Ste. Anne de Mont

While visiting Matane, we were told by good authority that Matane is, indeed, the center of the world. 4000 miles from Panama, 4000 miles from Vancouver, 4000 miles from Europe and serving up the best shrimp in the world. After a couple of Boreal Extra-Fort, we were believers!

Pierre Morel drew the map, pictured on the previous post, the depicts our route henceforth.

I am writing now from Ste. Anne de Mont in the Havre Polyvalent, hating to spend the money to tie-off for the night, but there are no road-side places to anchor, and no more coves for a while. So we get to meet more people and have hot showers, there are benefits.

Yesterday, while sailing along from Matane to Ste. Anne, I was at he helm while we passed between two mountains. The 20 knot wind focused there into 30 and by then it was too late to bring our huge mainsail down. But we tried anyway. *snap* went the boom! After we came out of that wee spot, the wind died down considerably, and there we were! Needing a huge sail, but not having one. We were planning on comming into this harbour anyhow, so we arrived and Jim made the repair. I made some yummy raw-hummus and we had a big snack, then strolled the boardwalk through the town. Methinks the government has invested big bucks in these farflung places to keep them attractive to us tourists. The harbour itself is in good shape, the facilities look brand-new. The boardwalk itself looked new, too. There was an Artists Work-Day here, this past summer, and there are sculptures and installments on the walkways. My favorite is the "Sunburst". The second photo is of "The world's largest vertical-axis wind turbine" at Cap-Chat. There has been farm after farm of tubines, spinning away on the mountains. The last shot is of La Knorr, a Viking replica that actually made a historic voyage from Europe to Labrador.

It's really been great so far.

For today, we shall put the cured boom back, bake some bread and catch up with communication with you all, seeing how this is the first time I can use my own laptop and the wi-fi actually works! "Talk" with you all soon!