Summerside, Prince Edward Island

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Prince Edward Island lived up to its image.  It gentle, bucolic landscape provided a soothing counterpoint to the rugged terrain we were in just last week.

We arrived at the Silver Fox Yacht Club in Summerside on Friday, August 8 after a beautiful cruise from Excumiac.  It’s amazing that we didn’t see another boat except for Diva Di in our 6.5 hour cruise! We did see a couple of playful seals though!

There was a brief period of excitement as we encountered some particularly rolly seas.  A loud bang from down below indicated that the sliding door to our cabin had not been secured and it slammed shut making it impossible to get into the cabin and second head.  This had occurred before and all we had to do was open it and put the pin in the door to keep it open.  This time, however, something had fallen and wedged the door so it couldn’t be opened.  We took turns coming down from the helm to try to reach inside to jiggle the door open and push the offending object away using everything from spatulas to our boat hook with no success.

We decided to leave it alone and deal with it later.  After an hour or two, we heard another bang and hurried below to find that the situation had righted itself and the door was open.  Next repair job for Jonny is to install a new latch in the closet door, the absence of which exacerbated the problem.

We proceeded to have two beautiful days touring Prince Edward Island in the rental car with Duane and Diane.  On day one, we headed west and visited several small towns in the southwestern and northwestern parts of the island. Everywhere we went, we saw dairy and potato farms and surrounding the island, the sea.  Flowers adorned most of the houses and attractions across the island.  And everywhere we went we saw the red soil for which PEI is so well known.

We learned about the Acadian culture in PEI at a museum dedicated to Acadian people and their history. It’s a fascinating story, captured in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called Evangeline which we are reading aloud together in the evenings.  The Acadians settled into PEI in the early 1700’s  but were forced into exile by the British and their villages were destroyed.  It was not until many years later that they were allowed to return and settle in very specific areas on the island.

 

Lynn decided to read Anne of Green Gables, the classic book series that takes place on PEI. The evocative descriptions of PEI whetted her appetite for seeing the island even more.  Anne of Green Gables is a major tourist draw on the island with plays and references to the story everywhere.  We went to Cavendish where the story largely takes place a (under a different name) and had a nice seafood lunch.  We managed to miss the real touristy part of this town and  proceeded over the gently rolling hills to Charlottetown.

Charlottetown is the biggest town on the island and its provincial capital.  It’s a beautiful town with interesting architecture, lots of theatres, restaurants and shops as well as nicely maintained historic streets to walk through.  Charlottetown is noted for being the city where the federation of Canada was first negotiated and signed.  There were several references to this as well as  people dressed in period costume who engaged us in conversation about the controversy associated with that historical event.  There was an interesting art project in which the artist was covering every inch of a huge piece of American elm with galvanized nails.  The city reminded us of a smaller version of Burlington, Vermont without all the outdoor clothing stores! It would have been nice to stay at the marina here but unfortunately its reviews were not as favorable as the one in Summerside .

On the way back to the boat, we also visited the seaside hamlet of Victoria.  There are many cultural activities on PEI with almost every town hosting its own little theatre.

On Sunday, we headed out to explore the eastern part of the island.  We visited the towns of St. Peter’s and Souris (mouse in French).  There, we heard a Sunday afternoon concert in the gazebo in the tiny town center.

  Again, we passed beautiful open vistas of potato and dairy farms with occasional corn fields thrown in for good measure.  Lynn just gazed out the window lapping up the pastoral beauty!

We visited the Prince Edward Distillery.  It is owned by two women, one of whom used to live in Florida.  They produce award winning spirits including potato vodka, gin, rye, bourbon and rum.  One of the owners gave us a tour which was fascinating and of course we got to taste the merchandise.  We limited ourselves to buying a bottle of their gin which had won the highest honors of all.  Their potato vodka was also very good!  Interesting fact - it takes 18 pounds of potatoes to make one bottle of this vodka (and no, it doesn’t taste like potatoes and it is very good)!

 

For lunch we stopped at a seaside restaurant called – what else – The Lobster Shack!  It was a beautiful setting and a very yummy lunch of lobster rolls! 

We topped off the day with a return visit to Charlottetown where we encountered a fire that was just being extinguished near the historic district.  We treated ourselves to a fried clam dinner but were a little disappointed that they did not live up to our standards (which are very high since we both grew up on the Connecticut coastline that is know for its fried clams – bellies, of course).

We had a jolly evening back at the marina bar sharing drinks with our Vancouver pals, Max and Pat.  The next morning, Jonny changed the oil on Zendo  while Lynn did  grocery shopping and laundry.  A special note of thanks to  Fred and Ken, the previous owners of Zendo. They have been an invaluable resource to us throughout the trip.   They are always available to help with any questions we have about the boat.  

We made our final preparations  before heading out for an anchorage on our way to Nova Scotia. We clearly had a lovely time in beautiful Prince Edward Island! 

Escuminac, New Brunswick

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We left Miramichi (pronounced Mira me shee with the accent on the last syllable) bound for a little fishing harbor called Escuminac on August 6.  This would be our last stop in New Brunswick as we need to maintain our schedule now that we are more than halfway through our trip! 

We delayed our departure until 12:30 so we would catch the current on the Miramichi River.  We needed to follow it out to the inner then outer Miarmichi bays for the  four hour trip to Escuminac.  This will set us up for the long  cruise to Prince Edward Island on the following day.  We passed under this bridge as we left the river.

The harbor at Escuminac was quite different from anywhere we had been before.  It is home to the largest inshore fishing fleet in the Gulf region and is one of the more remote harbors.  However, by the end of July most of those boats have moved on to other  harbors and all that remains are smaller fishing boats.  The harbor is owned and run by the the  collective of fisherman and they charge a nominal dockage fee (a whopping $9.00 total for us)!  It is very much a working marina, not advertised or set up for the public so there were no amenities and we were fine with that.   Diva Di arrived first and were directed to tie up at the wall.   We arrived a bit later wanting to get fuel, but the attendant was not available at the time so we, too, tied up at the wall. 

The wall where we were tied up was piled high with lobster traps,  each section along the wall had at least 50 traps with each of those sections marked with a different color.  Apparently the lobster boats load their distinctively colored trips on their boats when they go out and place them and collect them. 

We had read that there was a fish market at the harbor as well as  place to get terrific fried clams.  We were up for the latter, but alas, the canteen that sold them was not open.  The fish market was open and they had the best looking fresh caught lobster that you can imagine.  We bought two of them and Duane and Diane bought three!  Lynn had to rush to get them before the market closed and the big black clouds indicating an approaching storm arrived.

In the meantime, the harbor office had contacted the harbor master who was going to drive back from Miramichi (a 45 minute drive compared to our 4 hour cruise!) but we told her not to bother as the storm was coming and our fuel needs were not dire.

There were several fisherman hanging out either fishing near the harbor or getting their boats cleaned up for the evening.  Again, everyone was extremely friendly and curious about our boat and travels. 

That evening we had our first lobster dinner of the trip on board and it was a real treat!

Afterwards, Jonny, the eternal extravert, made his rounds of the harbor and chatted up everyone he met.  A bit later we received a call from the harbormaster who had driven back to the marina to sell us fuel.  We moved the boat over to the fuel dock (unfortunately dinging the swim platform as we tried to exit our tight docking space).  She and more of the fishermen eagerly engaged us in the time it took to fuel up.  It turned out we needed a lot more diesel than we expected and we were very happy to fill our tanks here as these were the lowest prices we had encountered in Canada thus far.

The impending storm passed us by and left us with a beautiful sunset.  We were able to stay overnight at the fuel dock since we planned to leave at 6 a.m. the following morning for the 11 hour crossing to Prince Edward Island. 

Ritchie Wharf, Miramichi, New Brunswick

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The Miramichi River and coastal villages that line it made for a very picturesque side trip.  On August 4  we left our “exciting” anchorage at the Baie du Vin which is at the entrance of the Miramichi for the four hour cruise up this lovely river.  This area is much flatter that the Gaspesie but still very pretty.  Several small villages combined in recent years to make up the town of Miramichi.  

Along the way we had to stop for our periodic pump out.  Out of the three possible stops, only two had pump out stations and the one we were planning to stay at did not.  The first one we stopped at did not have an attachment that fit the hose so after topping off our fuel tanks, we moved to the next one which did have the right attachment.   While awaiting  the dockhand, we met two very friendly guys who helped us dock and took a great interest in our boat.  So of course, Jonny invited them on board for a tour.  One was a Canadian firefighter who had some interesting stories to tell.

Afterwards, we headed the short distance to Ritchie Wharf where we spent the night at the free dock near the center of town.  There, we found a charming little village and extremely friendly people.  It should be noted that New Brunswick is the only official  bilingual province in Canada.  But there are some areas that are more predominately French speaking and others that are primarily English speaking.  The Miramichi River area is very much English speaking so it’s easy for us to communicate again!

We took a walk into the village with Duane and Di and stopped for lunch at a local restaurant.  We learned about Miramichi’s Folksong Festival that was taking place this week with a special event on the night we were staying.  Finally, our timing was working out!  We bought tickets to the evening’s event.

Our boats were big attractions on the wharf and many people stopped by to admire them.  Duane took Clyde for a walk which never ceases to amaze us.  One especially friendly man offered Duane and Di the use of his car for any errands they needed to run!

After a quick and delicious new preparation of our donated mackerel, we hurried over to the folk festival that was taking place in the local performance space.

 

What a great evening!  This is the 58th Miramichi Folksong Festival, Canada’s longest standing folk festival.  The event consisted of 11 different performances.  Many of them were from the Miramichi area and all but one, Canadian.  They each performed three or four folk songs of different types from local traditional pieces to Irish and Scottish numbers.  Many of the performers composed and performed their own songs.  We were very impressed by their performances.  The event was organized and hosted by a charismatic woman named Susan Butler who has been directing it for 33 years!  During her introduction, she noted the audience members who were from areas outside of Miramichi and she pointed us out as folks from Florida traveling on a boat.  During the intermission, several audience members came up to us and enthusiastically welcomed us to their town and asked about our trip.  The highlighted performers were a family from Ontario known as The Ballagh Bunch from Ontario.  They were especially outstanding and included six members who  sang, played violin, keyboard, guitar, drums and performed Irish step dancing!

The next day we stayed at the wharf until noon doing boat chores and the like.  There was a great lighthouse at the end of the wharf and a very cool ship’s standing rigging  mounted on the parkland next to the waterfront.  A playground and collection of historical cabins were also located adjacent to the wharf.  Lynn explored those cabins which included a historic  photographic exhibit (including pictures of Queen Elizabeth and King George during their two visits to the area).   Visiting this quaint area was a real treat and gave us a wonderful feel for the local villages and warm people of New Brunswick.

Shippegan, New Brunswick

Do two days of early morning departures constitute a pattern?  We left even earlier on August 3 with the intention of taking advantage of calmer waters in the morning. This time we departed our fishing port dockage at 6:10 a.m.!  But again, around 10:30  the wind and seas started to pick up as we crossed the Bay of Chaleur heading for our first stop in New Brunswick.  

We entered the Shippegan Channel which is known to have strong tidal currents and  extensive mudflats at low tide.  Shippagan is derived from the Micmac Indian language  and it means “passageway for ducks.”

We made our way into the harbor  and secured a good spot on a floating dock.  The marina was next to a lighthouse, a museum and even a cemetery!

Our primary task for the afternoon was to add data time to our Canadian phone card.  This was proving to be very difficult because both the phone and on-line service was not user friendly.  With the help of the dock hand and a friendly English speaking gentleman visiting the dock, Jonny was finally able to add the needed time.  The thing that frustrates us more than anything is the challenge of technology, whether it is adding data time, Lynn’s inability to text Stephanie on her I phone (when she can text everyone else with an I phone) or loading and categorizing pictures for our blog.  But, as Jonny likes to say, these are first world problems.  And we really have nothing to complain about!

Afterwards, we walked around the town a bit but many things were closed because it was New Brunswick Day.

Duane and Diane invited us for a very delicious dinner of fresh mussels on board Diva Di and we spent some time talking about our plans for the next couple of days where we’ll be exploring some of the highlights of coastal New Brunswick.