I would admit that it has been a bit distressing – to go cruising on an incompletely provisioned sailing vessel. Certain things are sacred and must always be onboard – preferably in prodigious quantities.

Rum is high on the list of such commodities (peanut butter and popcorn are others).

My problem is that I drink “cheap rum” AND, I am very cheap on the price I will pay for it. The quality of the rum matters when you drink it “neat”, perhaps with a bit of lime, but when your mixer of choice is Tang…

I can feel the readers’ gag reflex rise right through my fingers as I type that sentence – I’ve certainly felt other’s revulsion often enough when I’ve admitted to this foible in person. What you don’t know is that Tang makes some great flavors of drink powder mixes including Mango, Peach, Pineapple, Passion Fruit, Guava and others. And, they package it in foil packs that make exactly 1 liter of mixer! So, cocktail hour requires a 1liter Nalgene bottle, drink mix and water, rum and lime. It takes less than a minute from thirsty to thirst quenching (and less than a half hour to “cocktail hour mellow!). The packets of Tang mix, when bought at a “good price” can be as little as $0.40 but I have paid as much as $0.80 when necessary. I have never found these Tang drink mix packets in the States, however - only in the Caribbean and the Bahamas. I stock up whenever I find them.

A larger problem recently has been finding inexpensive “cheap” rum. I stocked up in the Bahamas on expensive “cheap” rum knowing that my cruising would take me to places (Bermuda and Canada) where the price would get nothing but higher. Unfortunately, the stock on board was fully depleted during my lengthy stay in Bermuda – and most certainly wasn’t going to be replenished at Bermudian prices. On arrival in Canada, my first trip to the liquor store made it clear that my stores would remain depleted for the duration.

All of this history I have told so that the “miracle” of St. Pierre can be fully appreciated. For those who don’t know, the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon just off the coast of Newfoundland are actually French – France-French not French-Canadian! Imagine my delight in finding inexpensive “cheap rum” – 12.50Eu for a 1.75 liter bottle! Not knowing French I can’t be absolutely sure, but suspect that the name translates roughly to “Ye Old Bovine Urine” – Good Though! The boat is once again (and finally) properly provisioned, cocktail hours are complete and correct and all is well with the world of cruising.

For those who have visited St. Pierre or, for that matter, any of the Caribbean French islands, the “miracle” of these places is most certainly not limited to rum. French wines, cheeses, smoked meats and sausages are readily available – at fair prices. I remember being absolutely entranced with the selection in the markets in St. Martin (the French side) and happily used my limited French language vocabulary (including words like Camembert, Beaujolais, Baguette, Croissant etc) to its full extent. I had, therefore, looked forward to getting to St. Pierre. It’s food market was NOT in any way disappointing.

I have now made the jump back to mainland Nova Scotia, arriving in Halifax early Sunday morning after 2-1/2 days at sea (more on the passage later).

As my last comment on the “miracle”, let me say that I departed St. Pierre better prepared for sea – at least from a food perspective – than on any other passage. Walking back to the boat to get ready to slip lines Thursday after lunch, the baguette sandwich that I had picked up to have for dinner at sea that night tucked away in my boat bag, I realized that I had one remaining $5Eu note left in my wallet. Walking into the Patisserie, I held the bill up and asked “How many croissants can I get for this?” The answer was not more than I COULD eat – but more than I SHOULD. So, we settled on a small tuna and melted cheese pie (excellent), 4 croissants and a sinfully rich butter cookie. The cookie didn’t make it back to the boat.

I’ve written about “Charms and Challenges” previously in this blog. Both are necessary to make a cruising destination worthwhile and interesting.

As I reflect on my not quite 4-week cruise along the Southwest coast of Newfoundland it is clear that the expected charms long extolled by those cruisers who have recommended it were in all respects true. The people truly are that welcoming, the coastal scenery (particularly in the fjord section of the coast east of Burgeo) absolutely spectacular, great hiking and exploring opportunities are prevalent and the area is certainly NOT overrun with yachties – quite the contrary. I would add that the morning rush hour “moose reports” on the St. John’s based CBC broadcast always elicited a chuckle as well. Clearly, Toto, we weren’t in Kansas anymore.

Yes, on the challenges side of the equation, there is fog, of course, and, on hikes, it is good idea to carry along a head net – just in case the wind dies. The winds were often too fluky for sailing. I did a lot of motoring along the coast. Unfortunate that, but as with most cruising grounds it is true that the amount of sailing you do depends in large part how willing you are to wait for winds and how willing you are to take a wind forecast that is more festive than would seem absolutely necessary. I was often unwilling and/or unable to wait for winds this summer and didn’t feel a need to get beat up – so, I often motored.

There were two other challenges, one expected and one not so much, that deserve a bit more discourse.

First, the unexpected:
By the time I reached Burgeo and saw this poster hanging in the Harbormaster’s office, I had experienced any number of “conversations” in which I had achieved little real comprehension. And, they were speaking ostensibly the same language as I! The words, however, went by quickly and in uniquely contracted form. The “When Fishermen Meet” conversation is accurate. Thankfully, context usually brought general comprehension – if not complete clarity. If, for example, anyone can translate the 8th line, “Muddenbron”, for me, I would very much appreciate that. With the benefit of long study, I’ve got the rest pretty well sorted. In an actual conversation, “long study”, didn’t always work out so well.

I really had not expected a language barrier to exist.

However, I did know that 4 weeks was just not enough time to spend in Newfoundland. Time and distance and a short cruising season are the true challenges of cruising Newfoundland. My eastbound “auditing” cruise along the coast did allow me to see and experience much. However, I was unable to be in Burgeo for their “Sand and Sea Festival”, wasn’t able to make it back to Grand Bruit for their “Homecoming” weekend and missed the music festival weekend on lovely Ramea Island. Given more time, I could have done any (or perhaps all) of these events.

Throughout my Newfie wanderings, there was always the knowledge that there were 650nm to be traveled to get to the Maine coast – and, I had reason to want to be there by Labor Day. This admittedly self inflicted limitation along with the short cruising season in these Northern waters kept me on the move and caused me to miss much.

In the immortal words of the Terminator: “I’ll be back!” And, the next time will be with a longer, more flexible, cruising plan.

A few specific Thank You’s – To the Saturday Afternoon Whist Players on Ramea for serving up a couple of beers and a goodly dose of island hospitality, to Laurence and Barb in Francois for long conversations, great coffee and (I admit) a frequent internet fix, and to the people of Francois whose evening party of welcome for the “Adventure” cruise ship in the harbor was so happily and warmly extended to the visiting yachties – it was a fun night.

As it happened, the onerous prospect of 650nm of passage to windward that colored much of my time in Newfoundland was largely alleviated by an amazing weather pattern that allowed the first 350 miles to be knocked off in a very pleasant 2-1/2 day passage from St. Pierre to Halifax. Now in Rogue’s Roost with over 3 weeks to wander down the Southwest Shore of Nova Scotia and stage for the overnight jump to Maine, the pressure is off.

I had been watching the forecast for the waters between St. Pierre and mainland Nova Scotia from my first arrival in St. Pierre. The moderate southeasterly winds predicted were A. Too good to be true. AND B. In my experience all too likely to bring along major wet, foggy pestilence.

It “appeared” that the true pestilence would be well west of my course. Not to be cynical but I’ve been sucker punched by that kind of thing before – this is not my first rodeo, after all.

However, there was another motivating factor. St. Pierre’s annual 4-day “Rhum and Rock Festival” was to begin Thursday night and the outdoor venue was directly across from the marina where KR was tied up. Based on the volume of the sound checks being done on Wednesday evening, hanging around was not going to be a good thing.

I was at sea Thursday soon after lunch – happily escaping this particular cultural activity by just hours.

And, the forecast was right. I had 2-1/2 days of close to broad reaching in wonderful 10-15 knot winds, only 4 hours of motoring when the winds temporarily died Saturday morning and about 6 hours of moderately foggy conditions – a Disney passage. If it was always this easy, anybody could do it. Not to complain (much) but once again I arrived in Halifax in the middle of the night and I REALLY don’t see why it was necessary for three ships to pick midnight on a Saturday to leave port – just as I reached the entry channel. The fact that it was blowing a bouncy 20-25 in the approaches at the time was equally unnecessary – in my humble opinion. What-ever.

Rogue’s Roost, on the SW corner of the Chebucto Peninsula is one of my all time favorite cruising anchorages. The beautiful, rocky and intricate coast and waters are perfect for paddling, the village of Prospect just across the bay, long past it’s active fishing village roots, lovely and quaint. I’ve enjoyed and written of this area on each of my two previous cruises on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. The “Roost” and places like it are why we go cruising.

Having said that, tomorrow it will be time to move on to Lunenberg – another favorite spot – where this post is likely to find itself “posted”.

Best to all.

PS from Lunenberg: The Tall Ships are here. Who knew? Once again I am sharing the harbor with old friends like “Spirit of Bermuda”, “Picton Castle”, Spirit of South Carolina”, “Bowdoin”, and, unsurprisingly, “Bluenose II”. Interestingly, I was last in Lunenberg in October 2012 to see her re-launched after an extensive refit. What a beautiful vessel!