10 am to 3 pm, daily
Mellow Monday Morning: March 10, 10 am – 12 noon – low lights and sounds for visitors with sensitivities for a quieter, low key atmosphere to enjoy our museum environment.
Sail Away & Play at Sea with us as we engage families with hands-on activities while you explore our galleries. Learn how pulleys made sailing a breeze, use a microscope to get up close with plankton, try on costumes in the historic Robertson Store, and more!
Daily Activities
Story Time - 10am and 2pm
A staff member will read 3 to 4 stories and discuss themes in a fun and interactive way. It’s always nice to cozy in with a good book and even better amongst friends! This will last for 20-30 minutes and be in the Meeting Room. Appropriate for the littles, ages 1–5-year-olds though anyone can join.
Soundings & Pulleys, Small Craft Gallery and Days of Sail exhibit area
Explore an interactive way to learn about ships rigging and sounding system. These hands-on activities will have you pulling barrels into the air, just like they would have on old sailing vessels! Pulleys help make heavy loads easier to pull, such as pulling in the sail. They help control the power of the wind without needing to use engines, batteries or petrol.
Pulleys redirect force. On a halyard, which is the rope that pulls the sail up, a pulley is used to change the direction of the force.
>The sounding lead and line is probably one of the oldest of all navigational instruments and was still being used in the 20th century to determine the depth of water beneath a vessel. This was done by lowering it over the side and letting the line out until the lead hit the bottom. We will have a few sounding devices out for guests to try out and see what they would find in the ocean depths.
Costume Fun, Robertson Store Ship Chandlery
Step back in time to our historic ship chandlery, a perfect back drop for a unique family photo. Come play dress up in period costumes and have staff take your picture in a 200-year-old building. Staff will be on hand to talk about all the cool objects that were once sold in the store, everything you could need to build a boat or head out for a fish!
Stamping/Lino Craft Program, Small Craft Gallery
We will have staff on hand to help visitors create a fun and unique art piece with some interesting and cool stamps! Flip it over and do a shading activity! Whatever works! We will have lots of colours for everyone to make a neat art piece to take home with them.
Ahoy There! Microscope Demos, Ship Model Maker Shop
Staff will have a microscope and variety of slides for guests to observe different nautical objects, organic and otherwise. Come be a mini scientist and get an up-close view at interesting objects we have in our museum collection.