Jason Goodman's Labrador Sea cruise: Halifax

Sat, 1 Feb 1997
The ship left the dock at 0630 this morning. We went to a fueling station and got gas, which took several hours. During which, the captain held a briefing and explained what all the alarm bells and running around shouting was last night (which I slept through, of course.) There's a heater/radiator system which heats the ship's interior using waste heat from the engines. Last night, it was cold but no engines were running, so the pipes froze in one of the heat exchangers. The problem is very serious: if it stays broke, the ship will have little propulsion or heat. So we're back at the dock, fixing the problem, and will probably set sail on Monday. What a drag. But it does mean I might get to see more of Halifax.

Sun, 2 Feb 1997
I got my first real chance to see Halifax today. It's a beautiful city, a lot like Cambridge in many ways, though not as old. I walked along the waterfront, and through downtown. There was a beautiful old library, with a one-man street band playing a harmonica and a bucket-and-broomstick banjo, and a very pretty church called the Basilica with a burying ground next to it. Graveyards during snowfall are really neat.

I bought another disposable camera and took lots of pictures: it was rather foggy: they'll either look really cool or really lousy, depending on the camera and processing.