Captain’s log

Off with the winter cover

Schooner Bluenose II crew.

It has been a productive week aboard Bluenose II and our weeks of quiet preparation work have started to pay off. Our crew numbers are starting to increase as well. We are up to twelve deckhands with the last two arriving Monday morning. With a mix of young people who are attending university and those who are not, our joining dates are spread out over the month of April. The last two are cutting it close as they will have one day of work aboard the ship and then go straight into their Marine Emergency Duties course.

Springtime in the shed

Image of staff inside the rigging shed.

It’s Good Friday in the world outside the gate of the rigging shed, inside it’s just another day. If it wasn’t a big Christian holiday, many of us wouldn’t know the day of the week. Life on a ship is measured in weeks or months and occasionally minutes or seconds but rarely days of the week. The crew, for the most part, work straight through from April into October, dedicating their summer to the service of Canadian icon Bluenose and Bluenose II.

The first day of the season

Schooner Bluenose II crew.

Snow — you’ve got to be kidding me. Is this an unfunny April Fools joke? I came aboard this morning early, by myself. Dragging the gangway across the wharf I was reminded of an alumni’s comments about a snowy gangway being a “Lunenburg bobsled”. Bob sledding was added to the Olympics in 1924 so maybe Capt. Angus and his crew, excited by a new sport, pushed a gangway along a wharf. I was not so excited as I pivoted the length of the gangway perpendicular to the wharf and the ship.

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