Men in Skirts, Women in Tall Ships

But first, some catching up. I mentioned a couple of times previously our belief that the only moose in Canada are those on the road signs warning drivers to avoid hitting moose. Well, most of what I blog about has to do with things I’ve taken photos of, so I forgot to mention that we did see two moose in Newfoundland, but they weren’t in a place where we could get pictures. So there are moose in Canada.

There are also foxes. We saw 5 foxes cavorting along the roadside in Prince Edward Island, and one in Newfoundland. But no foxy pictures.

We’re still near Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a big historical feature of the city is the Halifax Citadel, which is the latest of several forts built on a hill overlooking Halifax Harbor to protect the city from invaders like the French at one point in history and Americans at another. However, we were welcomed with open arms, even though the Canadian dollar is almost par with the U.S. buck.

Like so many other historical monuments in Canada, the citadel is staffed by costumed reenactors. Since Nova Scotia was originally settled by Scots, and since the garrison at the citadel was from the Scottish Highlands, the folks (mostly college students) in soldier costumes wear kilts.  And the Canadians don’t discriminate. “Soldiers” at the citadel are of both genders, and wear the same uniforms.

 

And I didn’t ask soldiers of either gender the age-old question about what they wear under the kilts.

As at the other historical sites we visited, the reenactors at the citadel were extremely knowledgeable about the period and people they are portraying.

We were lucky enough to be visiting Halifax during the Festival of the Tall Ships in which 23 old-style sailing ships are visiting the harbor and are open to the public.

Probably the most famous of the ships is the HMS Bounty, of mutiny fame. This Bounty is a replica built for the movie about the mutiny several years ago. This ship is actually 1/3 bigger than the original to make room for the movie cameras. The ship has been used in other films as well, including some of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

We were surprised to see some of the “Pirates” crew members posing for pictures on the wharf. (I don’t think that’s really Johnny Depp.)

One of the other ships is the Unicorn, the port of registry of which is Clinton, NJ.

We were a bit surprised to find that a sailing ship is based in Clinton. After all, how could they have gotten her into and out of the Spruce Run Reservoir?

As it happens, the Unicorn is owned by Dawn and Jay Santamaria of Clinton, and the port of registry can simply be the residence of the owners.  Dawn operates a non-profit on-board leadership program, Sisters Under Sail. The core mission of the program is building confidence in young women, enhancing their self-esteem, developing their social conscience and teaching each trainee the value of working together towards a common goal.

The ship is actually based in Bridgeport, CT, not Clinton, NJ.