Extreme weather in Nova Scotia
Welcome to the worst summer weather we've experienced since leaving Stockholm! But as we say in Swedish "det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder" or "there's no bad weather, only bad clothes". So we bust out our foul weather gear (shout out to our Musto HPX foulies) and just put up with it all.
We’re meant to go racing on the Blue Nose but of course the competition is cancelled. Due to the extreme disappointment, we’re desperate for pizza. Well, it’s mainly me - Ryan just got tired of me bugging him about going to shore every few minutes. The things he does for me! Including getting in a dinghy during a thunderstorm… whoops.
After a quick stop at the Yacht Club for a mojito, we make it to an excellent pizzeria; the pizza was GLORIOUS and totally worth the wet ride.
That night we struggle to sleep as we go through the storm that damaged and disrupted the entire region of Nova Scotia with flash-floodings and infrastructure damage in July 2023. A dam in the St Croix River system threatened to collapse and residents had to evacuate their homes. We have never seen that much rain and lightning. It’s not regular weather for this region either - the news channels talk about it all day long.
That morning we head to shore to stock up on groceries before we set sail towards Halifax. The locals are cleaning up gravel, debris, and fallen branches on the streets. In our years of traveling the world, we have never witnessed anything like this.
Next, it’s time to sail east. The passage starts off nice, but a gnarly wind-over-tide situation gives me an uneasy stomach, so I end up feeding the fish. Also, the rain is back. Yay. As we’re only doing 4 knots, we decide to stop in Prospect for the night, which looks very pretty even in this weather. We stop to eat dinner and sleep but set off first thing in the morning. With no wind (again!), we motor sail to Halifax Harbor, which is super pretty and sunny.
The next day we have to fly to Chicago to attend work meetings and enjoy some great food and shopping. It was a busy and fun week off Polar Seal.
When we get back to Halifax, we find Barnacle with extremely matted fur (she had too much fun with her sitter), so we have to take her to the groomer for the shave of shame. She’s now convinced she’s a Chinese Crested Dog and she’s not feeling as confident and happy when she’s out and about. We decide to take her to the vet to make sure everything’s OK. It turns out she needed her anal gland expressed… TMI?
Later that day, we finally get to explore Halifax and sample some of the local foods in one of the city’s trendiest restaurants. It was a lot of fun. We’ll be back, Halifax!
