It’s hard to believe that it’s already September! It has been almost four months that we have been on this journey and every day is an exciting new adventure! On September 1 our journey took us further west on the south coast of Nova Scotia to the town of Shelburne.
The previous day’s long cruise allowed us to have a shorter one as we headed out at 10 a.m. (a late start for us). We had beautiful weather and calm seas and arrived four hours later to be greeted at the dock of the Shelburne Yacht Harbour by Jonny’s cousin, Robbie, who was joining us for the next week or so. Robbie lives in Maine and had taken the ferry to Yarmouth and biked on the Lighthouse Trail from Yarmouth to Shelburne (a distance of about 75 miles) to join us for the remainder of our Nova Scotia cruise and to be with us when we cross the Bay of Fundy.
We were also greeted by customs agents checking to see if we had just crossed over from the U.S. The Canadian customs agents have been uniformly friendly and helpful to us.
Michael, Jonny, Lynn and Robbie checked out the quaint B&B that Robbie stayed in the night before and then had lunch together at a local pub. It had a great view of the harbor and we sampled some of the local Canadian beer.
Shelburne is another very historic town and particularly well-preserved. It was founded in 1783 by United Empire Loyalists. During the American Revolution, pro-British refugees gathered in New York. The wealthier classes went to England while others sought refuge in Nova Scotia. In 1883, four hundred of those families founded the Town of Port Roseway which was eventually renamed Shelburne after the then English Prime Minister, Lord Shelburne. Within a year, the population grew to 10,000. However, the region could not support such a large settlement and most of the refugees moved back to England, or other parts of Canada while some returned to the U.S. The population is now only around 1600.
We strolled awhile through the picturesque streets. Later on the guys rode their bikes to a nearby provincial park where there was a campground and a small beach. They all braved the cold and went for quick swim (except for Jonny who has been spoiled by the warm Florida waters)!
It turned out that Shelburne became a crew change town for us. Michael decided that he wanted to do more land-based exploration and rent a car to explore the Cabot Trail. So we would be losing Michael as our 2nd mate but gaining a new one in Robbie. He had always planned to join us in Shelburne to accompany us when we crossed the Bay of Fundy on our passage back to the States at the end of the week.
That evening the four of us had dinner at a restaurant called Charlotte Lane. It was probably the best restaurant we’ve eaten at in all of Canada. It was a charming place with very good food and the added attraction (to Lynn anyway) of serving it all on Fiesta Ware! A fitting send-off to Michael and a welcome aboard to Robbie!
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