Thursday, 1 August

I woke up at 06:00 and the sun had just barely risen.  I had slept well the previous night; Ellen said she had had a very difficult time sleeping.  As we had coffee in our cabin, we could see land in the distance off the port side. 

The foul smell was still permeating our hallway.  Luckily it was not seeping into the cabin.  I imagine that was because we had air conditioning blowing into the cabin via a ceiling vent, which created a small amount of over pressure and kept the smell out.

Breakfast was the same.  I had pretty much made up my mind to stick to two fried eggs, some bacon, a slice of dark grain toast, and some plumbs for the duration of the cruise.

Towards the end of breakfast, the ship’s Master sat down with us and introduced himself.  He apologized for not having introduced himself sooner, but he said they had had a lot of maneuvering to do, and that had kept him busy.  In any case, he informed us that we would be pulling into Halifax at about 18:00, and that we would have the opportunity to go ashore and into town for a few hours.

After breakfast Ellen and I decided to do a load of wash. The washing machine was simple enough to figure out, and the dryer was just as simple.  Each took about an hour to do its thing.

At some point we were talking to our fellow passenger, Wilke, about the cabins.  We knew that there was something called the "Owner's Cabin" that was far bigger and more luxurious than the cabins we everyday folks were in.  We had seen it in the online descriptions, and understood that it had two rooms, a double bed, couches, etc.  But the price had seemed a bit too exorbitant, so we stayed with a regular cabin.  Well, it turned out that Wilke was in the Owner's Cabin.  Apparently no one had booked it, and there would be a number of single passengers. Giving the Owner's Cabin to a single passenger was their way of ensuing two strangers did not have to share a cabin, and since Wilke had apparently been the first passenger to board in New York, they had given it to him.  That was mildly irksome.  I mean, they could have given it to the first couple to board -- Ellen and me -- and that would have solved the problem, too.  

Owner's Cabin Living Area

Owner's Cabin Bedroom

Anyway, Ellen and I both did some walking in mid-morning.  A thick fog had rolled in, and we could barely see the water.  The ship had slowed down quite a bit, and it was sounding its fog horn ever few minutes.  I upped my walking game to 1 1/4 miles; I’m going to shoot for three miles a day by the time we get to Hamburg.  That will probably be 2 x 1 1/2 miles (morning and afternoon).

Around 11:00 Ellen got cell phone connectivity.  I don’t know why she was even trying, but she got it.  So we were each able to download our emails and check up on a few things (such as bank wire transfers).  

We arrived in Halifax a little after 18:00.  

Arriving in Halifax

It turned out there were two different port facilities in Halifax.  The first one -- shown above -- is where we expected to pull in.  But that was not the case.  We actually docked at a second facility, which was a bit farther in the harbor.

As we were pulling in to our pier, one of the ACL sister ships – the Atlantic Sun – was pulling out. 

The Atlantic Sun

The Master had granted shore leave until 23:00, and I decided to go into the town for two reasons: (1) Just to see how it’s done, and (2) To pick up a few things that we were missing.  Ellen had been feeling a little queasy from the ship’s motion, and she decided not to go.

I asked the steward how the shore leave thing was done, and he took me to the ship’s Master who told me that the port manager would drive me to the gate, and from there I could get a cab.  The Master also told me to take the photocopy of my passport ashore.

I had to get an escort down to the well deck (where the vehicles drive on and off).  At the ramp there was a crew member whose job it was to sign people on and off the ship.  I turned in my ship ID badge and was issued a florescent safety vest that I needed to wear while off the ship and in the port area.

Florescent Safety Vest - a "must" while walking around a port 

I asked the crew member how to get to the guard building.  There was a car parked at the bottom of the ramp with its flashers on.  He pointed to the car and said that the port manager was supposed to ride me in, but that he had gone into the ship and there was no telling when he would be back.  Then he told me I could walk to the gate, and he pointed to what looked like a dark green house about a quarter mile away, on the other side of some rows of containers.

I asked if he was serious (that I could walk), and he assured me that he was.  So I walked down to the bottom of the ramp, and prepared to set off.  There was a white van there with a man and a woman, and I asked them where the gate was.  (I was secretly hoping they would offer me a ride.)  They pointed in the same general direction that the crew member had, then told me to stick to the “roads” and not to walk among the containers.  With the cranes slinging boxes and the trucks hauling boxes, I did not have a warm and fuzzy about walking through the port, but I set off.

It only took a few minutes to get to the gate.  I went inside the little guard building, where there were two men on duty.  One signed me out and asked if I wanted a taxi.  He called, and about 30 seconds later said that there was a taxi right out front.

As it turned out, there was a taxi right out front because it had coincidentally just dropped someone off.  The driver was a very friendly guy from Eritrea (East Africa) who was delighted when I told him that I had been to Eritrea in 1998 and that I knew Asmara (the capital) and Masawa (a seaside port on the Red Sea).  He was further delighted that I knew a bit Eritrean history (it had fought and won a war of independence from Ethiopia), that I knew what the two languages of the area were (Amharic and Tigrenean), and that I had had boona (coffee) and injera (bread). 

Having hit it off so well, he had no problem waiting outside the sporting goods store I went to to try buying some folding lawn or camping chairs.  I had Googled “REI Halifax” in the hopes there would be one.  There wasn’t.  But the equivalent was something called MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op), which sold not only the same sorts of things, but was also a coop.

The MEC store in downtown Halifax had some nice folding camping chairs, but they cost an arm and a leg.  Seriously, the smallest folding chair was something like $130 Canadian.  I decided to settle on some folding foam pads that would at least provide a warm, dry place to sit on the deck.

After MEC we went to a supermarket, where I bought some Lindt chocolate bars with red peppers cooked in.  Ellen and I usually have a small piece after dinner, and Ellen asked me to pick some up if I could find any.

Then it was back to the ship.  I had probably been about an hour total with the cab, and the fare was about $38 Canadian.  I asked the driver if he preferred cash or credit card, and he said cash.  No surprise there as the local merchants in Halifax don’t do official conversions; they just do a 1-to-1 conversion, which means they make out like bandits.  I didn’t mind, as the driver had been friendly and very helpful.  So I paid in American dollars, said "Thank you" in Amharic -- Ameseginalehu -- and he was happy as a clam.

Upon signing back into the port, the duty guard said that I really shouldn’t be walking around the port, and that he’d arrange a ride to the ship for me.  After the $55 charge in Baltimore, I asked if there would be a charge for this.  There was not (my first indication the Baltimore fare had been a scam).  He called his buddy on the walky-talky, and in a few minutes his buddy arrived and drove me back to the Atlantic Sky.

Atlantic Sky from the guard house

(Photo by Sebastien)

Ellen and I spent the rest of the evening taking advantage of the soon-to-be-gone Internet connectivity.  Of note, they were loading containers in the well just outside our cabins.  It was really weird watching the 40-foot boxes go flying by our window just several inches away.  And then clanging like thunder when they were emplaced.

We were scheduled to depart Halifax at 03:00 the next day (Friday).  Next stop would be Liverpool in about seven days.  Now we would be really underway.