Monday, September 12, 2011

Cape Negro Island

I did get ashore on Cape Negro Island this summer, and thanks to Rhoda, whose grandmother lived there, I did get too see the graveyard. its a little difficult to find the path , and because of the number of blown down trees, a chainsaw would help. Its a bit sobering, there are a huge number of young deaths and I could only find one 90 year old. ( In the Bahamas bucolic Green Turtle Cay graveyard , there are lots of 90 year olds and very few premature deaths, during the same historical period) . The gap in the bar is bigger, and you should probably not raft up unless its a very quiet night. My frog pond may be gone, as movement of the beach has obliterated it. I also found out why the island was abandoned in the late 1950's. It ran out of trees and so no firewood. They've been growing ever since, and as the usual spruce trees have a 50 year lifespan, every big blow flattens some more of them

Canada Post

since the strike we have had huge mail delays and some don't arrive at all. This is not helpful for any small business. If you have sent a cheque and haven't heard anything, send me an email and I will send you a CD, hoping that the money will eventually arrive

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Shelburne Harbour Yacht Club

the DVD edition of my book is now available at the club. It may not be on display, so ask at the office for it.
 Shelburne  Harbour Yacht Club contact information
phone 902 875 4757
www.shycandmarina.ca
yachtclub@ns.aliantzinc.ca

Monday, July 4, 2011

canada post strike

the posties have conspired to make life difficult for small operations like this. They are now theoretically back to normal working. Normal working, to them means taking twice as long to deliver mail as in Queen Vistoria's time, though then there was just one transcontinental railway, the roads were dirt tracks, and there were no aircraft. However, if you wish to send anything by mail, it should now be all right to do so.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Printed version of the book

Some people have asked why no printed version. The short answer is cost. I have had a few printed, but locally this costs about $75. The ones I have made were ground out on my home printer, it takes hours. The resultant book is about 9"x11" and weighs about 2 pounds. This is a huge cost to send overseas through the mail and it also gets the attention of the revenue men and homeland security. Attempts to get a Canadian publisher interested, though the original sells on average at 5 times its original price, were absolutely futile. These guys will not do anything without a government grant. The CD can go through the mail at a minimum cost, and anywhere in the US, can be printed by an office supplies joint like Staples, for less than $40. Being somewhat of a  a Luddite, I prefer a real book, and I have no objection to anyone who buys the CD printing it out for their own use. There may be hope of a US publisher soon

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Points East book review

very nice review of my book in June edition of Points East, pages 74, 75. Thanks very much, Sandy. See it at www.pointseast.com

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

praise from an unexpected place

got a letter from Percy Paris ( he knows I'd never vote for his party), he writes
" I must commend you for producing such a thorough and accurate publication about cruising Nova Scotia's coastline as well as our history and culture"
I've released it, free of royalties for promotion of tourism  in the province

Sunday, April 10, 2011

gremlins

I've been going through the book on DVD There are a few little errors In the index, should be 390 The Southern Bras d'Or lakes and West Bay somehow, there was a glitch in the scanning and pages 106-109 are not in the right order There are a couple of pages have the same # I'll try and correct these later, but I don't think they'll detract from the usefullness of the book

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

news from lunenburg

The Yacht Shop, next to where the new bluenose is being built, has moved to Halifax and has been taken over by a couple of guys who used to work there. It is now called Lunenburg Boat Locker, and carries much the same stuff as before, hopefully including my book. One good thing is they have a very good mechanic/boat systems guy, a much needed service in this area. Go to them if you have a balky engine etc. While you're there. take a look at the new Bluenose, you can see it on line at www.novascotiawebcams.com

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

weather forecasts

In Western Nova Scotia, forecasts are notoriously unreliable. Part of the reason is that the doppler radar in Halifax does not reach anywhere to the south and west. Lurcher and Browns bank are not covered at all. This means it is impossible to see any strong convection cell, developing circulation etc. We are alway at risk of getting unforecast 40-50 knot winds when a front passes. You might like to look at www.passageweather.com it covers the whole world, its free and pretty good. We are in the north atlantic-new england section. We used it all the time on our trip, after it was shown to us by Capt. Don Barr, late of the Bluenose2. A number of local fishermen are now using it

Friday, March 18, 2011

The new book is done. It is on a CD/DVD as printing costs were prohibitive. There are 0ver 200 charts and photos and they are all coloured. It comes up pretty good on Adobe reader, which I downloaded free off the internet. I think most computers come with something likes this.

The book is a 780 MB pdf file, so it may load slower on an old machine
This has been very much a cottage industry, so there are a few typos and blank pages, but I think y'all will find it useful

Price will be $60. ( the old one selling on Amazon for over $100 so its a good deal) May be a little extra for postage
I haven't worked out the arrangement for paying yet, I'll try and get registered with paypal if I can get my head round it
If you likely to want one, send me an email at peter.loveridge@ns.sympatico.ca
I'll get back to you, I'm doing this in small batches, so I'llpost on here when I get a supply, but it should be next week
For those of you who would want a real book, I have to print them out one by one on my home printer, so it'll be about $150 and there may be a little wait
Further details next week