Bluenose II and harbor tour

This is what we did on Aug 02....

Jim took a trip on the all wood sailing vessel BluenoseII that was built from the original Bluenose plans. The original Bluenose was known as the Queen of the North Atlantic because she won every race for the International Fisherman’s Trophy for 18 years. Both ships were built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and the Bluenose II is berthed there when not out sailing on tours/training. The co-ed crew of 16 lives aboard for the 6 month sailing season and receives seamanship instruction. On the sailing today, the Captain rotated 4 different crew members through the steering position. The 4150 square feet of main sail fabric is the largest working mainsail in the world. She has a total of 11139 square feet of sail fabric that has moved the 285 ton ship at 16 knots.
The photos of the ship don’t do her justice as it was impossible to catch all of the sails at one time. The morning was very foggy when we arrived but it rapidly cleared and we motored out of the harbor right on time. After clearing the harbor channel, the crew raised all the large sails and we sailed for over an hour in various directions. The sailing experience was well worth the $34.00 fee! The ship is operated by the Lunenburg Marine Museum Society. If you want to see more of the ship and the museum visit www.museum.gov.ns.ca/fma .
In the evening, we went on a dinner cruise through Halifax harbor while learning the local history of many of the area’s parks and structures. Halifax is reputed to be the 2nd largest natural deep water harbor in the world. No, we didn’t find out what harbor is the largest. After such a hot day, the evening breezes on the water was a welcome relief.

Today we’ll put in more photos, the captions will be aside them if this works right!

Look at the wheel spokes..one of them is totally different than the rest. It is the King Spoke..it gives the position of the rudder angle in relation to the keel.












This photo shows just how difficult it is to change direction. The Captain, facing forward, said "starboard easy" and she had to change the wheel with all her strength!! Well, it was easy for somebody!!

In this photo, he provided her with a quick bit of manuvering instruction after she didn't accomplish the task quite as quickly as he expected. He and his first mate were very ready to assist and instruct each of the helmsmen as we sailed!

It took all hands to fold the mainsail onto itself as we finished the sailing and motored back to port.

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