A Sunny Saturday in Isle Madame
D’Escousse is a small town the western side of Isle Madame.
The main attraction in the town is the Lennox Passage Yacht Club – LPYC. We
appreciate the WI FI and showers at the yacht club. At the Shamrock convenience
store we learn that the Acadian Festival in Petit de Gras on the other side of
the island is going on today. When we ask about taxis at Claire’s Café near the
LPYC, she laughs, says there is no taxi service, but she will lend us her car.
She looks outside the door and remembers she already lent it to someone! She
encourages us to hitch-hike. It’s about 5 miles. We try our luck. The first
driver in the first car to pass shrugs his shoulders because he already has 3
people. The second car stops!
A petite lady peeking over her wire rim sunglasses leans
over as I open the front door. Magic is
about to begin.
“We want to go to the festival in Petit des Gras. Are you
going that way?” I ask.
“Oh sure, I can take you.” She says as she opens her door
with arms full of stuff to put in the trunk.
Clearing more from the back seat floor, she invites us into her car.
We introduce ourselves.
“I’m Denise”, she says. “I’m a sailor too, well I sailed a
lot with my ex-husband. We kept our boat at St Peter’s. It was fun.”
We tell her we are sailing aboard Windigo and that our
skipper stayed back with the boat.
“Oh, need a little time away from him? Or does he need a
little time away from you?” We just laugh as we see Denise understands living
in close quarters.
She is driving kind of fast. Trudy fastens her seatbelt in
the backseat. Ethan and I just hang in there. Jim is in the front. It’s a long
winding road through undeveloped countryside. Denise is chatting away telling
us she is going this way anyway to the Co-Op and to pick up her carpenter
because her roof leaked with all the rain from last night. She warns us not to
get stuck in Petit des Gras. She says we might have to buy a car to get out of
there and in the same sentence she tells us she will take us back to the boat.
For some reason she decides pretty quickly to be our personal taxi service
while we are on Isle Madame!
Ethan or Trudy – not sure which one – asks Denise if she ever
comes to Florida.
“Yes, I like St. Petersburg.” she responds not realizing
Ethan and Trudy live in St. Petersburg! Our connection to this woman is
amazing.
I tell her I remember coming to Isle Madame about 20 years
ago to a little coffee shop with croissants. She does not know of it, but takes
us to a little bakery where we buy some cookies. She says she will keep driving
us to find the festival. Some of the waterfront activities like the blessing of
the fleet and the rowing races have been cancelled because of the storm. We
keep driving, passing the ballpark where there is a festival baseball game.
Beyond that, is the town hall with “the festival” in full swing. We hear music.
Inside we see long tables with Acadian flags, food, balloons, games, a lot of
people celebrating.
It’s fun to see, but not really what we were looking for –
not sure what we were expecting, Denise gets us back in her car. She tells us
she will drive us to Land’s End. That is the further mot point out on Little
Anse. “I will take you to L A”, Denise jokes.
We wind around roads that meander through the landscape
around rocks and inlets. We pass old fishing shacks and brightly painted
houses. Along the side of a hot turquoise house stand three mummers. I remember
seeing the scarecrow type manikins in the yards during the festival time. Up
the hill and around the corner, she stops the car. We get out to view the
expanse of deep blue ocean coming in to the dark brown craggy shoreline. Wind
blows strong and we are glad Windigo is anchored on the other side of this
island.
Denise drives us back chatting all the time. She plays the piano, and the fiddle. She is a designer. She consults with museums
and creates displays for exhibits. She also teaches art and design at a college
in Halifax. We stop at the Coop. She does her shopping while we do ours. I have
permission from the skipper to buy more vegetables so I can prepare my own
meals on board. This vegetarian is happy now!
I sit in the front seat on the way back. I learn that Denise
is like me. She just had her birthday and is born in my year! We are “Dragons”
and “Leos” and we love that!
She drives us right to her house which is just a few doors
up from the yacht club. Her house is a modified 1950s with a lighthouse type
tower in the middle. We oo and ah at the outside and then again on the
inside. Yes, she is definitely a
designer. It shows in her interior decorating style. Before we know it she is
playing us a piece on the piano! On her bookshelves are many books we’ve read
including Wind Whales, and Whiskey. She tells us Silver Donald Cameron lives in
the yellow house at the head of the LPYC road. The house that I photographed
and Jim painted last evening! She says we can knock on his door and buys his
books from him! Denise takes us on a tour all through the house and up to the
roof top deck. What a different view we have of how people live in D’Escousse!
We exchange addresses and say good byes – hoping to see this
lady again some day to return the favor of the magic she brought to our
afternoon on Isle Madame.
At the LPYC, Sandy is reading. I hang at the club checking
e-mails while Jim, Ethan, and Trudy go meet Silver Donald Cameron and buy his
books.
Back at the boat, Trudy and I prepare a fresh broccoli salad
with cranberries, green pepper, onion, black beans. We make a dressing of;
mayonnaise, Balsamic Vinaigrette, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
This is delicious.
What a gorgeous sunset!
The orange striped sky delights us as we decide to play the card game; Harry. The girls
each win a game.
What a fine day to be marooned on Isle Madame!
Our captain tells us to plan for an early departure
tomorrow.
D’Escousse to Yankee Cove - SUNDAY
In our aft cabin, Jim wakes up at 5 am. He gets the kettle
boiling. I decide to get going. We are up and dressed before the others. The
caboose is ready!
The pink sky of pre-dawn enchants us as we look off to the
east, the direction we are headed today. As the sun rises bursting her golden
glow at us we are chugging out of D’Escousse and across Chebucto Bay. This
crossing is very windy and very wet, though we have clear sky with no clouds.
We head up Andrew’s Channel and across to Big Dover Run leading to Little Dover
Run. I love this kind of meandering through interesting narrow passages. We
spot eagles, seals, bright colored lobster traps on docks, and many summer
cottages with screened porches.
At Port Howe, we anchor for lunch. Port Howe is a beautiful round harbor. I fall in love with the most adorable little island right in the middle. Something draws me to this rock edged small green wonder. I feel that it is mine. This photo is taken from the inner harbor behind the island.
Jim, Trudy, and I get in the whaler with the depth sounder
to chart the depths of the inner harbor for Sandy. Sandy works hard at updating
the Cruising Club Guide. On the way back to the boat, we admire the little
island. I know I am in love with this beauty as I saw it while we were anchoring. What I do not know until this moment is that Trudy feels the same way I do about this island. Trudy and
I want to climb the island and claim it for our own. Jim carefully maneuvers
the whaler in and drops us off on the large flat rock. We scramble to the
summit of this green dollop of land. “Yeah, this is our island!” we exclaim for
the world to hear. Trudy and Lea have an island! It’s amazing how much fun it is to claim an island and
excavate the entire place so quickly. We are thrilled as we pose for
photographs. As Jim retrieves us he names our island, “Trulea Island”.
Onboard Windigo, we salute Trulea Island once more as we go
back out and around to Whitehead. Carefully navigating the green and red buoys
we follow the maze to Yankee Harbor. The afternoon is sunny and windy, we
anchor alongside the ‘mussel farm’.
Time for reading and siesta is nice. One thing I love about
the aft cabin is that I have plenty of drawers for keeping stuff. One drawer is
designated for “porgy bait”. That includes gum, chocolate, cookies/crackers,
and seltzer water. I am always sharing these treats, but it is important for me
to have easy access to snacks. I also keep arrowroot cookies, ginger cookies,
and oatmeal cookies above the locker near the cabin door for anyone to grab at
anytime. This was I do not have to ask the skipper if I get munchies. This
afternoon I just wish I had something salty. I already shared the dried
seaweed.
Jim is painting in the cockpit. He and Sandy are discussing
an immature eagle who is flying around us. It is high tide and very windy.
After our little rest, Trudy, Ethan, Jim and I go ashore. They harvest mussels
while I explore the seaweed, tide pools, and rocks. It’s a good time for me to
photograph note cards and plan for paintings!
What a dinner we have; mussels in the cockpit for them – a
thyme, mustard, wine sauce over mushrooms, zuchinni, with steamed asparagus
spears for me, plus crab cakes, potato and green beans with Pan Forte for dessert.
Jim helped Sandy fix the bow hose sprayer. No cards this
evening. Tonight is clear with all the stars twinkling. It’s the meteor shower
time. I wake often throughout the night to see them, but none appear for me.
Yankee Cove to Liscomb - MONDAY
It’s another gorgeous clear blue sky day! We sail from
Yankee Cove to Liscomb.
Well we motor sail or motor into the wind all day long. I
took a Sturgeron sea sickness pill that is more like a sleeping pill and slept
most of the day.
Around 3 pm we sail up the long curving river to Liscomb to
see Bluewater anchored. This Nordhaven 47 belongs to CCA members Milt and Judy
Baker who we dined with aboard Windigo our first night of this cruise in Port
Aux Basques all those days ago. We hope to tie up to the dock, but another
motor yacht is already there, so back out in the river we go to anchor.
Liscomb is a resort where people come to stay in cabins
along the river. There is also an indoor swimming pool ( maybe b/c it is often
foggy here? ) and hiking trails. We set out for an hour hike along the river.
It’s great to stretch our legs having been boat-bound for a few days. The river
is powerful with falls and big open stretches of rock slabs.
We are invited aboard Blue water for happy hour and “heavy hors
d’oerves”. Ah, my craving for something salty is answered; guacamole with corn
chips! Judy and Milt offer an array of yummy food! They have an incredible
galley on this motor yacht! The whole yacht is decked out incredible – it’s
like a floating luxury condo! And they have “Katie” such a cute 8 year old
doggie – who looks like a black pig! At this party we meet Dan and Marsha with
their dog, Lola, plus the 4 friends of Ethan & Trudy from St. Petersburg
who are anchored on their motor yacht further out the harbor; Atlee &
Christina, JP & Dianne. What a fun party!
Back on Windigo we play a game of Oh Hell – to 5 and back. The
score keeper ( Jim ) wins a hard fought knocking game again.
And, again, we hope to see the shooting stars with a clear
night sky.
TUESDAY
Ah, we wake to FOG at 6 am. Who wants fog? We motor out Liscomb River is a dense fog
while Trudy cooks omlettes for breakfast. The boat smells great with sautéing
onions and peppers. Hoping the fog
lifts, we head east for Halifax. While Trudy is at the helm, she says she
thinks she sees a rainbow, but it turns out to be a fog bow! The fog finally
clears or is it that we sail out of it? We can see the fog bank hanging near
shore. Ethan jokes that he doesn’t want to do business at that bank! Everyone
takes a turn at the helm usually an hour at a time. I take it around 11:30 and
whew, the wind comes up! We can motor-sail!
We are making our way down to Halifax Yacht Club, hoping to
tie up to the dock there to ride out tomorrow’s storm.
Jim and Ethan man the boat for the last two hours of pouring
rain until we reach the Royal Nova Scotia Club in Halifax.
WEDNESDAY
It’s a foggy morning in Halifax, but we are here!
With bad weather predicted for today and big winds for
tomorrow, we decide to find a rental car and head up to Baddeck. One problem
there are not rental cars to be found. The shuttle from the airport is full.
Trudy keeps scanning the internet trying to find a car.
The harbormaster, Wayne, asks me if I want a coffee. He
invites me into the inner kitchen beyond the workshop. As I sip a wonderful
cup, I tell him about our cruise and that I want to get back to Baddeck but we
can’t find a rental car.
“You want to rent a car? I have one for you right in my
parking lot.”
I look at him incredulously. “Are you kidding? Can I hug
you?”
Turns out he and the rental car company have a deal that he
keeps a car ready for boaters coming in the RNYC. How serendipitous for us! In
about twenty minutes, we are in a big black muscle car heading out of Halifax
to Baddeck!
