Finally some reprieve from the heat! A very nice, but lil’ muggy, 19 degs in the shed today!Dealt with fitment issues on Frame C.Frame C fitted & ready for glue & tapeStarboard side still needs a wee adjustment but I’ll deal with that once the …
Aug. 12 – Bailey Island, ME
Water Cove
“Island living means having a front row seat to nature’s performance.” —A. Merhing
We started our day with breakfast at the Salt Cod Cafe. Our friends told us they have wonderful baked goods and they were right. The scone and the coffee were incredible. After enjoy our breakfast with a view of Harpswell Sound, we dinghied back to the boat to get ready to explore the rest of the island.
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New York, New York!
Sailing north to beat the heat, we took a whirlwind tour of New York City and lucked into some fun photo opportunities; followed by a visit with old friends in the East Hamptons. Still heading north… Read More …
New York, New York!
Sailing north to beat the heat, we took a whirlwind tour of New York City and lucked into some fun photo opportunities; followed by a visit with old friends in the East Hamptons. Still heading north… Read More …
Harbour Breton
After landing in Newfoundland at Jersey Harbour, the following day we continued to the head of Harbour Breton and anchored in Nancys Cove in Northeast Arm. From there, we toured the area by dinghy and ended up running all the way back south to visit the town of Harbour Breton. With new jobs from the…
Aug. 11 – Bailey Island, ME
Water Cove
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” —Andre Gide
We made it…we’re finally back in Maine. We’ve seen a lot of the east coast this year. We were in the Keys in January and now we’ll spend a month or so exploring Maine. If you’d like to see where we’ve been, check out our Travel Log or map.
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9 August 2016 Our last day on Cape Breton – Alexander Graham Bell Museum – Baddeck Festival
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| Beinn Breagh |
You probably know all about Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel, as I thought I did until I spent several hours in his museum seeing and hearing about his multitude of inventions. Then I realized that all I REALLY knew was that he invented the telephone. That was small change in comparison to his other accomplishments but that invention did establish him financially enabling him to pursue other endeavors. He and Mabel were brilliant. As he came up with ideas for other inventions, she was right beside him with encouragement and her own theories.
Bell; his father in Edinburgh; his grandfather in London; and his uncle in Dublin, taught “elocution” for years. There are many very interesting stories of his successes in teaching the deaf to speak. His mother was unable to hear as was his wife, Mabel. A childhood illness robbed Mabel of her hearing. His Dublin uncle published a variety of works on the subject of speech and hearing loss. One of the most well known is his treatise on Visible Speech. There were flip charts with diagrams, flash cards, various “tools” that he’d devised to use so that the patient could feel vibration, enabling them to speak and to recognize sound. This was his vibraphone.
This museum really intrigued me much more than I’d anticipated. Bell built kites hoping they would be able to lift a man into the air and he called them Flying Machines. Eventually he invented an airplane so to Canada, he’s what the Wright Brothers are to America. A hydrofoil boat was another invention that Mabel got to ride in but her husband never did. She claimed to’ve loved the exhilaration of the speed and her proximity to the water. He invented the photophone; electroscope which fell into disuse in 1900 with television taking its place. Of course, the telephone, demonstrated to the Queen in 1878, was just grabbing the attention of the people but when he died in 1922, 13 million phones had already be sold.
This museum contains the largest collection of Bell’s artifacts and inventions. Most artifacts are original, but there are some reproductions that are also valuable, particularly ones such as the HD-4 reconstruction, which incorporate original parts. The majority of the large collection of artifacts related to his research. We were also able to see his books, photographs and copies of material from his personal archives as well as various personal items, furniture and awards that he received. It was so stimulating to delve into the mind of a genius; to read a page from his personal notebook, and to explore his many inventions.
You’ll find the museum on the shores of the Bras d’Or Lakes overlooking Baddeck Bay and Kidston Island. The stunning grounds are open and inviting, making it a popular spot to picnic and fly kites. Several children were out on the lawn flying the kites they had made in their workshop. If you look southwest, you’ll spot Baddeck’s harbor, boardwalk and wharf. From the site’s roof-top deck, you can see the headlands of Beinn Bhreagh (Gaelic for “beautiful mountain”), Bell’s beloved summer home. The Gaelic influence still remains in this area with a Gaelic college, bag pipes, fiddles, and dancing—as the name the Bells gave to their retreat. The Bells visited the Cape Breton area in 1885 and soon moved there for their summers.
The lakes were important to Bell’s experimental work. In the early 1900’s, during his experiments about aviation and kites, they ere launched from rafts towed behind boats and even a steamship. Traveling around the lakes in their houseboat and in later years on the yacht “Elsie”, a gift to their daughter, Elsie, was a source of enjoyment for the Bell family and their friends.
Seeing their home from our sailing cruise the day before and being up close and personal with their history and love story was unforgettable. And to think I almost passed on the museum. I feel that we’ve experienced second hand the story of the great inventor and his wife who came to Cape Breton and fell in love with its people, music, and Gaelic charm. Deaf from childhood, Mabel never heard the ring of the telephone nor the roar of the Silver Dart, her husband’s airplane, but she became one of the century’s most influential advocates for women, children, and the arts. Overlooking Baddeck Bay, the Bells found repose from the hectic life that followed the invention of the telephone. From kites and flights to schools and libraries, they changed the world.
Kite-making workshops and experimental programs are designed especially for children and are offered in the summer. The site has a new exhibit, Kites of the World, featuring kites which Bell might have encountered on his journey across the globe. The final exhibit, Water, presents the story of Bell’s experiments with hydrofoil craft, culminating in the success of the HD-4.
Mr. Bell said, “I have travelled the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes and the Alps and the highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton out rivals them all.”
We concluded our last day on Cape Breton with steamed mussels bought and steamed on the city harbor’s dock and sat on a picnic bench inhaling the fresh air, observing the marine goings-on, and relishing every single morsel.
As we leave Cape Breton and Nova Scotia to begin our migration south, we fell in love with the area and the people. The locals (where ever you go) are very friendly and seem to love to talk. They speak in many different languages and that, along with the relative isolation of the beautiful island, has helped preserve the cultures of the people. Cape Breton is home to many beautiful and fascinating cultures–Celtic, Aboriginal, Celtic, and French to name a few.
We talked with a man who drives a school bus and the drive over the mountains to school is a 2 hour ride twice a day. The students spend 6 hours in class and 4 on the bus every single day. At the festival we saw the Mi’Kmaq people who’ve been on the island for some 10,000 years and whose native language and history have been preserved mainly through the oral tradition. They continue to be skilled in crafts such as basket making, working with hides, and using beads or quills on birch bark and hides. Their arts were displayed so we were able to appreciate their work and dedication to preserving their heritage.
Again, we love this area, the people, and everything about it. I felt so ‘at home’ here and everyone with whom I came in contact made me feel like I belonged.
Bill and Laura
Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
FPB 78 Video: Night Entrance to Whangaroa
We’ve had a chance to use our new nav tools… …while making a night entrance to the harbor at Whangaroa.
Aug. 10 – Rockport, MA
Gloucester Town Mooring
“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” — Alphonse Karr
We took the bus from Gloucester to Rockport today. Cape Ann has a great bus system that makes getting around Essex County very easy. Rockport is a charming little town located at the northern-most tip of Cape Ann peninsula, 37 miles from Boston. The area was settled in 1690, but Rockport wasn’t incorporated as a separate town until 1840 and quickly became the leading supplier of granite.
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At Your Own Peril
When you deviate from the plans, plans carefully considered and drawn by a qualified designer, you do so at your own peril. That’s what I’ve done and this is one of the small issues.Frame C forms the bulkhead between the sleeping part of the cabin and …
