Down the Northern Pennisula.

Our buddy Lar, notice the crosses painted on the doors, when I asked he said it was tradition. 

We stopped in Crouse Harbour in order to see the French shore tapestry in Conche and got more than we bargained for.  The people in Crouse and Conche were the friendliest we have met yet.  There were a couple of old fellows who greeted us when we came ashore, they gave us directions.  The interpretive centre and the 217 ft. tapestry about life on the French shore were on of the best museums we have encountered. 

When I walked up to the building I could not imagine how they would get a 217 ft. tapestry in the building but they very creatively have wound it around one room.  An artist dreamed up the concept researched and created it and with grants from the government employed lots of women to sew it.  There was over 20,000 hours put in to making it.  The tapestry depicts the history of the French shore of Nfld. from the beginning until the present.  There are 4 languages on the tapestry, French, English, a Scandanavian language and Gaelic. There are panels on the top and bottom and the main theme in the middle, a person could spend hours noticing all the details. 

We got a ride back to the boat after Barry mentioned my sore ankle to some people we were chatting to.  I saw a Dr. in St. Anthony and he said I had damaged my ligaments and I am supposed to rest my foot for a week.  I am trying very hard not to walk around but it is difficult when that is your only mode of transport and there is so much to see.  Oh well I guess I had better suck it up and stay put if I don't want to walk around in pain. 

  

   The stage (or dock) at Crouse, they used to dry and salt the fish here, back in the day

Once back in Crouse we ran into the old fellows again and one of them invited us in for a cup of tea.  He realized that we had not been back to the boat since we had left in the morning and we ended up with a lovely feed of potatoes and fresh cod!! We got to hear wonderful stories about the old days.  Lar is 84, the road and electricity did not come to the area until the 1960's.  He remembers going out with dog teams, if someone was really sick that was the only way to get them to help.  He said there were 18 men on snowshoes in front of the sled to break the trail and the leader would only be able to walk 25 feet, sinking into the snow up to their thighs before the next man in line would take the lead. The snowshoes they used were a lot smaller than the ones we have now. They were very self sufficient, they had gardens, picked berries, and the goats, sheep and cows ran wild, there were only 3 horses in the area. There was a plane that crashed in the area in 1942, it was being ferried back to England.  He was in school and the teacher would not allow the kids to go to the windows to watch the fellow who parachuted out or the plane which crash landed, but the other two aboard lived.  The other fellow, Kenny, mentioned the same thing, the teacher would not let them watch, that obviously made a big impression on them, planes were a very rare sight!  Kenny, who is 85, has hardly ever left the community. He has been to St. Anthony once when his father died, and it is only an hour and a half away by car or boat. When Kenny got talking fast he was really hard to understand. 

We sailed and motored down the coast in foggy conditions with very light winds.  There was an old whaling  station in Forche harbour that Barry wanted to see. He says it was a mess, it closed in the 1970's. It was a fiord with steep sides and waterfalls running down from the cliffs. The anchorage was dicey so we motored 10 nm further down the coast of Orange Bay. 

The community of Deep Harbour was resettled in 2003. The town was gettin too small to warrant ta teacher, nurse and the weekly boat that came in with supplies, it was noticeable that a number of houses are still in use.  There were two 50 foot fishing boats in the harbour when we arrived and about 7 or 8 skiffs. Summer holidays could be spent here and a house kept available for the fisherman when he was out on the boat. We wondered how far away the families went when they resettled?? We know of one community on the south coast they are trying to resettle and they are offering each family $250,000. 

We are headed to La Scie just east of Cape St. John.  After that we will be in Notre Dame Bay which has a lot of lovely spots  and good harbours to poke around in. The Northern Pennisula will be behind us and the East Coast beckons. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

 

Fourche Harbour    50*31' N X 56*19' W

Anchored in 13m. of water just off the old whaling station, only a lunch stop.

Very exposed to winds off the ocean

Fiord like spot with high hills and waterfalls running into the bay form the top.

No services. 

Great Harbour Deep    50*22' N X 56*30' W

Anchored in 8m. of water in Sault Cove just north of town. 

Very good holding, good coverage from all winds except SE. 

Winds funnel in this area so take care where you decide to anchor.

No services, town abandoned in 2003, beautiful spot. 

Over the top

We lucked out with another great day to visit L'Anse aux Meadows, the site where the Vikings had a settlement over 1,000 years ago. Oh, we learned they should be called Norse, Vikings were only the ones that pillaged and plundered . Along with the informative displays and movie there is a re- creation of a Norse settlement.  The sod structures were fascinating, I had read about them but never seen one, they were supposed to be fairly warm, but they were very dark inside. 

We also went down to the other site that is in the area mainly to view the Viking ship the Snorri, that reenacted Lief Ericson trip here from Greenland. 

The ship was built in Maine, using know Norse building techniques, put on a container ship and sent to 

Greenland.  Then 7 American sailors and I from Newfoundland sailed her for 97 days in the 90's following the route that the Norse took.  They used woollen sails. It was wide open, with no cover available, they must have froze but there was a place they could have built a fire on it.  

We had had a very bad sleep due to a rolly anchorage so we moved a couple of miles to a spot where Jacques Cartier sat out a gale from May 29 to June 6, 1534. The island that protected the spot was named in his honour. We rounded the top of Nfld. the next morning and were greeted by the sight of more icebergs.  This time we were under sail and did a 360 around a good sized berg. I wish there had been another boat there so we could have had pictures with Cat's-Paw IV doing her thing.  It was nice to have it to ourselves though.

We spent two nights in St. Anthony's.  The second because it poured and was very cold and miserable. The boat was dripping wet inside with the humidity, we had the furnace on but that just made the cold hull weep more. Barry finally got wet and cold enough, our gear is old enough now to have lost most of it's ability to repel water, that he went off and bought himself some fisherman's rain gear, yeah. Today dawned bright, warm and sunny and we made tracks down the coast with a gusty west wind.  

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Quirpon Harbour  51*31'.6 N X 55*27'.1 W

Anchored in 8m. very good holding 

Excellent flat achorage with almost 360 protection. 

Jacques Cartier waited out a gale here so it was good enough for us. 

No info. on services. 

St. Anthony Harbour  51*22' N X 55*35' W

Anchored in 8m. just NW of the Grenfell docks, very good holding

Great 360 protection, no swell

Dinghy access at Grenfell docks, the whale watching outfit there was very friendly and welcoming

All services available except no showers, Laundromat at Irving Gas Station, $3.00/load. 

Crouse Harbour  50*54'.3 N X 55*53'.3 W

Anchored in 7m. fair holding, had to anchor twice, put kellet down, no dock. 

Good protection from prevaling SW winds but wind may funnel through high sided cliffs. Open from SE. 

No services, walk 1.5 km to see French shore tapestry, a must see, small store in Conche. 

Fisherman moor boats, watch for mooring floats. 

Icebergs and Whales

                                                Our first view of Labrador 

We sailed across the Strait of Belle Isle yesterday.  We had a favourable SW wind but we did not get to enjoy the scenery because the entire journey was made in dense fog.  It is a good thing our radar and AIS are in good working order. When we were within 5 miles of Red Bay, Labrador,  Barry saw a contact on the radar, we could not hear anything and figured it might be a fishing boat mucking about out in the Strait. We steered away from it and inched our way into the harbour at Red Bay, completely blind. We set anchor and soon the fog began to lift. We were in a lovely protected bay, the small town laid out in front of us. 

 We were very excited to see a bergy bit floating into the harbour and as we rounded the corner to go take pictures in the dinghy, we saw the bigger berg grounded in the entrance. 

We had sailed right past it without even knowing, then it dawned on us, the mysterious radar contact that we couldn't hear was most likely an iceberg, as well. 

   A 400 year old shaloop, a small boat used to harpoon the whales, found beneath the San Jaun. 

Red Bay was the site of a Basque whaling community in the 1500's.  A woman archaeologist poured over old documents in Spain and discovered that there had been a whaling settlement here.  Discoveries were made in the 1980's of ruins of the pots they used to render the blubber into oil.  There was also an indication in the literature that a whaling ship had gone down in the harbour.  An underwater excavation was undertaken and the San Jaun was discovered. There is a huge wreck,1985, that is still aground and they followed it's path to doom to find the vessel that sank in 1587. Instead of trying to re float the San Juan they just brought up every timber, measured it and took pictures and then returned it to the deep.  There is a scale model of it in the museum with the timbers they recovered done in a different colour than the rest so you can see how much they actually recovered. There were as many as 2,000 men and boys there at one time, now it is a town of 300.

My hand compared to a whale's fluke, and note my elegant boat attire, there is a layer there you cannot see!! 

We woke this morning to a clear day and the thermometer read 10 degrees, yikes!  Luckily I had my new woollen Labrador socks on to keep my feet warm. 

The Labrador flag is green and blue with that plant in it, I imagine it is meant to be Labrador tea, but I am just guessing. As we getting ready to pull anchor Barry said "look" and out in the Strait was another iceberg which somewhat resembled a house.  

We headed out and circled the two icebergs that had appeared. While we were heading towards them, there was a big  splash and there were bergy bits everywhere. We were gazing fascinated at the behemoth and a whale blew in the distance, it's spume hanging in the air so we could spot it.  Can it get any better than this!  As they say, a picture tells a thousand words so I will let them speak for themselves. 

The second one was much smaller and ready to break in two. 

We had set sail to return to Newfoundland when two whales surfaced fairly near us, wow, wow! After they had gone past us and were what we figured a safe distance away they put on a show, breaching and tail flapping. There were whales everywhere, this would be similar to the spectacle we had off of Cape Cod.  I guess those Basque whalers knew a good thing when they saw it!! 

It is really hard to take a good picture of a whale while underway, with all that flapping and blowing going on and the boat heaving and rolling beneath your feet, it is a miracle if you get a good picture, I will save you the torture of looking at my miserable attempts. A description is in order though.  First you hear the exhalation of air as the whale surfaces, and you look around to spot the water molecules hanging in the air. If you are lucky the whale starts to breach, a big black torpedo goes straight up into the air and gradually it falls backwards into the water and there is an almighty splash, the white water cascading everywhere. When you are quite a distance away, you can see the splash and then hear the whap as 15 tons of whale hits the water. Next it might try the tail flap, the tail appears and whack whack whack, the sound races across the water towards you just after you watch it happen and see the water soar up around it, quite the spectacle. Meanwhile Barry is having a fit, I must admit when they are within 20 meters of the boat I am hoping that they don't pick that particular moment to decide to breach, they never have,  so I figure they know we are there and are being careful!! 

As I sit in the cockpit sipping on my rum and coke, cooled with 10,000 year old ice, I wonder does it ever get any better than this.  This day has been one of the highlights in our nine years of cruising. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Flower Cove  51*18' N X 56*45' W

Tied to the dock which was under reconstruction, to be finished fall of 2015.

No services on dock at this time.

Groceries, liquor and fuel available 20 min. away on foot. 

Entrance had lots of hazards but was well bouyed with leading lights. 

Red Bay, Labrador  51*44' N X 56*26' W

Anchored in harbour in 8m. between Saddle Island and the mainland. 

Good holding in settled weather. 

No info on services in town. 

Great museum on Basque whaling ashore, well worth the stop. 

Hay Cove, Nfld.  51*36' N X 55*31' W

Anchored at the end of the cove in 4m. Open to the NE, swell comes in from Atlantic. 

Good holding in settled weather. 

Beach landing available with road access to former Viking settlement. 

Spent a very rolly night, moved anchorages the second night. 

Northwest Coast of Nfld.

We had a lovely time in Gros Morne National Park.  The day we sailed in the mountains were covered in clouds, almost as it should be, and the peaks played peek a boo with them.  There were some gorgeous cliffs down the south side of the bay as we sailed 10 nm into Lomond Cove.  We anchored successfully in the cove, but we were a bit apprehensive about the holding so we put down our kellet(an extra weight attached to our anchor chain) and we felt fairly secure then. The next day was bright and sunny and we set off on a hike.  I was going to ask for a map, but a fellow had described the path to us and Barry figured we didn't need one. I should have known better, in our long hiking history a map is always a good thing.  We walked about an hour before finding the correct trail!! I had hurt my ankle walking on the rocky beach in Arichat and it came back to bite me.  By the time we finished the 4 hour hike I was limping, not good when your only method of transportation is on foot. It was a lovely walk through the forest and we turned around at the suspension bridge over a salmon fishing stream. 

    

        The dock at Rocky Harbour, we tied up on the opposite side to the black and red boat. 

We made a brief stop the next day at Rocky Harbour at the entrance to Bonne Bay to buy groceries and do our laundry.  We were going to stay the night but could not find a good spot to stay so headed off up to Port Aux Choix about 80nm away. We figured with good wind and the amount of daylight we have now we might have been able to do the distance in a day sail but we would have been pushing it so an overnight sail was a good option. 

As we left port the fog rolled in and we sailed on through the night with the radar going and a light SW wind pushing us up the coast.  It wasn't raining but the fog was so heavy our clothes and everything else on the boat was dripping wet.  

Port Aux Choix was a great stop for us.  There was room at the public wharf to tie up and the people were great. We visited the National historic Site exhibit, there has been continuous human habitation here for 6,000 years with 4 distinct aboriginal groups residing on this spot over the eons.  There are archeological finds all over the peninsula and one fellow was asked to move his house when he found ruins as he was enlarging his basement.  We met a local character named Raymond who regaled us with his life story.  He started fishing with his father when he was 10 years old, and lost his 50 foot boat to the bank when they put the moratorium on the cod fishery. He was kind enough to give us a ride out to the museum because my ankle was not up to the 5km round trip. The landscape was very different here. It is very flat and barren looking compared with further south.  The underlying rock is limestone and there are over 300 plants  found in this region which are found nowhere else in Nfld. 

At the moment we are headed to Flower Cove and the wind has come around onto our nose, from the NNE at 10-15 knots. It is another beautiful sunny day and as we are sailing along we can faintly see the coast of Quebec as we approach the Strait of Belle Isle.  That is another name from my school days, I can remember having to write it on maps. Who would have thought we would ever be sailing on it??

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Rocky Harbour 49* 35'.5 N X 57* 55'.2 W  Gros Morne National Park

All services available here. Laundry just up the road from the wharf. 

We tied up to the outside of the wharf in calm conditions but left once the wind came up, we wer bashing against the dock. 

If there was room on the inside of the wharf it would be good protection

The dock on the south side of the harbour is reported to have a vicious undertow. 

Port Aux Choix 50* 43' N X 57*21' W 

Tied up at public wharf. Lots of dock space in harbour. Good protection. Major fishing port.

Free Showers and cheap laundry available at Coast Gaurd dock. 

All services within easy walking distance. 

The Haven, St John Harbour on St. John Island 50*48'.7 N X 57*14'.3 W 

Anchored in 8m of water with execellent holding on sandy bottom. 

Great protection from all directions, no swell even though wind was blowing in from the ocean. 

No services, limited shore access. Few dwellings that fishermen use. 

Our Navionics electronic charts were out in this area. It said we anchored in 0.9m of water. Take Care

Up the west coast of Nfld.

 

We had a vicious start to our Nfld. voyage.  I said it was a good weather window and that we should fly across Cabot Strait.  Well we flew, we neglected to pay attention to the fact that there was a 60 % chance of rain, and you guessed it, it rained.  None of this lovely tropical warm rain, oh no, this was a horrid cold driving Maritime downpour. It was not fun standing our watches in the middle of the night soaking wet and cold, ah well, I guess it can't all be fun.  We landed in Port aux Basques, Nfld. and spent two nights at the public dock there.  

We hopped up the coast to Codroy, we were only going to stop there if there was no wind and we got five miles past it and the wind just died.  There was approx. 100 miles to go to the entrance of the Bay of Islands and we didn't want to motor so we did something we very rarely do and we turned around and backtracked and pulled in to the dock there.

I wanted to go to a music festival that I had read about in Port aux Basques and Barry didn't so I headed out to see if I could find it.  As I walked up the hill away from the docks I encountered a wedding which had just finished.  There were four men standing across the road with shotguns in their hands.  A lady went by and she informed me that it was a tradition in Nfld. to have shotgun weddings.  As soon as the bride appeared the men fired off round after round to celebrate the nuptials. What a treat to see this!!! After asking around I found out the music festival was more than walking distance away, so I stuck out my thumb and the nephew of the groom picked me up and went out of his way to take me to where the festival was. 

                         I love the way the actual players blend in with the backdrop. 

 Each act put on three songs and some were great and some were not, there was some great accordion playing and at one point an audience member got up and put on a great exhibition of jigging, that in itself was worth the trip there.  I had to walk a long way before I got a ride on the way home but finally a lady took pity on me. She let me off at a store and told me to ask inside for a ride, I did but no one was going my way, so I started walking again.  Then a guy that had been in the store said he figured he should give me a ride even though he was not going my way and he and his wife and I had a great chat on the way back to the boat. 

The next day we did an overnight sail up to the Bay of Islands.  It was cool but the clouds cleared and the stars were out and we had a nice 10-15 knot soueaster to blow us up the coast.  I was on watch as we approached our port and I rolled in the genoa to slow us down.  The cliffs were huge and very large and foreboding in the dark. I knew the entrance to Little Port should be there but I could not spot it in the dark and sailed circles until the dawn broke.  We wanted to go in to Corner Brook, having heard about it over the years. It just so happened that Barry was talking to a fellow on the docks and he said he was going in to town at noon and was willing to give us a ride. It was a truly scenic trip along the Humber Valley into town, it took at least 45 minutes. 

This was a sign in the Corner Brook museum, this addition of the sporting review was published in 1937, how times have changed. 

We got there and then figured, my gosh how are we going to get back!  We ended up taking a taxi, after the offer of a fellow in a bar to get us a ride fell through, it was $55.00 to get back but the view was well worth the price. 

We visited two more spots in the Bay of Islands before heading up to Bonne Bay, which is located in Gros Morne National Park. A friend of ours suggested that I put some weather and anchorage info on the blog.  I never really wanted to because this is just a personal log but I was trying to learn something about sailing around Nfld and was checking out other blogs and there was a lot of (as Barry puts it, blah, blah, blah) on the blog but not a lot of yatchie info so for our buddy, who shall remain nameless, and any other yatchie who wants the nitty gritty here it is. The rest of you can just ignore the following. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Port Aux Basques.  47*34.5 N X 59*08' W

No problem tying up at the public dock.  $15/ night, electricity,  extra $5/night. 

Showers, Laundromat $1.00/ per wash or dry,  right at dock, not open in evening.

Groceries, hardware store, bank within close walking distance. 

Codroy  47*52' N X 59*24' W

We tied up at a deteriorated dock on the breakwater because there was no room at the inner dock.  We draw about 6 feet and we only had about 1 and 1/2 feet under keel at low water. No problem though. 

Fresh water available, but you have to walk to get it.  There was no charge to tie up. 

No info on groceries. 

Little Port 49*06'.4N X 58*25'.3 W  located just outside Bay of Islands

Tied up to local dock, no charge, 8 feet at low water at the end of the dock, electricity available

Water at dock but did not use because it was discoloured. 

Toilet available but no showers, no other services close by. 

Good hiking trials very close to dock, lovely spot. 

Woods Island Harbour,  49*06'.1 N X 58*13'.1 W  in Bay of Islands

Great anchorage, almost 360 degree protection, great holding 

No services, but good shore access to some walking trails. 

North Arm Harbour,  49*11'.6 N X 57*58'.7 W in Bay of Islands

Good anchorage, good holding in 9 meters at the end of the bay, probably could have got shallower. 

No services, but it was a five waterfall bay, very quiet

Open from the southwest 

Lomond Cove,  49*27'.9 N X 57*45'.8 W in Bonne Bay, Gros Morne National Park. 

Guide says there was a 60 ft. dock.  It is no longer. 

Anchored in 8m. There is a rocky beach so worried about holding, anchor dragged awhile before catching so we put down our kellet (extra weight we put down chain to shorten scope) for more security. 

Shore access, Nat. Park Campsite here, water, shower, garbage disposal available. Nat. Park Fee should be paid. No groceries or other stores. 

Off to Nfld.

Two boats going by us on the last leg of the Race the Cape from Ingonish to our home yacht club in Sydney.  We finished the race but at times it was very challenging due to the light winds.  We kind of decided we would never race Cat's-Paw IV again unless we divested her off a lot of our "stuff" before the start.  

We are off to circumnavigate Nfld. in a few hours.  There is a good weather window with winds about 15 to 20 knots on the beam.  We should really fly. 

Race the Cape - Part II

Due to technical difficulties the post will be in two parts, the second part seems to be lost in cyber space?!? 

The next morning we had a sail past at St. Peter's to start off the festivities. 

The first leg of the race was from St. Peter's to Ben Eoin, about 26nm which can be forever in sailboat mileage when there is no wind.  We started the race at 1100 hours and the first Mark was approx. 5nm away.  We rounded that mark at 1700 hours which if you do the math is less than 1nm an hour which can be very frustrating.  We watched the spinnakers hanging from the masts like a bunch of deflated balloons, they called the race at the end of the 5 nam.  Miracles of miracles we managed to finish in third place in our division and got a lovely prize from North Sails, yippee!!

The second day of racing started off very slowly once again, but the wind switched and picked up at noon.  We raced from Ben Eoin to Baddeck.  The unique part of this leg was we had to stop, take our sails down go through a bridge which had be opened up for us and then put our sails up and restart the race.  Here we are preparing to go through the bridge. 

We had a curling buddy of mine on board for this leg.  Joanne is one the board of directors for Race the Cape and a dedicted volunteer, co-ordinating the volunteers who are driving the competitors around.  It was great to have her on board she was a great helmsman.  Here we are in Baddeck at the end of the race. 

We are having a layover day in Baddeck today.  Joanne and I went hiking to Usige Ban Falls, it was about 2.5 km enough to shake my muscles loose after the vigorous Celtic step I was attempting on the dance floor last night. Here are most of the yachts squished onto the Baddeck Yacht Club docks. 

Race the Cape

We are participating in Race the Cape, a 5 leg race around the Bras D'Or Lakes in Cape Breton, each leg is 25 - 35 mm long.  That can be a lifetime in sailing time.  The first day they called the race the at the first mark which was 5nm from the start. We started at 1100 hours and rounded the mark about 1700 hours which makes our speed less than 1nm an hour, quite painful at times.  We watched spinnakers deflate and just hang from the top of the mast like deflated balloons.  Unbelievably we managed to finish in third place in our division and get a prize, will wonders never cease!

The second evening we were in St. Peter's we went ashore to join a dock party and a Ceilah broke out.  The fiddler and the piper were pure Cape Breton, marvellous.

Back in Nova Scotia

We had a lovely day our last day in PEI.  We motored up the river to a town called Montague and lucked into Montague days.  There was free music, raft races, kids games and wonderful strawberry shortcake to be had.  

This is the view of the marina, with the stage with the free music off to the right. The next shot is of one of the homemade rafts that raced down the river, rather a unique design. 

The day after we had a great 50 nm crossing of the Northumberland Strait, which is between, PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  The wind was aft of beam at about 10 -15 knots, just about perfect.  

Here I am cleaning the stainless steel on the way from PEI to Nova Scotia, I hadn't done it yet this year and I wanted to boat to look it's best for when we go in Race the Cape, a six day race around the Bras  D'Or Lakes. 

We passed through the Canso Canal, between the Nova Scotia mainland and Cape Breton the next day and headed to Guysborough to visit our friend Kate from Yellowknife. Here we are just through the foggy locks and the bridge is swinging shut.  All traffic too and from Cape Breton had to pause for little old us, I always find that an unusual fact.  Why not make us wait until there is another boat to go through, pretty cool !! Kate is involved with the recreation department and has got a grant to run a sailing school there.  She needed some help with the light on her mast and in short order I was hanging off the top, unscrewing the light and rewiring it, putting butts on electrical wires and shrink wrapping them with a propane torch. Lucky I didn't burn myself up or drop the darn thing and brain someone down below.

We are now in St. Peter's just in the Bras D'Or Lakes after spending the night in Arichat on Isle Madame.  There we had a lovely walk down a rocky beach, just us the rocks and the waves.  Almost at the end of the beach Barry found a message in a bottle.  Someone in PEI had put it in the there in April, 2014 and asked that whoever found it let her know where and when they found it.  It was quite the coincidence the next day when I checked my e-mail to find a message from a fellow in Somalia that found the bottle I tossed in the water when we crossed the equator near the Maldives in 2011.  Who would think that the two incidences would happen so close together.   There is one more bottle I tossed in, in 2008 when we crossed the equator going to the Galapagos, I wonder if anyone will ever find it!! 

This is our passage through the St. Peter's Canal, the entrance from the Atlantic side, exiting the locks and the swing bridge still opened up after our passage. The canal was blasted out of the rock in 1869 to provide a route into the Bras D'Or Lakes from the Atlantic. Before that they used to pull boats along a portage over a road of logs to get them from one side to the other. There is a very nice Marina here with showers, laundry and acces to St. Peter's.  I just visited the German bakery and bought some yummy sunflower bread.  The festivities start tomorrow so we have some chores up our own mast to try and get done this afternoon. 

That is me being outstanding in a field of PEI potatoes on Canada Day 2015. We landed in PEI at sundown on June 30 so here we are trying to find a place to meet up with some old friends from Yellowknife, Janet and Kieth Sanderes.  This was not the lace to do it.  We got back in the dinghy and went another 500m. down the shoreline and found a spot that had a road down to the shore.  We went exploring and discovered and old church that was a very good landmark where we arranged t meet the next day.  There was also a museum close by and we learned the history d Malpeque Bay which is famous for it's oysters.  

We had a great visit with our buddies the next day, saw there big 7 bedroom house, had a lovely lunch at a local pub.  We manage to fit in some laundry and some grocery shopping.  On our way back to the boat the dinghy motor, which has refused to get better despite Mark working very hard on her, decided to quit.  It was very windy and we were about a mile and a half from the boat and there was no way we would be able to row there.  Luckily with great fore site Barry had put a spare spark plug in his backpack so while I threw out the dinghy anchor to save the hard earned distance we had already made Barry changed the spark plug.  Bless her the motor started first pull and we putted slowly to th boat,  whew!!  We will remember the hand held radio the next time we have to go any distance.  We have both agreed that our car is going to turn into a new motor.  We plan to sell said car in the middle of July, I think a reliable dinghy motor is essential !

Guess what landed in our cockpit??  When we were sailing out of Malpeque Bay a fishing boat passed fairly close by going full speed, rocking the boat quite a bit.  I didn't mind they are working folks, if it had been a pleasure boater I would have been up in arms.  Anyway, another boat up pulls up beside us and apologizes, saying those guys aren't from this harbour and they were really rude.  We thank him for saying so and he asks if we would like a lobster?  Well I tell you, you would never catch Barry or I turning them down, so he threw two f them into the cockpit.  Were they ever good, we have them with a glass of white wine for lunch as we sailed down the north Shore of PEI.  We are now in a harbour called Georgetown on the Southeast shore, it is nice and warm, almost hot and we just finished an ice cream, life is good.  We will spend another day or two on the island then head back over to Cape Breton and go through the Canso Causeway, making our way int the Bra D'Or Lakes.