Firebird Travels: May 2014

From Gaspe I traveled pass Pierce rock to L'Anse a Beaufils my last stop on the Quebec coast.

Pierce Rock is very famous and folks travel from around the world to photograph. As I spotted it in the horizon and approached it was overcast and misty. I was thinking great I come all this way and I'll end up wit a lousy photo. Nonetheless, since I had to pass this way I kept on motoring. Many of the following pics are included to give you an idea of the size and perspective.

The marvel of a zoom lens, notice the mist is clearing up.

This rock would spoil a mariners day if met in a fog. You can actually walk from shore to the hole at low tide.

If you look back at the map, you can see that this is a pretty straight run with not much as far as new sights along the way.

L'Anse a Beaufils is a nice small harbor with a small craft beer brewery and a great restaurant. Not many folks spoke english here. The waitresses in the restaurant would get help for one of their own who was bilingual when servicing me. But I was fairly confident we could have gotten by with a few grunts, gestures and finger pointing. There were dockage locations way up to the right with about 4 guest docks. Some veteran sail boat travelers tied up against the wall or the fishing boats.

From L'Anse a Beaufils I traveled to the town of Shippagan first stoping at Caraquet for fuel. A fellow traveler stopped there and spent the next few days there I chose to go on to Shippagan as there was a larger community and I thought there would be more to see. This area is the center for Arcadians, between Shippagan and Caraquet is a town of my name sake (Blanchard). Everyone speaks french with english as secondary and infrequent all the way from Gaspe to Shippagan.

The Shippigan Marina. There was skinny water in the marina so I had to be cautious on my entrance.

It is a short walk to the town with a good grocery store hardware and other amenities.

Small Arcadian church in town.

Walkway skirting the coast just west of Shippigan marina.

Shippigan Aquarium is a small aquarium dedicated to the local ocean inhabitants such as cods halibut lobsters and with a outdoor pool for the local seals. I recommend a visit to see what is important to the local fisheries.

I met up with the crew of the Esmeralda and we took a cab (really a local driver private car) over to Caraquet for a festival. There would be fireworks in the evening.

Children's play area

Fun sign, can you figure out where I am?

Miramachi was the next stop on my journey. About 10 miles up river against a very strong current. This was an exceptional stop for which I stayed 3 days. When I arrived at the public dock I was greeted by a fellow boater who was tied up to the dock and having a party on his boat. After securing the boat lines, I turned around and that fellow was standing behind me with a full dinner meal. They welcomed me to their boat and I enjoyed the company of complete strangers who were so friendly and kind. The public dock had a sign which stated 8 hrs only no overnight allowed. I saw a security person and asked if I could stay, and he said no problem. So I enjoyed 3 days on the dock making friends and sharing in the festivities. There was a show on the dock each day and a festival in town that I was able to attend one night. The performances were done in a Town hall, probably for the rain and acoustics.

This fellow played his custom made accordion on stage that night and was out selling his CDs post performance. I will say that I never witnessed an accordion player who could play he keys as fast as this fellow. As a child I was exposed to owlish music and the accordion was played by many folks but none could hold a candle to this guy.

Guest folk singer

I left Miramachi with the tide outflow and river current. Firebird was flying with about a 4MPH advantage. Whoa. I cruised down the coast for about 6 hours and the weather was looking strange so I decided to go into Bouctouche. The guides say that there is skinny water and they were right. The channel is marked by poles in the mud. I rubbed bottom once while distracted arranging my fenders.

Bouctouche is a small town is located at the mouth of the Bouctouche River on the coast of the Northumberland Strait, approximately 40 kilometres northeast of Moncton.

You can see Firebird safe and sound in the marina. This marina use to be a lumber mill owned by the founder of Irving Oil. The story goes that he got a $50,000 loan from Al Capone to start his oil company. The marina was financed by Irving family on the lumber mill spot and is spanking new and pristine. The manager (John) lives in the club house and is excellent and most helpful. Most of the slips are for full time owners, but there is always someone out or on vacation. Call ahead. Close are coastal areas to wander and search for sea glass. There is a lot to be found.

Mr Irving of Irving Oil

In Bouctouche there is this recreated Arcadian village dedicated to a one woman monalogue play about a washer woman

Past Bouctouche there seems to be a shift to English first and French secondary.

Leaving Bouctouche I cross the Northumberland Strait to Prince Edward Island and the town of Summerside.

PEI is an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in eastern Canada, the country's smallest province; capital, Charlottetown. Explored by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and colonized by the French, it was ceded to the British in 1763 and became a Canadian province in 1873.

Summerside PEI

Summerside is the home of The College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts of Canada. The College has developed a world-class reputation as an international school of excellence in Highland bagpiping, Scottish-style drumming, Highland dancing and Island step dancing. With a mandate to preserve and promote the Celtic heritage of Canada’s most Celtic province, Prince Edward Island. The college presents show during the summer...I would highly recommend going to one if in town.

No visit to PEI is complete without a visit to Anne of Green Gables country. A section of the island seems to be dedicated to Anne with Green Gables streets and houses and relative houses and ice cream stands etc.

Absolute pristine countryside vistas everywhere. Everything is so orderly and clean.

Rented a car and drove into Charlottetown and visited Peake's Landing.

From Summerside I planned to travel to Charlottetown but heavy seas forced me to seek the lee of land to the south on the Northumberland Strait. That proved to be a good strategy as the waves abated, so I decided to go to my alternate port of Pictou. I cruised under the Confederation Bridge, which from my view was simply amazing feet of engineering.

You don't realize how high the bridge is until you pass under it.

Pictou is a Town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km north of the larger town of New Glasgow.

Once an active shipping port and the shire town of the county, today Pictou is primarily a local service centre for surrounding rural communities as well as being the primary tourist destination in this region of Nova Scotia. The first 220 Scottish Settlers landed in Pictou, and at one time there was an American Consular office in town, owing to the trade importance of the area. There is a large pulp mill across the harbor and the smell can be overwhelming if the wind is right.

The Grohmann knife factory is famous and located in downtown Pictou

This is a replica of the ship that brought the first 220 Scottish settlers to Nova Scotia. The mast is off for repairs.

It was windy and rainy for a couple of days so we took a drive down to Halifax with the crew from the Esmeralda. There we ran into Theodore Too the Tug.

Halifax waterfront

Interesting snack shop

No I didn't try it. We drove up to the Citadel late in the afternoon after a day in the city below. Turns out the last 1/2 hour of opening admission is free. There are no crowds and you can see most of the important things in that time.