17 July 2015 What a difference a day makes

       At 0700 we headed out of our perfect little fishing harbor of Petit Riviere Est, the town of Ste. Therese. What a difference, the bay was flat as flat can be. Flat Ass Calm.  A pretty day for a little motorsailor to head the 40 miles across Baie de Chaleur. to Shippegan.

       It was a good day for spotting things on the water. Kathy spotted a whale, but he became devious and slid away with only one sighting. With a 40 mile crossing we didn't have time to go a-looking for him. Lots of Gannets still and a few seals. Soon the wind came dead against us, but not hard and hardly slowed us down at all.

       We made Shippigan in pretty good season, early afternoon, so did a little looking around. First I wanted to check out the local boat yard to see if they would be willing to haul a boat as small as ours if need be, or if they knew of other lifts along the way. We looked for a float or dock to get ashore at the yard and pulled in to an open float at the edge of the yard. Kathy made the comment that it looked as tho someone uses this dock as they had left their lines on the float. We made fast, walked up the ramp and found there was no way to get into the boat yard, it was all chain-link fence. Then we deciphered the signs that are only visible from land. “Absolutely No Admittance” We were tied up where the Canada Coast Guard 46 footer lands! We had passed them heading North while we came southward into Shippigan Bay, so we knew they wouldn't be coming right in, but we hustled right out of there.

       Next we went over to the big concrete travel lift dock and came in alongside. Not a very good place to leave a boat, so I ran up to the yard office while Kathy held the Willie off the concrete pier that had bolts sticking 4 inches out at the Willie Dawes.

       The Office was new, spotless and very upscale, and the folks there said yes they could haul us but they would have to charge prices as though we were about the size of an ocean-liner. I told them I would give it some thought. Not! I asked if the little marina next door had diesel, they said yes, and I ran back to Kathy and the Willie.

       We navigated the well buoyed channel into the marina and found several boats in line for the fuel pump, and then a fellow waved us over to tie up, so we asked about diesel. Sorry, only Gas.

       Back out the buoyed channel, but wait, Kathy got onto their WIFI, drive-by down-load!

       We decided to head east across the bay to check out the digs at Lameque and found another man-made harbor, two in one as a matter of fact, and tied alongside a decent looking glass covered powerboat, the Marie Catherine, (nearly Kathy's name in reverse). No one around so we figured it was a good spot.

       I needed to do an oil change while the engine was still warm, so Kathy held supper up a few minutes for me to get started . I was just about to pump out the oil when I heard Kathy say, “Oh? You're  leaving? Ah, Dan, I think we have to move."   The folks on the M.C. were leaving for the weekend, and they offered us their spot at the pier, so generous, we thanked them and told them to look us up when they cruised to Maine. We got our fender-boards on and got all tied up again, took a short walk up the street and thru town, nice little town on the way to now-where, and that was about it for the evening.