Newfoundland 2015, St. Pierre to Fortune, NL
05 August 2015 | Fortune, Newfoundland & Labrador
Next morning bright and early I made Dave take me over to the bakery in the dingy so I could stock up, even though it was once again a bit rainy.
As I climbed up the ladder to the street my head popping up with a Newfoundland sou'wester strapped on it startled a woman walking by. She jumped, but relaxed when I smiled and waved. Bread, croissants and a couple of cinnamon pastries and two little pizzas for lunch and I was good to go. Back to the boat where we discovered that the winch for raising the dingy was no longer working. Well, it will have to be towed behind us until it can be replaced. Of course Dave had a replacement aboard as he knew it was on it's last legs.
We headed out of St' Pierre letting the harbour master know we were leaving. It was very thick fog with visibility around 50 feet so we went slow with our AIS and radar set to warn us, and both sets of eyes on the lookout. I barked our horn every 2 minutes as per regulations in fog and we had our running lights and bow lights on.
We had wanted to see Cap Pierce and the long beach causeway and Miquelon and were counting on the fog lifting, which it did just as we approached the cape with the hole in it. Dave got some enchanting shots and then we traveled up the spit and saw the majestic shores of Miquelon. it is very different in landscape than St' Pierre, rounder and more meadows. Like the south of France I thought.
Having completed our 'Tour d'France" we headed back towards Newfoundland munching croissants and sipping coffee.
We passed flocks of tickle-asses (kittewakes) and gannets, puffins and Turrs (murrs) and at 1:08 passed back into Canadian waters under motor as we were right into the light winds. I could smell the pizzas Dave was heating up for lunch and knew I was going to miss the food, but was also aware that I would soon be 200 pounds if I stayed there.
We arrived in Fortune and pulled up to the government dock to tie up. Despite me waving to a man standing by his car, he ignored me and did not offer to come and catch my lines, so off I jumped from the boat onto the dock with the bow line, got it tied and ran back to catch the stern line from Dave. Then the two spring lines and motor off. It aught to be an Olympic sport this docking business. Give me a moor or an anchor any time!
We found our way up to the customs office, fastidiously ignoring the man who was now waving a greeting. After trying a few doors we found one that was the right one and headed up the stairs with our passports. The customs officer asked what we had bought in France and we told him. We mentioned groceries and I said cheese and Dave said peaches. Uh Oh. We were not allowed to bring any produce back. 'But they are Ontario peaches!' I said. 'Sorry Ma'am, but once they are in another country you cannot bring them back.' I was NOT going to talk about any other produce.
Half the basket of peaches accidentally fell into my pots and pan drawer on their way up to customs. I did not notice how that happened.
We did not mention the cat. Enough said.
Dave needed to use a drill for the plate to install the new winch and we asked one of the customs people if we could use a plug there. It was fine as long as we were gone before the ferry came in from St. Pierre, but none of the plugs worked so we decided to go and dock at the marina and use one of their plugs. It was pretty shallow, with three floating docks and lots of boats, but we found a spot on the end of an outside floating dock where Dave could plug in. The Harbour Master Kerry came down to see what we were up to, and let us use the spot. 'If you're still here in the morning I'll charge you then'. We noticed a boat with a family on the dock beside us, and people coming and going on all docks. Busy place! We later talked to the family, American, from Oregon, and found out they were heading to Ireland. They had been waiting for a good weather window and while waiting had found they loved sailing in Newfoundland. They were ready to leave in the morning for Ireland though, We wished them good weather.
I checked the water to find that our water had gone bad. We must have picked up some bad water somewhere along the way. No wonder I was not wanting to drink it! Yuck! This meant we were staying the night, so I called the Harbour Master to tell him. I went up looking for water and found out that water was on the other docks but not this one. A truck pulled up with a man and woman. She told me that there was good drinking water from a pipe up the road, not understanding what I was asking. her husband did though and suggested that I raft to his boat as he had a hose there. 'The water is good, it's drinkable' He told me. 'and there is plenty of depth here for you to come in.'
I went back around to tell Dave the situation and saw the man I was talking to on the other dock showing us taps all along it. "Easier for you to just come in here if you have a hose' he called across the water.
So we took Mysti-cal over to the next dock and brought her in front of a French Sailboat with two fellows on it. I began the task of emptying the tanks and scrubbing them out with bleach, and refilling them. The port tank was in close quarters and required Dave's lithe figure to fit in there for that cleaning!
They had laundry, wifi and showers here too so we decided to take care of all that we needed to in the morning. I was going to start a load before supper but found out that we had to walk all around the boat yard, a half hour walk there and back, and it was late and we were tired. A dingy ride for two minutes in the morning made more sense. We made a quick dinner of cod stew and baguette and went to bed.