Day 12 - Wednesday, August 31 - Nova Scotia << Index

Anticipated: Play golf at Abercrombie Golf Club in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Travel:   Itinerary: Leave boat dock at 7:00AM for Abercrombie Golf Club for 12:30PM tee time. After golf drive to Fredrickton, New Brunswick motel. casino   States/Provinces Played:

Web: www.abercrombiegolf.com

Actual: (Photos and text)

Click on the photos below to enlarge James MacIntosh, assistant professional and Scott Lewis, starter/marshall Pat standing at the entrance sign Scenes from the course

We were awakened at 4:00AM by the Captain announcing our arrival in Sydney, NS. It turned out that we were still an hour away from docking; and we only got about 4-5 hours sleep. When we got up to the deck, we discovered that it had rained during the night and was still drizzling. We would like to mention the dormitory bunks where we slept. The dormitories were filled with perhaps 100 people. The dorms were set up in cubicles with 2 double deck bunks in each cubicle (see yesterday’s log for pictures). We were assigned the lower bunks, and the upper bunks were occupied by 2 teenage girls. We didn’t see them until morning because we were asleep when they arrived. The fee for each bunk is $15.00. They were quite Spartan, but they were better than trying to sleep on deck chairs. The bunks had bare plastic mattresses, and each occupant was given 2 blankets and a pillow (freshly washed, of course). I (Jim) thought the mattress was quite hard, so I went down to the car deck and retrieved a sleeping bag which I used to supplement the mattress. Last night was our last “red-eye” travel (we’ve had 2---the flight from Alaska to Salt Lake City and the all night boat ride). We had a four-hour drive to New Glasgow, New Brunswick, so we were hoping that the weather would clear before our arrival at Abercrombie Golf Club. We drove through some heavy rain, but as we approached New Glasgow, there were some breaks in the clouds, and when we arrived at the golf club, it was not raining. The starter told us that it would probably be OK for nine holes, but it looked like it might start raining at any minute. There weren’t many golfers so we were able to play rather fast; however, from the 5th hole we had rain off and on until we finished playing. We played the front nine twice because there was a junior tournament and there were youngsters all over the back nine (they didn’t seem to mind the rain). Abercrombie Golf Club was in excellent condition and had very thick roughs (Pat should know, she played half of the round in the rough!). It was one of the most challenging courses we’ve played so far, and the weather conditions didn’t give us a break. There was absolutely NO ROLL! Jim shot a 91 (CR = 69.3, Slope = 124, yardage = 6052) and Pat shot a 122 (CR = 66.3, Slope = 117, yardage = 5505). We would like to play the course again under better weather conditions. We would like to thank Terry White and his staff for their cordial welcome (and “comping” us on 1 green fee). After golf we drove for about four more hours through periods of driving rain. We decided to stop at Fredrickton, NB at a Comfort Inn for the night. We brought our clubs, towels, and jackets into the room so that they would dry out during the night. It’s quite interesting that today we drove on Highway 2 just a few miles north of the Bay of Fundy. This bay has the highest tides in the world (over 40 feet). On the first day of our journey we were in Anchorage, Alaska and were just north of Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm which have the second highest tides in the world. I’m sure that most of you know this, but these extremely high tides are due to two natural phenomena: (1) the gravitation pull of the moon as the earth rotates beneath it, and (2) the natural resonant frequency of the wave propagation of the water in the bays. The bays are of the length such that the sloshing of the water from one end of the bay to the other end is in synchronization with the twice-daily gravitational pull of the moon. These 2 natural phenomena re-enforce each other, and therefore the high tides. What does this have to do with golf??? Absolutely nothing, but physical phenomena such as the high tides has always intrigued me.