We have fallen in love with Lunenburg! We stayed an extra day and Jeff would stay more if we had the time but there are still other places to see before we cross back into Maine next week. Today we spent the morning at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic before enjoying an afternoon cruise on the Bluenose II schooner in a brisk breeze on Mahone Bay. The ship was scheduled two days in advance when we called Monday so we were on a waiting list for Tuesday and fortunately cancellations allowed us to get on the afternoon cruise.
The museum is the center of Lunenburg's tourism efforts that are supplemented with the community's restoration as a British colonial village. The original German, Swiss, and French Protestants were primarily farmers but because of the poor soil quickly turned to the sea for the subsistence. They became fisherman, boat builders, and craftsmen to support those industries.
The Museum includes three floors of exhibits as well as several ships along the quay it is located on. The morning and late afternoon after the cruise was not enough time to see everything so Jeff made plans to return tomorrow.
After lunch we joined our 73 other passengers for a two hour cruise on the Bluenose II schooner built in 1963 and operated by the Lunenburg Marine Museum Foundation. 
The schooner is an exact replica of the famous Bluenose racing fishing schooner that became famous beginning in 1921 and through 1938s as the winner of the International Fishing Racing Cup that never gave up the cup it first won in 1921. The original Bluenose (and all its competitors) had to be a commercial fishing ship to compete so for all those years it was captained by Captain Angus Walters. Angus Walters grew up fishing out of Lunenburg and by the age of 21 was captain of a fishing schooner.
The cruise was our first excursion on a large sailing vessel and traveling at 12 knots while canted 10-15 degrees was a thrill. 
The crew works most of the time on a short trip like this getting 8,000 square feet of sail up and then back down in a short time.
It became even more thrilling when at the moment of the highest deck tilting one of the chain plates that attaches the mast braces to the bulwarks snapped with a very large bang! 
Fortunately no one was hit by the line and there are a total of eight braces per mast so other than the captain relieving the stress on the mast nothing was affected. Jeff learned later that the crew removed the chain plate and had it repaired in time for the next morning's sailing.We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Museum, had a delicious dinner on the waterfront, and then climbed the hill back to the motorhome.
