We wait.
The winds rise and huge, cold raindrops slap at the
window behind me. Cats are squirrely. It doesn’t seem as though we’ll ever be on-board the boat. And I can’t wait to launch the new kayak. It’s now the second
week of May, we’re in the apartment on Roncesvalles and the Mary Mary is on the
hard at Wright’s Marine four hours north; hopefully she’s still sleepy in
hibernation and unaware of our neglect. It certainly isn’t intentional. And I
guess it’s early yet, but it feels some days as though her haul-out last
September was a dozen years ago. What a long cold winter it seemed.
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| Our new Scamper 2 Inflatable Kayak super-imposed on a phony BG |
Adrian and I have just come back from Halifax where we had a
two-week run of my play, Trudeau Stories, at the Neptune Theatre. I’d had
visions before we flew out there of a boat tour and maybe a visit to the Coast
Guard Station and breezy strolls along the harbour-walk in the spring air.
April was supposed to be a lovely time to visit Nova Scotia. But 2015 was a dastardly winter down east, they
were hit time and again with ice and snow storms. Haligonians were pummeled
with so much snow that one man said he shoveled 8 hours one day to clear a path
from the road to his front door. The snow stood twice his height. They all seemed pretty exhausted from the
endlessness of it, so we couldn’t really complain too much about the greyness
and the rain and wind during our visit. The grisliness of it didn’t demand any
backbreaking labour, just a hunch in the shoulders when we walked up hill to
get to the theatre in the driving rain.
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| Snow in Halifax - 2015 |
We did have a couple pockets of
sunshine and climbed up Citadel Hill, and we did visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which was very well laid out, with great exhibits on shipwrecks,
not only the SS you-know-what, but also the Empress of Ireland where so many
more lost their lives; and scores of others from Louisbourg, Sable Island and
Halifax Harbour etc.; some detailed Naval histories; beautiful large handmade models of some of the
Cunard line and others, stores of ship’s artifacts from the age of sail as well
as steam, and some fascinating details about the Halifax Explosion of 1917. Merlin the Museum Macaw was absolutely beautiful (and
he knew it); and we treated ourselves to a couple of glorious visits to the
Press Gang Restaurant for oysters, wine and jazz.
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| Merlin doing his thing |
Now we’re trying to decide what boat freezer to buy with
some of the proceeds from the play, and--once we decide--how to get it, now
that West Marine is closing many stores in Canada. The low Canadian dollar
makes this purchase choice tricky too.
I don’t mean to complain, really I don’t. I just want to be floating.
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| Cappie 'floating' |
