|
Ghosts and Gastronomy
in
Canada's smallest Province
...Part Two |
 The crossing to PEI took
only
75 minutes but it was like entering
another world. The rain stopped and the sun came out. We
stopped at the
tourist information and, like a mirage, a liquor store
appeared next
door. Normally, as a relic of prohibition, liquor stores
are built as
far out of town as possible and the staff are trained in
advanced
surliness. PEI however is known as the holiday island.
  Camping at Brudenell Provincial Park, PEI, our ...  ...
base for sailing in Montague - see chart above.
We drove to a pleasant
campsite
at Montague where we were almost the
only campers at Brudenell Provincial Park. What a change
from the
1960's when the site would have
been almost full. Jim had sailed here before and knew
that we could
launch and keep the boat at the marina. This is luxury
Wayfarer
cruising!
  Montague   Montague Marina A PEI courtesy flag was
required. Montague was scoured but only a king
size version was available. It would have made a nice
bedspread. We
found a small printed one in the $1 store, it would have
to do.
   The Montague River is
beautiful. We had to motor against the wind as
the river estuary gradually widened and shellfish farms
(above) started
to
appear. They are seen as an array of small floating
buoys set out like
mine fields. They make motoring very difficult; sailing
can be next to
impossible. These huge aquaculture farms (mussels,
oysters, clams etc.)
are the local answer to the collapse of the conventional
fishing
industry, but they do mess up the sailing.
 Panmure Island at the mouth of the Montague River - see chart above It had been a cold day's
sailing and we fancied a curry. The
advantage of campsite cruising is that supermarkets are
never far away.
We stocked up on curry ingredients. Chicken curry with
mango chutney
and pappadums were prepared and consumed. Due to
over-ordering, some
extra spicy pappadums were left over. We decided to
leave these for the
raccoons. During the night there was a time of
great squealing
and
crashing about. Next morning all the pappadums and all
of the extra hot
salsa had gone (even the jars had been opened). We
decided that either
they liked it or thought they had been poisoned!
I attempted to
photograph the
raccoons with the usual lack of success.
Jim was rather more circumspect. It turns out that, on
one of his
trips, he went out of the tent to shoo off some raccoons
only to find
that he was surrounded by skunks. This could have been
bad news. If you
are sprayed by a skunk, the only thing that gets rid of
the smell is to
bathe in tomato ketchup!
 The next campsite was at Campbell's Cove on the north coast of PEI. We arrived in sunshine and were the only ones there. "Would you like some crab meat?" asked the owner. Our dinner plans changed immediately and we feasted on fresh snow crab sandwiches.  Camping Park at ...  ... Campbells ...  ... Cove We had an invitation to go crab fishing but this involved an 0430 start. We declined. Why do crab/lobster fishermen have to start at such an unearthly hour? We think that this is a macho thing that involves big 4x4 cars, revving engines and generally tough stuff.  Sailing in this area is
generally exposed so we went for a bike ride.
(is this still OK in a sailing mag., Mr Editor?)
 St. Peters Bay ...  ... bicycling Confederation Trail  St. Peters Bay ...  ... Greenwich Dunes National Park PEI used to have a
railway
running the length of the place, but it went
bust. It is now a superb cycle track. We had an
excellent ride on hired
bikes and I ended up with a sore bum. There was a rather
good fish shop
on the way that sold us fresh haddock and mussels. The
fried haddock
and moules mariniers were our tea.
 From here we drove to
Charlottetown, the Provincial capital, to buy
charts and guidebooks and thence to Malpeque Bay.
 Malpeque Bay:  ...
Green ...
 ... Park.    Here, strong winds
curtailed our sailing plans and, other than a day sail,
we concentrated
on museums and hiking.
 Lennox Island, Malpeque Bay: Barrier beach sheltering the bay from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the distance.  Confederation Bridge which links PEI to the province of New Brunswick Our way home was via the
bridge
to New Brunswick. It is the longest
bridge in the World across water that freezes. Despite
the marketing
hype it is a seriously long bridge. It has freed PEI
from the
restrictions of the ferry and brought it into the 21st
century.
 Naomi This cruise has not been
like
our previous ones. On the minus side, I
have missed the adventure, wild camping, need for
self-reliance,
navigation skills, etc. On the plus side, we have
enjoyed more sailing
rather than motoring, better food and camping
facilities, and a
generally easier life (we are getting older!).
Allan Parry W7556 Dylan ... |
|
-----
Original Message -----
From:
jim fraser
Sent:
Monday, February 18, 2008 7:10 PM
Subject: Wayfarer cruise
... Prince Edward Island is a pleasant island to vacation on. I have trailered my Wayfarer to PEI on two previous years plus I have gone there on cycling/camping vacations by myself or with the family. The Confederation Trail is a well maintained cycling trail which stretches over most of the island and it is always close to good sailing spots. Many of the bays and rivers of PEI are encumbered with mussel farms which can make sailing difficult at times though. I recommend the Eastern coast of PEI from Murray Harbour to Souris and the north shore behind the barrier beaches from Alberton to Malpeque Bay as interesting cruising areas for visitors with Wayfarers. The bays behind Prince Edward National Park such as Tracadie, Rustico, and New London Bay might be interesting also, but this section of the coast is where the tourists congest and I avoid the area to camp. Two helpful books for visitors with a cruising dinghy are:
Best wishes Jim |
| return to Cruise Logs
index |