| DAY 5 – PORT MOUTON ISLAND –
Wind SE 2-6,
fine and sunny.
This was a windy day, but we were well prepared for it. The marine weather forecasting information in Canada is superb. There is a continuous marine weather service, which can be found on an FM frequency on some domestic radios and on one dedicated VHF frequency. This is repeated on the hour and every half hour in English and on the quarters in French. The weather systems coming up this coast seem to be more straightforward than those that swirl around the European North Atlantic. Even the fog is fairly predictable, as we were to discover in the next few days. Though, the wind was to gust up to
30 knots
from the south-east, it was a perfect wind to give us a beam reach to a
town along this coast which Allan was determined to visit. He was born
a member of the invigorating, energetic and amazing generation of the
sons
of Liverpool, England, who dragged that city to the forefront in the
1960s
and so it seemed right that we should pay a visit to both the Liverpool
and its River Mersey on this coastline.
 Liverpool, when we got there, proved to be a most elegant town. Near the harbour entrance are streets of beautiful eighteenth and nineteenth century houses, built on the wealth generated by a history of privateering. This lucrative activity entailed the raiding of vessels belonging to nations with whom Britain was at war. The captured ships and cargoes being taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and auctioned for profit. |
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| We sailed on to Coffin Island, twelve years after Frank Dye took a similar liking to its anchorage. His description was precisely what we saw: "A fine sheltered harbour at the north end of the island, where a stone beach of big pebbles almost completely encloses a lagoon, except for a narrow gap over an underwater reef. It's a lobster fishing community, occupied in winter only. Half a dozen wood shacks, each with four bunks and a big wood burning stove. All are now deserted, but it feels like a nice, quiet, friendly spot..." Nothing had changed except for the development of a large fish farm about a mile to the south. |
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