While we were in Chandler, QC, we found a new weather site with better information on the wind direction and speed. We sat and planned out our overnight trip to Prince Edward Island with the best of intentions to sail most of the way as the winds were to be on our beam for most of the night.
Well we left Chandler on Saturday morning about 6:00, the sun was trying to shine through the haze and it was an easy departure from the marina which I did not get pictures of as my migraine was nagging at me all day. We were once again at the furthest dock from the club house.
The pump out dock was available in about 3 to 4 feet of water at high tide and we weren't going to take any chances going in for the pump out. The lesson here is never wait until the last minute which we fortunately learned from another couple. They were full and the marina they came to said that they had pump out service but it hasn't been working for two years.
Talking about tourist guides for Quebec, many of the smaller marinas must of had a lot of airbrushing done to their photos or they were taken when the marinas were new. They also embellish the size of the place and the number of docks available.
Finally we are leaving Quebec, skipping New Brunswick as many of their anchorages and marinas are extremely shallow.
Now our sail to PEI. We had the sails up after about an hour. The wind was good for about an hour, then too much wind, then wind shift on the nose, then no wind, then drizzle, then rain, big rollers, then no wind, then overcast night with no moon or stars and very dark and then patchy fog. The rollers were very uncomfortable and hard to get any sleep until they subsided somewhat. We did have an nice dinner of chicken, rice and veggies though. Xanadu headed again into the rollers which you would think would help you sleep, wrong. It was like being in a washing machine. One minute it was side to side then the bow was dipping into a wave and then raising her nose to the sky the next minute.
I (Linda) found the settee in the salon to be the best seat in the house. I left the table leaf up and with some pillows and a blanket made a little cocoon for myself to sleep in. Jack said "How did you sleep honey?" when it was my turn at the helm. I replied that I got some sleep and then he went down and came up shortly after and asked if I was trying to find all the waves just keep him awake. My response was, "oh well that's how I felt when you were steering."
Well night fall came, it clouded over and patches of fog developed. But one thing neither one of us gave any consideration to was what phase was the moon in. I didn't realize it could be this dark at night, It was literally black, no lights anywhere. We could not even see anything in the water except the waves that were coming off of the boat, which brings me to another story.
One of the couples that we met, caught up to us and told us about their mishap in the shipping channel east of Quebec City. They were on autopilot during some dense fog. They were both reading and suddenly they hit something hard that they would not have seen. They tried backing up, and again another loud bang. They looked over on side and saw a bunch of branches sticking out from under their boat on both sides and it was multi stemmed with a huge root ball. Yes, that's right, they ran over a tree in the middle of the shipping channel. They had a hand saw on board and went into the dingy and started to saw branches in very cold water. Needless to say, being in the shipping channel and disabled in the fog with approaching ships coming from both directions is not a good place to be. After an hour of frantic sawing with his arms underwater, they were able to clear the tree from under their boat. The fog horns were blasting. They have a 46 foot Moody. A beautiful boat, but when your stuck in the middle of the shipping channel it looks real small. Lesson learned, do not get too comfortable with your autopilot.
So when night fell, I was straining to see anything that might be in the water. Fortunately our only encounter were some birds.
As we approached Summerside it was like looking at a mirage as they are so close to sea level and the sea was very glassy, you cannot see the land. You think you are looking at a point and as you approach, land starts to appear out of no where and no I wasn't half in the bag.
We pulled into Summerside Yacht Club and asked for a reciprocal. Guess what, they had no idea what we were talking about. But the slip fees were $1.50 per foot. Many local people stopped by as for a change we were right beside the club house and the largest boat in the marina. The tides here were about 6 feet but even at low tide we were still in about 8 feet of water.
Summerside has a downtown which you can walk through is about 20 minutes, and that's with taking pictures and window shopping, but it is cute and has great pizza and wings with spring rolls that don't have any veggies in them but have meat, like a small Gyro or Donair. Different but tasty.
This is downtown Summerside PEI
This is the old train station that has been converted over to a library
This is a picture of the town when they were still using horse and buggy to get around in. They have several murals painted on buildings depicting of how it was in the old days.
Again we checked the weather and it was rain in the morning thunder showers in the afternoon and evening, so once gain we stayed put and enjoyed guess what ice cream at Tim Horton's,
Now it is the evening, the day has clouded over but nice and it is just starting to rain. We spoke to a local resident and he said that when thunderstorms are predicted they either go to the north side of the island or south to Nova Scotia. He said they have very few thunderstorms on the south side of the island.
So weather permitting we will be off to Charlottetown in the morning.
Here is one more closing tip do not leave you log book in the cockpit unless you are fully enclosed. Ours is now twice the size that it once was.
