We spent the morning doing laundry, blogging, cleaning the
boat and chatting with all sorts of people on the dock. Everyone was in good humour, probably looking
forward to the party this evening for the racers. Unfortunately, we missed the party, since we
set off for Ile d’Entrée, 47 16.64N 061 43.08W after lunch.
It was a short but delightful sail with light winds, flat
seas (except for the entrance to the harbour with a slight wind over tide), and
sunshine. It took 2 hours for the 6.2
miles, but we were in no hurry.
We tied up on the 2nd floating dock we’d seen since leaving
Souris, (the other was at Fortune), and were met by the harbour master,
Ted. He chatted for quite a while and
then charged us $20/night for 2 nights – pretty reasonable.
Despite being part of the Isles de la Madelaine, (province
of Quebec), Isle d’Entreé is English speaking and our initial impression
reminded us more of Newfoundland than the other Islands.
After such a long voyage, we needed a walk and so set off to
start exploring the island. About 15
minutes into our walk, Ted pulled up alongside us in his truck. He’d overcharged us - the 2nd
night should only have been $10 – and since he was not working tomorrow, he
hunted us down to make sure we got our $10 back!
The island appears to have a very peaceful community, and a
handful of dirt roads. Ted told us that
the school has only 2 kids currently and will close next year. The kids will then need to board at a school
in Charlottetown (PEI) or in an English speaking school in Gaspé. Ted suggested that the community is going the
way of many of the Newfoundland outports, which is a real shame ‘cause it’s
such a beautiful island.
In the evening, while we were having dinner, what appeared
to be a 50’ fishing boat docked stern to the wharf at the harbour wall. He was running his engines hard to keep the
stern of the boat against the wharf and we wondered what he was doing. We found out when a large pickup truck,
probably 20’ long, unloaded. That boat
must have been pretty low in the water!
Ships Log: 4383.3, Todays Log: 6.2, Seasons Total: 795.3
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