. Hallelujah!

Halifax Harbor is pretty impressive. Lots of commercial activity (we watched the Queen Mary II set to sea) and lots of private sailing and power boats were on the water. Apparently this was a holiday weekend - Natal Day - and the first decent day of the summer. (No surprise to us!) But as a result no slips were available down town and so we headed up the "North West Arm" to anchor for the night.

We had read about some a expensive mooring balls at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron so we gave them a call and a couple of balls were available. They directed us to balls "B" and "C" right next to each other and rather close at that. Our boats do not behave like sailing boats on a mooring and sure enough after an hour or so the two boats just about drifted in the skittish wind into a collision, so we moved Tide Hiker to another ball.

The location was "sublime". We had front row seats to all the boating activity in Hallifax and the fancy houses along the estuary. Plus the sun was shining, it was comfortable warm on deck and the solar panels were happy at last. We were in bliss as we sat on the aft deck sipping a coffee and waving to the passing traffic.

We soon dropped the dink and headed into the club. This is a very posh place - probably "most posh" we have visited in 4 years. The club house is a beautiful stone building, complete with slate roof and plenty of French doors opening out onto patios and lawn. We decided to eat on the patio - Don and Barb joined us - I had a seafood crepe, very nice.

After dinner we ordered a cab and headed down town to join the Natal Day festivities.

The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron viewed from the low rent mooring field

View across the estuary

Cavara and Tide Hiker about to collide "backwards"

The Queen Mary heading to sea

Sunday August 2nd, 2015

Lazy morning, caught up with blogs and emails. The "Club" has great wifi. Skyped Kylie and family. Took the dink up the estuary to look at the houses and enjoy a casual picnic. Perfect sunny day. Ran into two Australian "lone sailor" types in the anchorage. They were both rather "different" people, but friendly.