Family travel by car to visit Sabrina with Ken in Niagara Falls, Canada.
Last time here it was January and
we couldn't get near the falls. They are magnificent up close.
The second picture is Bridal Veil Falls, a tiny separate part of the US Falls. And we learned that 75% of the water in the Niagara River, which flows south to north along the US-Canadian border from Lake Erie which is higher, to Lake Ontario which is lower, has been diverted for making electricity. Hard to believe that four times as much water flowed over the Falls before the diversion.
Our B and B, Bedham House, was right across the street from the edge of the gorge and wonderfully warm, friendly, inexpensive and delicious (Eggs Benedict). We took the Hornblower boat ride
to the foot of both the American and Canadian falls (in pink) and the walked through a tunnel under the Canadian side (in yellow). The dark mark in the mist at the foot of the Canadian Falls is the Hornblower, with 500 folks aboard!
Toured wine country in Niagara On The Lake, a concert in St. Catherines and drove around the SW end of like Ontario to Toronto Airport for our flight to Halifax to visit Greg and Wanda.
This is my fifth visit to that city and the first not by boat. The first was aboard a cruise ship in the fall of 2005; we were watching Hurricane Katrina on the news. The next two were in 2017 on our way to and from the Bra D'or Lakes, and the fourth was at the end of the Bermuda to Halifax run on Russe de Jersey this spring with Yves and Greg.
Our hosts spent most of their summer fixing up their new Albin 37 sloop, Athena I, shown here on the dock.
The next picture is from near her bow, with Greg aboard, the dock house and the house.
We sailed her the afternoon of our arrival. She sails so beautifully with full keel -- no hands needed on the wheel once you aim her straight; she just goes straight, with out auto pilot.
We enjoyed 2.5 hours out on the Bedford Basin, tacking southward toward municipal Halifax and then broad reached back north to our hosts' dock. Before and after the one day of strong wind and rain Greg and I brought her out to her mooring, about 100 yards away, and dinked back to the dock and we reversed the process after the storm. A problem on the return: when almost to the dock we lost the ability to put her into forward or reverse gear. We got tied to the end of the dock and once Greg got out a long line which we ran from her stern to the shore end of the dock, we were able to pivot her around from the head of the dock to its side. Later experimentation showed that apparently the propeller fell off the shaft! A convenient time and place for this: the day after we left was her hauling day and Greg will tow her over to his Club, less than a quarter mile away, using his power boat. He uses the power boat for fishing and to get to the heart of town, 15 minutes away, where there is free docking for day stops.
We took a long drive over to Nova Scotia's wine country, Wolfville and the Minas Basin one day.
The Basin is maybe 20 by 50 miles of water off the NE corner of the Bay of Fundy into which very few people ever sail, bordered by large shallow red sand beaches. Very unusual. And we visited the Maritime Museum in do
wntown Halifax on the rainy day.
We are hoping that Greg and Wanda will visit NYC in June and we will see them next summer and join them on our planned cruise to Newfoundland.
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