August 31st, 2026

We have spent 5 days at sea crossing the Atlantic and we have not seen another boat the entire crossing. Of course we have had lots of fog and for 4 days you could not see much. The fog horn was going off pretty regularly. Because of the fog we could not see any part of the lunar eclipse that took place. We had lots of rain and it was cold so not much time was spent on the open deck.

I played Mah Jongg a couple of days in the afternoon but the ship kept messing it up by putting crafts in the same place as Mah Jongg and it got a little confusing and I finally decided on day 3 that it was not worth it so gave up on it.

We did ask the cruise director why they did not play movies in Princess theatre anymore and he said the timing was usually off but he would see what he could do. He did ask that if he were to do a movie did we have a preference on I said “The Devil Wears Prada 2”. We have already seen it but I thought it would be a fun thing to see again on the big screen. Imagine my surprise when I checked the daily schedule for our last sea day and there was my movie. The negative was that Kathy had a massage scheduled during the movie and the sun actually came out for the last sea day. I went anyway and enjoyed it but most people opted for the sunshine.

A few pics from the sea days. The full moon on the water, the view from deck, and the stern pools on our sunny day.

The cruise is winding down and we have 2 Canadian ports left and then a sea day before Boston. Today was Sydney, Nova Scotia and we thought we had been here before but we now don’t think we have. We had booked a Get Your Guide tour of the Louisbourg Fortress. The day started off very overcast and rainy but cleared up. Our first stop was to Louisburg lighthouse which is the first lighthouse in Canada. It was built by the French and first lit in 1734. It was the second lighthouse in North America, the first in Canada. The first was in Boston.

The lighthouse is now just a historic site and is no longer functional . We spent some time walking around the lighthouse and waiting until 9:30 when the Fortress opened up.

The Fortress was established by the French in 1713 after losing Newfoundland and Acadia to the British.

The Fortress was captured twice by the British. Once in 1745 and the Brits retired it to the French in 1748. In 1758 in was captured again by the British and to ensure it could never be used by the French again the Brits destroyed it by blowing it up.

The ruins were named a national historic site in 1928. Beginning in 1961 the Canadian government reconstructed roughly a quarter of the original town using original blueprints and artifacts recovered by archeologists. Today people dress in period costumes and relive daily activities as they were in the 1700s.

We thought the N95 mask was a little out of the time period:) They have a musket firing demonstration and they fire the cannon every day at noon.

The Fortress is not open during the winter so everyone has other jobs or they are retired. They answer all your questions about how things would have been back when the Fortress was open and have several of the buildings set up as they were back then. The entire Fortress is over 12 acres and takes several hours to go through.

The main gate leading from the harbor to the Fortress.

Some of the buildings around the Fortress.

The Louisbourg lighthouse from the Fortress.

Our guide then drove us around some of the communities so we could look at the old houses and the new. A lot of Scottish people settled here also and it is one of the few places where Gaelic is spoken.

The port is very lively with lots of craft booths and live music. They have the world’s largest fiddle at the port.

Kathy crawled up in the very large Adirondack for a pic. The fiddle is 60 feet high and celebrates the islands deep rooted celtic and acadian musical traditions. Cape Breton has one of the highest concentrations of fiddlers per capital in the world. The fiddle is solid steel and weighs 10 tons.

All on board was 3:30 and we are sailing to our last port of this journey which is Halifax, Canada.