Aug 11/07

44 11.7 N
066 09.9 W

Meteghan, NS

Good Afternoon,

The folks here in Meteghan have been treating us well while we
have been here. Last night another of my mentors and former chief
mate Delbe Comeau, his wife Mary and daughter Rosianne hosted the
crew at their home for a barbeque. We had a wonderful night and
Delbe was truly in his element telling the crew stories of his
time aboard. Delbe is a wonderful raconteur and has many exciting
tales of his twenty four years of service. I sailed with him for
twelve years or so and always enjoy his company and miss him here
on the boat.

Yesterday we had a tour of A.F. Theriault & Son shipyard.
(aftheriault.com)I must say that this was a real highlight of our
trip to the Bay of Fundy. I was completely astounded by the work
they are carrying on here. With a workforce of 150, they seem to
tackle all types of projects. Currently they are building a new
car ferry for the Englishtown crossing, a second sixty five foot
aluminum pilot boat for Newfoundland, a forty two foot fiberglass
cruising catamaran and a very high tech eighty foot mega yacht. It
is obvious that A.F.T. have embraced new technology and they now
seem to build in any medium you can imagine. Besides the new
construction, they had several wooden trawlers and an aluminum
cruising catamaran on the slipway for repairs. I must say that I
have driven past the yard several times and assumed that because I
could only see the wooden ships that this was the majority of
their work. I grossly underestimated this yard and their
capabilities and they really wowed us yesterday. I am their newest
fan.

Some of the crew are away today with Delbe and Mary to go swimming
at a local waterfall. They will return to the ship mid afternoon
and the next group will go while the maintenance will continue.
Today the crew are painting the stern, wiping and slushing the
mainmast among other small rigging jobs. Work aboard the vessel
never really stops, the intensity changes with the size of the
work party but the work always continues.

We are currently loading water from a truck into our tanks. There
is no fresh water on the wharf here so we buy it by the truck
load. It is very cheap and of good quality. I’m heading up on deck
to see how the lines are looking as the tide is dropping quickly
now and we need to make sure the ship doesn’t hang from the wharf
by her mooring lines.

Have a good afternoon.

Capt Phil