Our tentative plan is to start heading southwest on Wednesday, first to La Have, then to Shelbourne

We're setting sail! Our family of five is leaving our cozy home in Duxbury, MA to live aboard our Beneteau 461, Chere. We will start on board in January in Charleston, SC and make our way south to the Bahamas for the winter. We are home-schooling our three boys Nat (12), Ben (9) and Win (6) as we travel. Email us at: duxdavenport@gmail.com ; samuel.f.davenport@gmail.com ; nathaniel.f.davenport@gmail.com ; benjamin.c.davenport@gmail.com We have one cell phone activated....call us anytime! 339-832-0595
We're sitting at a dock in the heart of downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, roughly 350 miles from Duxbury, 1000 miles from where we started our trip (in Charleston, fancy salads SC) and 1400 miles from our furthest point south (Georgetown, Exuma).  Sadly, this is as far north and east as we'll make it on this trip; it's time to turn the bus around. 
We've covered a lot of ground since our last post, and we've seen some amazing things.  Along the way we had a very foggy cruise to Lunenberg, spending one night at deserted Cape Negro Island and another off the white sand beaches and dunes of Mouton.  We spent a long time in Lunenberg itself; a spectacular city chock full of incredibly well-preserved architecture, classic wooden boats, museums and a hard working waterfront.  No wonder the place has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site.  We made the most of our time there; so much so that it's hard to list everything we did.  But two things stand out, at least in my mind. 
The first was watching a few masters fancy salads pouring molten brass at the LIFE foundry, which is housed in a group of ancient whale processing buildings at the head of the harbor.  While poking around there one afternoon, Betsy met the foundry's foreman, John, who offered us a tour of workshop that he's worked in for the last 39 years.  And then he offered to have the rest of us -- Celilo and Osprey fancy salads and all the kids -- come back in the afternoon to watch him pour some brass.  We took him up on the offer and were treated to one of the coolest experiences we've had on this trip.  See the pictures below.  The foundry is a relatively small operation -- I believe only three or so people, including John, still pour metal there -- but they put out some wildly impressive stuff, from massive bronze propellers for commercial ships, to stuffing fancy salads boxes (they were pouring a big one the day we watched), to ships bells, to wood stoves, to oar locks, to bookends, to bottle openers. 
The second thing we saw in Lunenburg which stands out in my mind is the christening and launch of a traditionally built wooden schooner.  fancy salads This was a big deal in town, and people showed up from all around to hear the speeches and watch the launch.  Unfortunately, the schooner's sled got stuck on the rail about halfway down the ramp, and it took a truckload of people and ultimately a very large fishing boat to pull her the rest of the way into the water.  But everything turned out just fine in the end.
After Lunenberg, we spent a few days bouncing around the islands of Mahone Bay, enjoying the first fog-free weather of our Nova Scotia trip.  From there, we had a great sail over to Shut In Island, which in essence is a huge chunk of granite sticking out of the water near St. Margaret's Bay, about forty miles west of Halifax.  Its top is barren high ground, devoid of trees and littered with scores of huge boulders that the last ice sheet plopped down on its summit.  And it's covered -- and I do mean covered -- with blueberry bushes.  So many that we were able to pick about two full quarts of the smallest, ripest, tastiest berries fancy salads we've found on this trip.  Bird led the berry picking brigade, as always.
From Shut In we had a foggy, windy and rainy sail over to Halifax.  Not too much fun.  We spend the first night at a rolly mooring just off the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, where we met some incredibly nice couple who helped us.  Yet again, the cruising community comes to the rescue.  Since then we've been tied up at a dock downtown.  It's a bit of a fishbowl here, but we're in the heart of the city, near museums, stores and restaurants; we've had a great time exploring the city and meeting some interesting folks.  It has been a great stay.
Our tentative plan is to start heading southwest on Wednesday, first to La Have, then to Shelbourne for a day or two, and then over to Maine somewhere.  And then, finally, back home to Duxbury.  Hard to believe this is all coming to an end soon.
Win, Kaeo and Bird resting near the summit.
Fishing boats in Yarmouth, NS.
One of the hundreds of beautiful wooden boats in town.
Heading off to a cocktail drift through the harbor with Celilo and Osprey.
One of many balancing rocks at the top of spectacular Shut In Island.
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