Saturday, July 12th – Outport François

The day dawned bright with some mist, but pretty soon the mist burnt off and we had a beautiful sunny and warm day.  We set off for François, 47 34.70N 056 44.68W with very light winds from the W.  Well at least the direction was good!  We motored for ½ the trip, then the winds freshened enough to sail the rest so all in all a pleasant trip.  The highlight was the dolphins that came to play with Quinita.  There were several, perhaps 6-8 dolphins showing of their skills at the bow of our boat.  We were travelling at 5.5 knots and they seemed to have no difficulty keeping up – not bad considering they were swimming.  And they are beautiful animals – graceful, powerful and seemingly friendly. 

François is an outport – a small village at the end of a fiord, with no roads in or out.  The only access is by boat so it’s pretty much like living on a small island.  The village of François is beautiful.  People are, as we now expect, very friendly and keen to chat.  Many residents have lived there all their lives, and have been very happy with their way of life.  There are no roads or cars in the village, but they have boardwalks and some concrete paths.  These days transport is by 4 wheeler in the snowless months and snowmobile in the winter.  The guy we were speaking with said that, in his youth, there was no mechanical transport, (but it doesn’t take long to walk the entire village). 

There are several outports on this coast, and we hope to visit others on our return to Port aux Basque.  These days they are somewhat sad.  Fishing has been their main industry for years, but now they are regulated from Canada’s Federal government in Ottawa.  We’ve heard the same story several times now – the government imposes a ‘one size fits all’ fishing regulation aimed at not depleting the stocks, but in this area, the fish are plentiful and regulations don’t take that into account.  One guy told us he could catch his entire year’s quota of Halibut in one day!   So without fishing, there are no jobs, and the young people are all leaving.  In François, there are 10 kids in school with ages ranging from 5 to 18!  And no more children are expected to be born.  So the town will die out.  Each outport needs a critical mass, to survive, and the government provides assistance for people to re-locate.  The towns vote on whether they want to re-locate or not, so if you’re in a minority and the majority votes to leave – bad luck.  I guess it’s toughest on the older residents who’ve lived there all their lives and expected to die there.  Several outports have already met this end.

Ships Log: 3869.6, Todays Log: 30.1, Seasons Total: 281.6