Down To The Sea Again

Decades of my life have been spent on the Halifax waterfront, a few months on HMCS Ottawa, a few years as Watch Officer for the Queen's Harbourmaster, almost a decade in the old Post Office across the street from the Maritime Museum, slipping across to have lunch dangling my feet over the water and a decade high up in Purdy's  Wharf Tower looking down on the harbour through plate glass from my desk (including a certain September day when we were suddenly conscious that the US embassy was only 1 floor above us and a coworker couldn't resist pointing out that Window and exclaiming was that a plane heading across the harbour toward us? We all turned then most of us laughed, a few were not so amused but the tension did drop a notch.)

Anyway these days I usually make only make it to the Halifax waterfront once a year. Today was the kind of day to do it with warm verging on hot sunshine with the faintest of breezes. Unfortunately, with this lovely summer day being the first weekend of the summer break and many people making it into a 4 day Canada Day weekend,  nipping into the museum to check out board games appears to have been low on people's to do list.

The view out the window. HMCS Halifax on the left was open to the public. HMCS Sackville on the right was a WWII corvette and is now part of the museum but in my day with QHM she was a working Dept of Fisheries research vessel. Seems odd to me that of the current fleet, only 3 were in service in my day. Doesn't seem that long ago.......

Meanwhile inside, those of us who were present, staff, volunteers and a trickle of kids and mom's had a good time. Various people said nice things and there were two runs of the game, including one in which the privateers lost both of their ships.  Doesn't do to not leave a watch on board.

I also got to play 2 full games of Crocinole, a childhood favorite that I have not played in over 40 years. The Uckers board (a variation on Parchesi) just visible on the right above, brought back memories of evenings in the Wardroom on the sweepers doing navigation training on the West Coast.

So, all in all an enjoyable day out. I'm tempted to bring the Privateers down to Huzzah next year as a walk up and play game in addition to the main event.