PORT HAWKESBURY

Thursday, July 31

We left Pictou early, destination Park Hawkesbury.  Half of the trip was smooth, the second half was rough with 3-5 foot waves about 3 seconds apart.  Not fun!   We see little traffic in these waters.  At the big Canso Canal which brings us from the Northumberland Straight to the Atlantic Ocean, there was no traffic and we breezed thru the lock.   There was a marina there, we tied up, but couldn't get fuel as they only take cash!!  We did go to the bank and got some more Canadian money but didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars in cash to fuel up.  We'll be okay until the next stop.

We had thought about going from Port Hawksbury into the Bras D'Or lakes, which some people say is beautiful, and others were less enthusiastic.  Given the recurring engine issues we have, we decided to keep heading south.  The small marina here is a nice facility, but very quiet, only about half full with few transient boats, not much around the area.  We'll be up and off early!

PICTON

Wednesday, July 30, we had calmer waters and a nice day to make the trip from Summerside to Pictou, a picturesque village we never got to explore.  Across the bay from Pictor was a big plant of some kind, maybe a paper mill (?), from which a great amount of steam emerged -- at first I couldn't tell if it was smoke, or what -- and when we pulled into the dock, it was raining pretty hard.  The power at the dock didn't work, it kept tripping the breaker, the water on the dock wasn't potable and we needed water, the wifi was broken, and the restaurant at the dock didn't have very good food.  Plus the dock was very rocky.  Although we had thought we might spend a day or two here, we left early the next morning.   Not a great stop for us but from what I have read, its a nice town, too bad we didn't get a chance to see much of it.

SUMMERSIDE & CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Saturday to Wednesday, July 26 to July 30

Left Shediac and came into Summerside about 4 hours later, docking at the Silver Fox Marina.  Summerside is the 2nd largest town on PEI, had some lunch and walk around some.  The forecast is for very windy weather & rain, for the next few days, so we may be here for awhile.   We had one of the bicycles fixed, went to a brief practice at the Pipers College, and rented a car to go to Charlottetown, where we took a horse and buggy tour around the town, and we took a walk around the town as well.  We went down to the docks there to check out the Marinas, and were glad the boat was in Summerside -- Charlottetown docks not nearly as well protected as the Silver Fox Marina.

windy weather

seas were more choppy than this picture indicates

The Silver Fox Marina, Summerside

Summerside boardwalk and view stand

small museum, it was closed

Charlottetown closes down on Sunday

closed on Sunday

not sure what this big wharf is for

waterfront shopping area

on the way to Charlottetown

the 1864 confederation meeting united the Canadian provinces

Charlottetown has many beautiful homes and buildings, many of which we saw on our horse and wagon tour

didn't see any of Anne of Green Gables

nice lunch here

GASPE TO SHIPPIGAN TO SHEDIAC - NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIGHT

The Northumberland Strait is the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence,  between Prince Edward Island on the north and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the south.    On Thursday,  July 24, we left Gaspe early and turned south.  Passed Tom and Anne on Anne's Odyssey and shortly we passed the famous Perce Rock.   The wind died to almost flat calm and we made a long run to Shippigan and pulled into the Shippigan Marina, a nice small marina -- no one around.  There was a restaurant and an acquariam at the marina, both looked interesting but we didn't expect to be around very long and Michael had another o-ring replacement to do.  

The countryside is beautiful and our trip is very picturesque

Below are pictures from Perce Rock, the hole was made by waves, it is a big tourist attraction and at times you can walk out to this rock.  If you look in Wikipedia, you can learn a lot about Perce Rock, much to much to enter here

On Friday, July 25, we left Shippigan through the Shippigan Gully,  under the lift bridge, and into Northumberland Straight.  A beautiful calm day and we decided to travel to Shediac, some 90 miles, at our new slow cruising speed -- because of the o-ring problem.arkast.  At least we are saving money on fuel.   Navigated our way into Shediac on very low tide.   Nice Marina,  $55 with power, friendly group at the dock, many people stopped by to say hello and ask where we're from.  Didn't get to see the giant lobster  as we didn't walk down to where it was, but we did have some lobster rolls.  Cajun band playing downtown at park

Lift bridge - Shippigan Gully to Northumberland Straight

Beautiful calm day, saw lots of whales

Giant lobster statue at Shediac

Dolphin fountain in park, Shediac 

AU REVOIR MON AMIS, LACKING WIFI

For the first time in a week we have good enough wifi to actually do something but unfortunately do not have the time to work the blog.  I am giving up for awhile, if I can catch up off-line and get another good shot of wifi, I'll try to resume.  In the meantime, au revoir!

(and we're both sick of French -- you always hear "oh but everyone speaks english" about the French Canadians -- don't believe it.  Once you get out of Quebec city,  you might as well speak martian.  Today we made it to Shippagan, New Brunswick, maybe we will start hearing english, and read a newspaper!

GASPE

We took advantage of a flat calm day to run 80 miles from St. Anne to Riviere Renard -- then before entering that harbor, we decided to go a bit further and ran a total of 122 miles to Gaspe -- 8.5 hours. The day was cloudy, and right after we pulled into the gas dock it started to pour, and really came down hard for awhile.

Great small harbor at Gaspe, at the end of Gaspe Baie

Small museum we visited, learned some of Gaspe's history

Big plaza in Gaspe, at the waterfront, there was music or some other
kind of entertainment each night, mostly local musicians, free for everyone

Gaspe rainbow

 I was sitting in the cockpit relaxing and suddenly noticed there was a truck partially submerged
and still sinking -- quite quickly,  it completely disappeared; somehow the brake wasn't set on the launching ramp and in the water it went.  Shortly later they pulled it out, though it must have been
ruined.  Almost brand new trick.  Excitement at the marina.

Such things are big events in the life of a cruiser.

Gaspe was a nice visit, its a pleasant small town, a lovely bay, and it was nice spending a few days here.   We walked around the town and visited some shops and restaurants, did our laundry, looked at boats.  Tom and Ann Rank, who are doing the downeast loop on their boat Anne's Odyssey showed up.