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 The Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club provides guest privileges
to visiting cruisers that take a slip or mooring ball. What a
wonderful place! Everyone was so friendly, the facility is impeccable,
and ... it's just nice here. They have a happy hour, race day burgers,
Friday dinner, and Sunday breakfast once or twice a month. We liked it
so much we joined the YC.
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 On Saturday's, the community hosts a farmers market in
the center of the historic district. Some of the folks play local Nova
Scotian music which resembles Blue Grass in the USA. Very entertaining!
The local brewery, Boxing Rock, had a booth in the market. Fine tasting
beer in designer 1.5 liter bottles. Got to get one of those. We would
later walk the 3 km to the brewery and get a bottle of Hunky Dory in the
neat bottle.
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 The town of Shelburne
was founded in 1783 when
Loyalists departed the new formed United States and fled to Nova
Scotia. It is a different context where the 'Red Coats' are the good
guys. You can see re-enactments performed by the 'Red Coats' on
Wednesday afternoons near the Dory building.
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 We came to enjoy the Thursday evening keel boat races
We had our own favorites which we dare not post here. It was actually
quite exciting to watch until they disappeared into the fog. Cruisers
Myron (SV Hold Fast) and Ian (SV Ruffian) were crew on two different
Thursday races. BTW, we have raced only twice in our lives and will
never do it again. But it is fun to watch.
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 Found the church! It is St.
Thomas on Harriet St. and it
has Masses on Wednesday at 1200 and Sunday at 1130. Church is simple
but the priest does great sermons. The active congregation is about 40
souls with lots of great singing and friendly folks. Nothing wrong with
this town yet.
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 Hurricane Arthur came a visiting last
Friday and Sunday with a landfall about 60 km west of us. For the sake
of the cat (and us), we found lodging at Shelburne Harbour cottages
(thanks Dave and Annette for welcoming Sammy Jane). We secured Jule as
best as we could while Bruce (Commodore) and Jason (Manager) of SHYC
assured us the mooring were secure. Sure enough; with almost 24 hours
of winds of 40-70 kts all of the boats in the mooring field survived
without harm. However, the town and the countryside fared far worse.
While in the YC, we could hear shingles popping off the roof. The town
was littered with trees and branches everywhere. And many places did
not have electricity for 5 days. However, nobody was hurt!
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 We rented a car with another
cruising couple which we
knew. We went to see many fine places, such as Peggy's Cove light. We
hear bagpipes playing; Ann bought lots of trinkets for the house, and
Bob payed for them. We had fun, but the trip cost a lot more than
money. Something that we considered valuable was lost. Such is life.
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 One of Ann's favorite entertainments
was watching the really little ones learning to sail. Rain, shine, wind,
or not; these little guys and gals would go out. We would have been
scared but they were not. Capsizes, and flogging sails did not detract
from their interest in sailing. The YC has a recognized program for
teaching all ages the art of sailboat racing.
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 The staff of SHYC included
four newbies that were hired
for the summer. Bret, Kait, Emily (pictured here), and Natalie (her
picture did not turn out very well). They are all going to a university
to study some pretty amazing things. They took care of YC business and
tended the bar during the afternoons. They all were very kind to us.
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 Mary was our first and last contact
with the Club. She took our reservation before we arrived and we got our
goodbye hug as we headed back to Jule on departure day. Mary made lots
of things happen for us that would not have been possible otherwise.
Thanks Mary!
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 Jason, the manger helped us
tie up in very windy
conditions, assured us all would be right after Arthur, and arranged for
us to become members of SHYC. Bruce, the Commodore, would make it a
point to see how we were doing whenever our paths cross. He knows all
things about the Club and his direction makes everything tick.
Unfortunately, we did not see Bruce on our last day when we were taking
pictures.
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 Yesterday, we slipped our mooring
and headed down the Harbour. We anchored off of McNutts Island (only 10
nm distant) to posture ourselves for a 'comfortable rounding of Cape
Sable. We knew we were leaving when we passed Sandy Pt. light midway
down the Harbour.
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 The rounding of the Cape
was lumpy and full of current.
There was little wind but the swell from three days of strong winds was
impressive. As we headed NW, we were treated with a great sunset.
Tomorrow we will deal with the dreaded lobster traps of Maine waters.
Lobster traps are removed from the waters of Southwestern Nova Scotia by
1 June. Not bad.
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