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The CCGS Cornwallis was tied up in Halifax when I came through. We took a quick tour and some of the interesting things I noticed is they had a tiny bar since it was a civilian vessel. We thought that was pretty cool. For me the neatest deal was if the skipper wanted he could drive the boat with a remote control around his waist.
When they do buoy/ATON ops the skipper goes down on deck with the remote around his waist and gets the boat close to work the buoy's. It's easier to just be standing down on deck leaning over the side, driving the boat in range for the crew to hook the buoy. I'd imagine the newest USCG has now, can do that, but back in the day it was way ahead of our 180's who were built in the 1940's and still working until around 2000.
Another weird thing that happened to us on that mission down to Boston was the Mohawk people in Quebec went on the warpath. Ya for real!!! Only they had AK's and all sorts of modern equipment smuggled onto the rez. I remember driving the cutter under a bridge with turned over cars and burning tires, with tanks on one side and make shift bunkers on the other. We flew our parade ensigns so we wouldn't be mistaken for the Canadian Army who was dealing with the issue. Bare in mind this is 1990...not the old day's. Well, really old day's.
Other things I noticed as a West Coast kid, was the Atlantic was chocked full of garbage. You couldn't sail a thousand yards without seeing crap floating in the water. Pretty sad. And the harbors all around PEI are topped off with huge jelly fish....but PEI was prettiest emerald, island I'd ever seen. I'd imagined Ireland must be green like that. Just striking green.
Sorry for the ramble...all these freighter pictures bring back my time in the Lakes. In a year and a half I'd sailed all the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence seaway out into the Atlantic and as far south as Nantucket. I was in the Great Lakes for four years. We were gone from homeport on a average 211 day's of the year. Weird for a shallow water sailor.-WW
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