Sydney, across the harbor from Dobson Yacht Club.

But 1st., here is a report on the tide in Sydney Harbor, NS. This picture shows high tide at the marina this morning.

And here is low tide at the same spot in the Sidney, NS marina about 6-7 hours later.

This is called a “Dragon Boat” that holds up to 20 paddlers. We saw it in the Sydney Harbor. It is great for exercising. Ones like it are also used, we were told, annually here in Sydney for a cancer survivors fund raiser, with the race paddlers being survivors. What a great event for such an important cause!

Before driving to Glacé Bay on Cape Breton Island where we were, we stopped for lunch at Subway. Can you believe this, a lobster sandwich with lots of good veggies on it too. We knew lobsters were abundant in Nova Scotia but this was amazing. It tasted delicious!

When we got to the town of Glacé Bay we went to the Miners Museum. Here Cari and I are ready, with hard hats and all, to enter the mine on a great tour. Coal mining was extremely important to Cape Breton Island and to Canada’s economy over the last 120 years or more…especially during the period of 1900 to 1930.

The museum has fascinating pictures, equipment like this hydraulic jack to hold up the mine roof, movies and the terrific mine tour.

Coal is what was mined. Some of the mines in the area along the Cape Breton coast went down many hundreds of feet and then under the ocean floor for up to 6 miles.

Here we are listening to our guide, Sheldon, who had been a coal miner in Glace Bay for over 25 years.

Sheldon, with a model horse, explained the critical role that small horses played in removing the coal from the mines.

Here “Fred” looks on along with what our guide said was an ever present visitor to coal mines…rats.

The ceiling was just 4 feet high here as we sat and watched how coal was mined in the 1920s.

In the coal mine.

Typical tools used to mine in 1920

Cari and I get ready for our 12 hour shift of mining…almost! 🙂

Less than 500 yards from the coal mining museum were these cliffs that dropped to the Atlantic Ocean along the Cape Breton coast in Glacé Bay. A wonderfully calm day.

I turned to the right and took this shot facing east along the Cape Breton Island coast at Glacé Bay.

We next drove to the town of Louisbourg along the east coast of Cape Breton Island. This town has a tremendous history going back into the late 1600s. It has an excellent, protected harbor full of commercial fishing boats.

Looking across the Louisbourg harbor to homes on the other side of the town.

A shell fish processing plant at work in Louisbourg with a few hundred seagulls looking for dinner.

A very well outfitted Canadian Coast Guard ship docked in Louisburg.

A snow crab fishing boat with traps on board preparing to leave.

A very large North Atlantic Shrimp” boat at dock in Louisbourg. The captain told me they go out from 10 to 100 miles offshore, stay for 3-5 days and can get many, many tons of the small and delicious shrimp in a trip.

The bow of the same shrimp boat in Louisbourg Harbour.

We next tried to see the Fortress of Louisbourg, said to be the largest historic reconstruction in Canada. The facilities closed at 5 pm and we missed being able to get in and see/experience it.

Another view from afar of the Fortress of Louisbourg.