Tuesday, August 12th – Cap aux Meules

La Pointe was billed as a fishing harbour in our guide book, and it was.  There was not much touristy stuff going on, although we enjoyed our day there.  Conversely, Cap aux Meules had a marina – the first one we will have seen since St. Pierre, 6 weeks ago - with showers, laundry, wifi, etc., etc.  So we set sail for Cap aux Meules, 47 22.81N 061 51.39W, and some luxury. 

The winds were light once again, but we weren’t in a hurry so we hoisted our screecher and sailed sedately at 3 knots.  It was a beautiful day with flat seas, so Ron decided to test the accuracy of the ships GPS against his sextant.  The first reading was worrying – the GPS was 35 miles off!  After a few more practices with the sextant however, the GPS improved, and ended up only 8 miles off.  (Maybe a little more practice is needed). 

We had called ahead to reserve a place in the marina at Cap aux Meules, and telephoned when we arrived for directions to our berth.  We were told to enter, to put our fenders on our port side and started making our way in.  Then we got a call on vhf to tell us not to come in since there was no room at the marina.  (Perhaps catamaran doesn’t translate to French very well).  Anyway we were sent to the commercial harbour, where we tied to a wall built for SHIPs.  The fenders on the wall were tyres (tires), about 6’ diameter and 18” wide.  We managed to get tied up, but getting on and off the boat was interesting since our fenders and fender boards added another 12”, so the boat was about 2 ½ feet from the wall.  Needless to say there were no shower facilities, laundry or any other luxuries.  Well we’ve spent 6 weeks without, so another couple of nights won’t make a big difference.  

To get an idea of scale, Quinita is actually in both photos.  You may need a magnifying glass for the 2nd!

We got our bikes ashore, found the town, which did have some very nice restaurants, and dined out.

Ships Log: 4367.5, Todays Log: 16.1, Seasons Total: 779.5