Monday morning we called St. Pierre tourism to ask about having a cat on board, where to go and what the procedure would be. She (Vanina) said she would call around to the sailing school and ask the sailors there what they recommended for us. I had forgotten Kato's papers, but could have had them e-mailed, except Monday was a Canadian holiday. We decided together with Vanina that it is better to come and deal with it there. She said that they were very accommodating and suggested we have our vet email the information to her in the morning and she would help us with that. Worst case is they say we have to leave. She told us where to go in the harbour and suggested mooring, which is our preference to docking. So much easier, more private, and Kato can have free run of the boat. She said come right in and look for yellow mooring balls by the sailing school
We stayed in St. Lawrence a bit later to get to a grocery and hardware store, see some sights and such before we took in the lines and headed over to France.

The Sun was shining today but the winds were right on our nose coming from the south-west so there was no point in bringing the sails out unless we planned to take three times as long to get there by tacking back and forth, zigzagging our way. Not today. We just wanted to get there and enjoy the beautiful coastline while the sun was shining.

I noticed something in the water, floating on the surface and as we got closer it looked like a dead dolphin. We circled back to identify it, using the tracking I had on the ipad to return to the spot I had seen it, but as we got closer we saw it struggling to submerge and decided to get out of it's way. It had a better chance of survival if our motor was not panicking it, as we did not have the facilities nor the know-how to tend to it's needs. It was not entangled, so we had nothing to offer except to leave it in peace, which we did,

We passed out of Canadian waters and into French territory with puffins and gannets, hagdowns, shags and tickle-asses bobbing along beside us.

As we came close to the channel marker at the entrance to the harbour we were hailed on our VHF. "Mysti-Cal, Mysti-Cal, Mysti-Cal This is St. Pierre Harbour Authority'
They must have picked up our AIS, looked up who we were and seen that we were from Ontario and used english.

The shore line looked like a picture postcard with the pretty colourful houses surrounding the steepled church, green grass and blue sky perfect. I noticed greenhouses and commented that I had wondered why there were not more greenhouses in Newfoundland. If I lived there I sure would have them.

As we came around the corner the city centre emerged with climbing cobbled streets and close-together houses painted a variety of colours, perk and pretty all in rows. I had a feeling we were going to enjoy this place.

We were told to come right into the harbour, but t was not clear to us where to go. Dave wanted to go to the right, and I wanted to go left, where I saw a sailboat coming out. I was circling around while Dave made up his mind what to do when Harbour Authority came on the VHF again.

"Mysti-Cal, Mysti-Cal, Mysti-Cal This is St. Pierre Harbour Authority. Come right in to your left, Do you see those red markers? Follow them in.'

Dave explained that we were looking for the mooring balls, and he said 'Yes,yes,yes.. take the white on the far end, it is big enough for your boat.' Obviously he had already taken all the information from our AIS. So in we went as I tried to navigate us to the mooring ball. The wind kept blowing me away from it and Dave did not see a rope on the block with the metal T shaped piece on top, so we tried the next one that had a line attached. This time I was at the bow to grab the line and Dave took the wheel. We were struggling with the wind when again we heard "Mysti-Cal, Mysti-Cal, Mysti-Cal This is St. Pierre Harbour Authority. Customs want you to go to the official dock."

We had been hoping to avoid this. So we headed over to the dock where three uniformed men took our lines and tied us up. They came aboard and we explained about the cat. Papers would have made no difference as we needed a health certificate from within 5 days, but they said as long as we kept Kato on board it was not a problem. They were very courteous and helpful and soon we were cleared. The harbour master was on the dock and he introduced himself and explained that they do not leave lines on the buoys as if the ropes broke they would be responsible. If we use our own, we are. 'People like to sue' he told us. He explained that we were to wrap the bow line around the T and tie it off. We had never seen moors like this before so were grateful for the instructions. He called immigration for us as we needed to check in with them as well as customs and told us they said not to worry about it tonight, they would check us in, in the morning, so off we went to secure Mysti to her new French quarters. Kato was so happy to be able to run around outside on the boat. We had kept him tightly tied in the aft cabin during our boarding by customs.

We had expected to be in much earlier as it was already 6;30. Dave wanted a cold beer and asked what we had planned for supper. I looked at him incredulously. I had no intention of eating aboard at all while we were here. No cooking. Galley cook was on strike for the next two days.
I did let him have a beer before we dinghy-ed to shore to look for a place to eat. Some of the places we had read about were closed already. I wanted a casual place as I had planned to take Dave out for a fancy Birthday dinner the next night. His birthday was not until the 12th, but I figured this was THE place to have a special dinner.

We took the dingy over and found a corner of a dock by where the tourist information and a few restaurants were listed in the book the harbour master gave us. We tied to a ladder that was a 6 -10 foot climb, depending on tide levels. The one we had read about was closed and we did not have our bearings. so we basically ended up following our nose to a small hotel, Hotel Robert.

The tables were kind cafeteria style, very casual but clean. I ordered a seafood stew and salad Dave ordered salmon and fries with grilled vegetables. We looked out the window and saw that we were right across from Mysti-Cal who was happily holding Kato aboard.

A young couple beside us were contemplating dessert as they used the internet access the hotel provided. We exchanged hellos and found they were from St. John's, as her family were having a Grand Banks reunion and they took the opportunity to come over for a little holiday. As we have found of the Newfoundlanders we had met, they were friendly, genuine and forthcoming.

When the waiter came with our simple supper, but what I got was a bowl with a variety of seafood and vegetables in a tomatoey, cheesy sauce that was so delicious I involuntarily moaned out loud. Dave had a similar look on his face. What is it with the French chefs? The salad was a root vegetable salad that was fresh and delicious. Dave's grilled veggies were seasoned with fresh herbs and the salmon was crispy on the outside and juicy tender inside. I really wanted desert but was so full from supper I couldn't. The St' John's couple took their dessert to their room above and we said goodnight.

Well satisfied we strolled around the lower streets and then Origami took two sailors home to sleep in the gently rocking waves.