Canada seems to suits us. Halifax, Nova Scotia we’ve decided is a place where we could both live. This feeling doesn’t always stir as we travel around. I suppose it’s not too far removed from an attractive place in Britain, making fitting in very easy. Same language, similar culture, a cosmopolitan vibe, a clean environment, lots of waterfront space, cheap shopping, well anywhere is after Bermuda and chilled out, helpful, seemingly content people.

We’ve been here 5 nights now. Our crossing from Bermuda took 5 days 20 hours. A mix of fine beam reach sailing, some motoring and ultimately ghastly fog for 36 hours which is weird when there’s plenty of wind about too. My own aspirational wish came back to bite my bum as I’d mentioned to Miv that I was missing looking at a tv screen, meaning the World Cup and Wimbledon were on the telly. My wish came true as either Dave or I were required to look at the radar screen every 5 minutes or so for 36 hours. We were practically in the harbour in Halifax before our long distance vision got a work out. It was good to get in and stop moving.

I’ve posted a couple of pictures here. One of something that look like a low sitting barge, only for us to realise a couple of minutes later it was actually a massive cruise ship, faintly visible as the fog thinned and lifted. We knew it was there as we’d talked to each other over the VHF radio. The fog phenomenon still played with my limited head space.

Our plan is to make a plan. Now England are through to the semi finals, we (well I mean I) need to be near a telly on Wednesday for semi final trials and tribulations. Can’t / don’t want to miss this one. We went to a bar downtown to watch the Sweden game. I think the bar claimed to have 26 TVs plus a big screen outside too. We sat at the bar between a guy who was a puppeteer and a Brazilian chap who was sad as his team had been eliminated the previous day. Nice chats.

Monday / Tuesday this week we plan to get out of Halifax waters for the night and find a quiet anchorage somewhere a few hours sail from here. Also need to keep a quiet ear on the weather as a depression is brewing off North Carolina and may be on its way here with a bit of nastiness. Post football shenanigans, we want to get to Newfoundland.

A footnote. For you boaty folk, we now transmit on AIS. Dave wired the new unit in today. Only a modicum of naughty words and heavy sighing. Look us up on Marine Traffic – Grace of Longstone. You can stalk us.

And a second foot note. We’ll both be back in the UK from 9th September to 6th October. Flights booked. Usual schedule….work, friends, family. Not necessarily in that order…

And finally… we’ve upgraded the blog site to get rid of the adverts and associated *hit. It should look cleaner and it’s given me a bit more space for writing / storing stuff.  Don’t expect any changes. The world moves slowly on a boat. About 5 to 6mph.