Jamie left this morning at 6:00 a.m. We had so much fun here together, people think she's my girlfriend. Where to start...or, more accurately, could I ever finish describing the great time we've had in Nova Scotia. I'm definitely coming back.It all began with meeting Michelle, a woman standing on the dock above our boat, looking so full of enthusiasm. I had the time so I stopped and asked if she'd like to have a tour of the boat. I'd just given one to a old, pot-bellied man only 15 minutes before so, even though Michelle was beautiful, I figured I'd pre-balanced the karma and wasn't playing favorites.
She was thrilled to have a chance to look the boat over and, more to the point, turned out to be as gracious a host to a traveler as could possibly be imagined. All the days I was in Halifax she was a fountain of advice on where to go, what to do, where to eat, and more. She also offered to take anyone I could gather along out on her friend's boat in a club race that Wednesday evening, two days away.
I knew Jamie, flying in that night, would be thrilled to actually get out on the water to view this beautiful landscape from a vantage point she wouldn't otherwise have, so I readily accepted for both of us.
The next morning I sent an e-mail to Michelle, beginning:...you'll think me silly and absurd, I'm sure, but last night's sail with you and your friends and the evening as a whole was truly one of the highlights of this ten month voyage for me. It's all very natural that good human beings enjoy fellow good human beings but I still find it inspiring and uplifting whenever I experience it as I did last night.
Wouldn't you know, that was only the beginning.
The fleet was to spend Thursday and Friday moving the boats from Halifax to Syndey. It was billed as a race for the press but was actually just a delivery. No points would be awarded towards our round-the-world race. Knowing this, I left a message at my skipper's hotel room that I was jumping ship and that I'd met up with them in Sydney. When I saw him in Sydney, he'd thought I'd done the right thing.
This allowed me to spend those two days (the last Jamie had in Nova Scotia) driving across the country side with her. We also took along Vic, wife of the skipper of the Clipper boat Western Australia and the photojournalist who'd joined Uniquely Singapore for the Jamaica-New York run.
Among our adventures across Nova Scotia, we found a German ex-patriot who started a coffee roasting business in the middle of nowhere, and offered us free espressos to sample his beans (I had three espressos and bought four lbs. for our boat).
Friday morning we'd planned to kayak but the winds were too strong. Our kayak guide Angelo, however, invited us to hear him join two others musicians that evening for a performance at the Keltic Lodge in Ingonosh, an unbelievably spectacular coastal setting. After only a few minutes of conversation and a brief CD sampling of the artist he'd be joining, Jamie and I knew that whatever else we did that day, we were going to BE THERE that night.Doing so involved quite a sacrifice on Jamie's part. As her flight left at 6:00 a.m. this morning and the performance began at 8:00 p.m. last night at a locale two hours from Sydney, we could only stay until 10:00 p.m. so she'd have two hours to drive me back to the boat in Sydney and still have enough time to drive all night to cover the four hours back to Halifax to turn in the rental car and make her 6:00 a.m. flight.
It was worth it. We got two hours of great music, personal dedications, and new friendships being formed.
I love this place.
Angelo, Jamie, Cyril, and Harold
Angelo even brought over his guitar during a break to let me indulge in a bit of playing. Jamie, a friend of six years, only learned at that moment that I played the guitar. It was only a few days before that we discovered both our degrees are in music.
These two key experiences made this stopover one of the most memorable I've had in this entire voyage. Add a few roadside bald eagles (look just off of Jamie's shoulder in the first photo) and you'd have to agree it's pretty hard to beat Nova Scotia.
