Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia

I am writing from yet another excellent library, this one located in a renovated primary school. The community of Sheet Harbour has 800 people right in it and more around, so finding something free to do is quite easy: just look at the bulletin board at the Post Office! So tomorrow we shall attend a church service at a united church right beside where we are anchored in The NorthEast Arm, Sheet Harbour. Then at 3, there is a free concert at the local pub featuring more gospel, hopefully a choir. I don't have any photos just yet, sorry!
We are waiting for better wind to go to Halifax, but none is scheduled to come for four days. If we get the right wind forecasted for long enough, we must keep going, however, and make some serious tracks south! The weather patterns have featured four days of west at 25-35 knots, whew! That's a lot of days at a stretch to be socked in! But all is well on board, the skipper always seems to find great places to anchor to hide out from big wind. And I am so very glad I brought lots of nice yarn to play with! I have finished my custom-piece for Rose Haven Farm Store and have already cast on a pair of merino-alpaca socks. And they are for ME! yay.
The people we meet are so very friendly, offering rides to get provisions etc, giving us hardwood from their own pile, just being human!
We are starting to see Christmas Consumables in the stores now, even more impetous to put the jets on. Please indulge me in some low-carbon Christmas meaning: give something hand-made that you don't have to pay a lot of money for. Sometimes we are moved to give something special to a certain person, but not everyone, it's true! Let it be! The rest of us will feel great for that special someone, so don't worry about "playing favorites", it'll save you lots of time and money not having to shop out of guilt for the rest. Trust me.

Les lles de Madeleines

It's really different in Les Illes. They are so far from anywhere in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, they are able to remain true to themselves; Acadian. Deeply French. The names of people and places, their sensibilities, the way they take care of each other, even the landscape.

The first picture shows the great care people take in making sure nothing can blow away in some of the terrific winds that can blow through. If anything is left outside (rare), it is actually tied down. Although the lobster fishery seems to be alive and well, we could not afford a feed, but we have enjoyed halibut steaks, cod feesh, shrimpies and pan-fried haddie.

Picture #2 depicts the general feel of the place. House paint is bright and cheerful, cheeks are bright red like the soil and people look you in the eye to say "Bonne Journee!". #3 shows a developers' sense of humour. Or the photographers'. #4 has a church on a hill with its ubiquitous lighted cross for mariners to take a bearing and come into the harbour on.

While we waited in the harbour at L'Etang du Nord for some rather strong winds to pass, we were adopted by a retired fisherman, un pecher, and his wife. Gaston et Margot took us into the town of Cap aux Meules for groceries and to do our laundry. On Thanksgiving Monday, they came by to take us for the only forest walk on their island and a turkey dinner back at their place. With our very best french, we admired how they had such a small, sensible house for a retired couple, using small amounts of the earth's resources and such. It was not until I took a good look around that I understood they funny look on their faces. ALL the homes are small. Very small! It costs so much to ferry building supplies over that in general, most homes are very, very small. Way to go Les Illes! Make it work!

I am writing from Port Hawesbury, Nova Scotia right now. We left Les Illes (a term not unlike the way we call our own island The County) and landed in Souris, Prince Edward Island for the night, then headed here the next day. We were so long in French Speaking Canada that we began thinking and dreaming in French, so the switch back to English was rather abrupt, but we got through OK.

Now we are in yet another harbour, waiting for weather to get our heinies to Halifax. We are beginning to feel very pressed for time and are realizing we need to move a LOT faster to stay ahead of the colder weather. Also, we don't feel ready for a passage to Bermuda, and have decided to sail coastally so we can make shorter hops rather than 6-12 day passages. Autumnal instability is with us, and we are beginning to lose more days to opposing and high winds than are getting fair weather, so our motto has now become "South, south SOUTH!!"

Don't be surprised if my next story is posted from New York State!

Remember; eat locally and pay a bit more for good food, it's worth it for your health and also the well being of other Canadian families.

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!

We`re Actually in Matane

The trip has been just great so far, but right now we`re having a rain day. We decided to take a marina for a couple of days to wait for some high, opposing winds to die down. So, I am writing from the clubhouse at le Club de Yacht de Matane! It`s a rather lovely building, all wood and rafters, warmth and folks about. The best part has been the folks about. We ``fete-d`` with some of the members last night; the Commodore made us all sushi which featured the locally-caught shrimp and smoked trout, what a feed! We warmed up to our Francais, but it was good to have some help in conversation from our new friends. The club has a mascot, an Irish Spaniel named Lila. Apparently she came from Toronto and learned to speak french, too, so if she can do it, we can too! So far, no one has bust-up laghing, so it cannot be that bad!

We are in much bigger water now and have been travelling rather speedily. We averaged 6.5 knots to get here, 8 in a nice gust with just the foresail up. It`s good to make some tracks, as it`s getting a little nippy now that we`re so far north. Only a bit more Northing then we get to turn more south.

I hope you can make out the Harbour Seal in the top picture, he was pretty far away. They have a surface-profile that appears like a floating bowling ball, and they are all curious about our boat, but so far only one barked at us. We have seen Belugas feeding, you can only see their white backs as they dive. Jim saw a baby one, all grey and wrinkly in his spotty jammies, I saw one thing in mid-dive twice, really black with a dorsal fin and a pointy jaw. I looked him up and found he might be a Minky Whale. Impossible to photograph, sorry!

I`ve making a lot of soup-y stew-y meals, good food to keep warm. We have been enjoying our wood-stove as well, we bought some charcoal to help the wood off-cuts out, good dry heat.

The scenery has been spactacular, of course, worth every mile. The founders of the region have given pictoral names to some of the Cape, coves and bays. We spent two nights in Le Anse a L Orignal, Moose Cove. As we approached it more closely, you could make out a perfectly formed moose face, pushing up out of the water. We anchored between his snout and left eyeball! Alas, I was at the helm, so could not photograph it.

(This, BTW, is a french keyboard and I cannot find certain puntuation marks, so no points off for these things!)

Looking forward to the next leg, Le Gaspesie proper. The north shore has just departed from view, bigger fetch you know, must be careful of our forecast. Gotta go to a shop up the raod and get another pair of these great long johns!

The wifi is hard to come by, so you might not hear from me until we pull in to another marina, and who knows when that will be!

Also, a happy Birfday going out to Renée The Jay, a whopping 24, wow! Party-On, Née!

Montreal

This is going backwards a little, but it`s the only way to get these photos up,

These shots are of what we found romping around Montreal, busy place!

And, BTW, I am duded-up in my foul weather gear during a bit of a shower, chicken that I am. The weather has really been quite nice, the odd bit of rain.

Quebec City

Well, we came through the St. Lawrence Seaway intact, through all the big locks, passing and being passed by big, juicy freighters. Everyone behaved themselves and all were very happy. The weather had been marvellous for that stretch. It began to get a little more cloudy and cool after that, but cool weather is great for walking and touristing. Linda, the pears all ripened at ounce! We were giving them away to other boaters tied off to the Waiting-Wall! Delicious!
No pikkies today, dummy here forgot to load them onto my memory stick so when we came across a beautiful library that provides free computer/internet use, whadya know! Anyhow, we have reached one of the highlights of our trip, incredible Ville de Québec! We are anchored off Québec yacht club, still a good ½ hour walk from Bas Ville, but what a discovery. We exit the Yacht Club and find ourselves on a bike path that takes us into le Viex Port. Today, we found a great set of stairs, Les Escaliers de Cap-Blanc, that took us up to the Plains of Abraham. We then noodled our way to a tourist bureau, looking for directions to the closest library, where a young gentleman told us he was not allowed to give non-tourist info, and besides, he said, it was too far a walk from here. So we asked a group of young people on the street where the library was. It was almost around the corner! Those young folks, incidentally, were promoting alternatives in transportation with fossil-fuel conservation in mind, way to go, les jeunes!
So here we are in one of the most unusual libraries we have ever been in, it was originally St. Matthew's Church, built in 1772. The alter, baptistry and Choir are off limits and still intact. The vault is all wood, quite lovely. Then there all the library stacks, racks and bits that are rather utilitarian, being that office-putty colour.
Montreal was great, too. We anchored off La Ronde park and had a beautiful view of La Grande Ville, complete with the lighted cross on Mt. Royale.
If we wait out a nasty north wind here, I`ll come back and fill the blanks in with some photos.
The next leg of our journey will take us through much wider water, smaller towns and mountainous regions. We learned that Quebec has a burgeoning cruise-ship tours industry, little doubt why. If any of you need a four-day getaway, this is indeed the place! Find the cheapest auberge you can, (maybe there is a hostel here?) and walk around for a few days.
A plustard!

Iroquois Marine Service boatyard.

A very calm day on the St. Lawrence. We were going to anchor off Brockville two nights ago, but it was so busy with jet-skiis, fishing boats that we decided to keep going on to Prescott. I am so glad we did! What a pretty waterfront, complete with downtown farmer's market, a many-kilometered walkway that could take you to either end of town and then some, and some interesting things going on. We anchored off the old town wall, away from the jet-ski-crowd, but not far enough from the trains, freighters and walkers. While enjoying our cocktails at sunset, we heard a small comotion in the water and looked to see a person swimming across the river, complete with fins and a waterproof bag on his head. Hmm. The next day took us into Iroquois yard, where we hauled Pilger and commenced painting her bottom. Jim had contacted some old friends, who joined us just this evening. Gerry & Judith plus Gratton Sheely, both parties shared with us their experiences of sailing this route. Got some good anchorages, towns to visit and seafood in season. It was an extension of last Sunday!

Oh, and by the way, Linda, the pears are wrapped in newspaper, not ripe yet. We are ripening them slowly.

A fancy shot of the Prescott Municipal marina. The lighthouse has a beautiful Fresnel lens.

And here's yours truly in the galley. See the sprout-locker behind me? Full of good things! We are enjoying our partial-raw diet, feeling pretty good. Lotsa energy! For you recipe-addicts, this salad has julienned carrots, zucchini, thinly-sliced red onion, grated garlic, sprouted mung-beans, fennel & radish. Dressing is juice from one lime, grape-seed oil, salt & pepper and a wee hint of ginger. Nothing fancy. I prepare food like this twice a day, every day, so I can say that practice makes perfect.

Today was much cooler, so we enjoyed a soup that featured sauteed onion, carrot & celery, thyme, grated garlic, & potatoes. Add a bit of water to cover, simmer veg until cooked. Add some fresh diced tomatoes, basil and whatever other seasoning you like, bring back to simmer. Add beans that have been soaked a sprouted two days or so, just until the wee roots form. Steam very lightly, serve immediatly. Yummy! And the sprouted beans & seeds have a different nutritional make-up than cooked beans, they deliver protein that is much easier to digest, plus includes all the right enzymes to further aid better digestion. And they cause less flatulence.

I am sure Erika Wolff won't mind me sharing her website with you all: http://www.powerofraw.com/ , she has some beginner's recipes and some useful info. She specializes in workshops and has those workshops in Prince Edward County. I was very glad to get a book she reccommended, Living Cuisine, by Renee Loux Underkopplfler.

Tuesday, we get launched again and head right out for a two day trek to Montreal, can't wait!