Life on the road is one new experience followed by another. You never know what to expect. It's like befriending a new colleague that you want to see succeed. You give a little and take little and it creates situations that you gain more together than apart. Symbiosis.

What do we have to give to new strangers we meet? It depends. Take the marina staff and residents at Cap L 'Aige who only speak French as they are deep in Quebec in a tiny marina along the st lawrence river on the way from Quebec City to Tadoussac and the very famous Saguenay Marine Parc. It's the only stop that is a day away from QC by boat and they only speak French so French it is. We got an excellent language book while we were in Cleveland, French for cruisers by Cathy Parsons. It gives you conversational French from the perspective of a cruiser. We had been tipped off this marina was French speakers only so we had QC marina call ahead for a reservation so they knew the Yanks were on the way. Once underway the main form of communication is VHF radio which as I've mentioned is like the old party lines that hard lined phones used to have in remote areas. Once we got close Pamela and I went through exactly what we needed to say to tell them who we are and what we need. Her looking it up and writing it down so I can say it and work on the pronunciation. We'd go back and forth, her saying it and me repeating it in the cockpit underway laughing our asses off and how bad my french is.

Once we got close the weather turned to dense fog and really a misty rain so made our radar nearly useless as it shows rain as a target. When we got about 1 mile out I radioed in in my best French ( I crucified the pronunciation) who I was and that we needed a slip. A response came out of the mist acknowledging our intent. I stretched my legs and tried to ask for assistance in docking as the winds were up as were the waves more than anything that could make our arrival tricky. I think I used some spanish and threw in a little english to my poor, poor french. The response? Oiu. The foggy mist lifted at the last possible moment to reveal the rocky entry that required an immediate starboard turn at entry to get behind the break wall with a quick U turn to arrive at the location of the assembled three people at the dock to help with our lines. It was too tight to make the turn so I got the bow over to the dock and Pamela handed off the line and they walked it up the dock to complete the turn with a little engine assistance. Turns out it was the marina manager and two other locals I figured heard my plea for assistance over the VHF. We thanked them profusely including a high five offered by a 65+ man who was thrilled to have accomplished the feat given the trying conditions. Our arrival was clearly the most exciting thing that has happened in the marina for weeks as the boating season is coming to an end in the north.

Our next stop in Tadoussac had a similar VHF conversation as we arrived with the exception of after I stumbled through my request for a slip, sweet Sean the dock hand responded in perfect English. When we met in person and I apologized for my terrible French he said, no problem, he only responded in English as he detected a small accent! Hah! We laughed together and he told me that his Mom was American and he took every opportunity to use his English. Symbiosis.

When we arrived at our next stop on the South shore of the St Lawrence in Rumouski we arrived at high tide. When I asked for assistance with our dock lines the response came that they were unable to assist as they were busy taking out boats at the end for the season and were taking advantage of the tide and had to move fast while they could. When we entered and came to the assigned slip here came two residents, a husband and a wife who had overheard our request and the dock manager's reply sprinting out to catch our lines and land us safely. Turns out they are new residents of the marina and passed along some excellent suggestions about making time on the rest of our voyage through Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. I thanked them and encouraged their boating aspirations and they told us we were living their dream. The next day we met a nice young man, Nick who was summer help and was going to college. We asked him if he knew if our next stop, Matane may be able to be entered at high tide as it was said in our guide that it was not possible for our draft. His response? His sister, Sophie was the yacht club manager in Matane and he would call her right away and ask. Turns out we could and she gave us the times we could enter and we left timing it per her instructions so as not to have had to stay at the commercial fish wharf on the hook as that was our other option. He was so pleased to have been able to help and we were so pleased to know an English speaker from Halifax was at Matane to meet us.

We arrived at Matane later that afternoon at the appointed time with a gale warning out for the overnight period and couldn't have been more pleased to have an all weather protected harbor of the Matane yacht club. There was Sophie awaiting our arrival and she did the work of three dock hands securing our lines and guiding us to a stop perfectly in a slip that was JUST big enough for Big Frisky. Turns out she grew up on a sailboat with her parents and brother Nick. When she was bored as a youngster, her father would hoist her up to the top of the mast on a bosun's chair where she would sit for hours passing the time. Later that day, a Saturday we met some more resident's including Christian, a jeans designer from Montreal who 5 years prior sold up and bought a sailboat to live on in the summer and a cabin in the woods for the winter in Matane. He spoke excellent English and when I asked for tips for getting through our trip more quickly he brought us to meet some more residents, Roger and his wife Lis who were long time sailors in the area and race officials. Turns out they had been having some sundowners that started mid afternoon and invited us to join them. When we arrived we were invited onboard and given the best seating in the cockpit and handed drinks. Lis exclaimed she had been following our AIS signal online since Quebec City and was pleased we had decided to stop on Matane. We traded sailing stories and took advice from Roger about a potential crossing of the Gulf of St Lawrence vs sailing the Northumberland Strait between Nova Scotia and PEI.

The wind howled all night and required us to add two more lines to secure Big Frisky from the biggest 30 kt + gusts. As morning dawned a review of the sea conditions had us make the decision to sit for this day and not go and fight the 3-6' waves and let the sea state calm down before departure to our next destination. That allowed us to compete a couple of boat projects on my list and for Pamela to hop a cab to provision including a stop at the local fish market for some fresh caught salmon. We decided invite our new friends from the yacht club for grilled salmon, roasted potatoes and fresh asparagus that evening. Turns out the party from the previous night was a barn burner and three of our invitees were nursing hangovers and two declined with Christian giving a tepid, "if I feel better" response. Sophie, who like us left after one drink was able to attend. I spent the day in the clubhouse folding and organizing our maps for the remainder of the journey. Christian showed up later in the day, feeling a bit better than when I saw him earlier and accepted our invitation for dinner. In fact he was able to take me up to the local hardware store to refill our propane tank before dinner. Later that evening after Pamela had been cooking all afternoon our guest arrived for a delightful evening of conversation over dinner. Sophie using all of her best English and Christian laughing at our funny stories.

We left the next day at midday to a sunny but windless day allowing us to motor through the night for our 22 hour leg to the sleepy fishing port of L'Anse-a-Beaufils that Sophie's dad had told us about when he came to share lunch with Sophie the previous day. He mentioned it was a perfect stop to stage another overnight jump across the gulf of st lawrence or to the northumberland strait. We arrived the next morning to a gorgeous day and trip past the famous Perce' rock, a once in a lifetime event. The harbor was the home of an award winning microbrasserie, Pit Caribou. Just our luck! The harbor master arrived later that day to collect our fees and to let us know we needed to move our boat up the wall to make room for the tour boats that would be returning later that day. He told us he saw us arriving from his house that overlooks the approach to the harbor and wondered if we needed anything. We more than anything wanted to have dinner out that night after a long overnight passage and a nap. He not only gave us a recommendation but arranged reservations and to stop back by at 5 to take us on a brief sightseeing trip of the town of Perce' and two different views of the pierced rock we had sailed by earlier that morning. The evening's destination? La Maison du Piecheur that was the location of the original Quebec separatists from 1968 that used the structure as a hostel of sorts leaving graffiti that still appears on the inside of the roof. He picked up up later that evening and graciously dropped us off after telling us many stories of the local area and his lobster fishing experience since 1983. We gave him a gift certificate from the restaurant so that in addition to dropping off yachties like us he could take his wife back for a delightful dinner as we had enjoyed this evening.

It's new experiences like these along the way that give us the pleasure of travel we are seeking in between the sailing. We hope you dear reader will in fact take the time the next time you see a traveler through your neck of the woods to embrace them and see what you can offer them and you will see that you will be given it back many times over by pleasure of meeting and helping them on their way.