After a visit last year to Nova Scotia's southeast coast, it was back to the Bay of Fundy in June to visit both old and new friends during the 2003 Points East Fundy Flotilla.

For the first time this year, Grand Manan was on the list of ports of call. Cruising boats have a difficult time finding a vacant float — or even a receptive fishing boat to raft on — in North Head Harbor's busy docking basin. Finding space for an entire flotilla was an impossibility; so the offer of moorings from the local aquaculture entrepreneur was a godsend. Having to dinghy a few hundred yards into the dinghy dock was a small price to pay.

The 10 boats of Fundy Flotilla 2003 had also done pretty well at the earlier ports of call, although the docking situation at Westport, Brier Island, was something that most of the flotillians had not expected nor ever experienced. After six hours of motoring from Yarmouth in light southerlies and in light rain and fog that varied from patchy to pea soupy, the flotillians were surprised to see a bright red Canadian Coast Guard cutter materialize out of the gloom and hail them, and then bring them by twos and threes to the mouth of the docking basin. The skipper of the cutter — CCGC Westport — considered the 3-hour mission a good exercise for his 3-man crew.

Inside the basin were a dozen very beamy fishing and whalewatch boats rafted together on the substantial float — which is tethered by steel arms to the breakwater and which rises and falls 15 or more feet with every tide cycle.

The flotilla boats rafted onto the existing rafts of boats and the crews got their first lesson in jumping from bulwark to deck and up and down and up and down till they arrived at the float. Inconvenient — yes. But also wonderful to be safe and sound out of the 6-knot current of the Grand Passage. And most crews considered the $20Cdn daily dockage fee a worthwhile donation to the local harbor commission, which had raised $500,000Cdn as an equal match with a federal grant to get the basin built three years ago.

Moorage and dockage fees varied during the cruise, depending on the ports. In Camden, Wayfarer Marine gave flotilla boats a 25 percent discount; in Yarmouth, N.S. — the Canadian entry port for the flotilla — dockage was free for flotilla boats, courtesy of Rudders Restaurant and the town's harbor development office. In Westport, Brier Island, the usual cost to visiting yachts is $25Cdn; flotilla boats paid $20. At the Digby Marina, the boats were also charged $20Cdn per night — a discount of $10Cdn. In Grand Manan, there was no charge for the special moorings set out for the flotillians. In Cutler, the boats anchored in the sheltered harbor. Flotilla boats heading for the Camden start or on the way home after the Cutler finale also received discounts at Tenants Harbor, courtesy of Cod End, at Sebasco Harbor Resort and at Handy Boat.

But the essence of cruising is, of course, not the money spent or the money saved. As author Elliott Merrick has said: "(A boat is) a magic carpet, taking you to new places, new friends, and new thoughts." The flotillians, most of whom had never cruised to the Canadian Maritimes, found that to be particularly true.

In Yarmouth they had the opportunity of spending time with Dr. Peter Loveridge and his wife, Heather, on their sloop Radical Jack. Loveridge told them, among other tales, the tribulations of trying to find a publisher for a second edition of his out-of-print cruising guide.

In Westport, Brier Island, they talked with workers at the large fish processing plant about the worldwide markets for Brier Island cod, pollock, scallops and lobsters. Some enjoyed listening to Caroline Norwood, the mate on her son's whalewatch boat, as she talked about the area and about the humpback whale that played around their boat.

In Digby, the crews visited various historical sites by bus, learning about the 1605 French settlement on the shores of the Annapolis Basin and about the more than 150 years of conflict between the French and British, including the resulting ethnic cleansing of 10,000 Acadians from the Maritimes by American colonists and British redcoats. On the docks, the flotillians opened their boats for an afternoon reception of local folks and thereby made lots of new friends. The flotillians were, in turn, guests of the Royal Western Nova Scotia Y.C. at a lobster dinner.

On Grand Manan, flotillians had a bus tour of the island and learned first hand about sardine canning, herring smoking, salmon farming, seaweed processsing, and island life among the 2,700 inhabitants of the island. And they spent a delightful evening at the exquisite home of their host, Harley Griffin, the aquaculture entrepreneur, enjoying his hospitality and the view of North Head Harbor and Swallowtail lighthouse from the home situated on a ridge high above the water.

In Cutler, flotillians enjoyed a lobster dinner put on by the women of the Methodist church, complete with music and storytelling. After Cutler, after covering 285 miles and visiting six ports in two weeks, the boats — mostly in convoy — headed southwest to their various homes along the New England shore. But the friendships they made during the cruise would continue, and the memories of the places they visited and the people they met would endure.