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August 2008 |
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21 August
-Marie hauled out and we're headed back home
We got stuck off of Ile Manowin for 5 or 6 days with high winds so never even left the boat. It felt as though we would be sat there forever but finally the weather cheered up and we set off for our last over nighter to Riviere au Renard on the other side of the St Lawrence 100 miles away. It was a pretty peaceful journey across, we were a little worried about big ships as we had to cross a number of shipping lanes but we only saw a couple and stayed well away from them.
I saw the most enormous whale tail come out of the water which was amazing it was long way away but huge, its just a shame that Stuart never saw it too. The water was fairly calm with just a long deep swell which did manage to make me feel quite queasy.
Entering Riviere au Renard Harbour was a little confusing to begin with and we are glad that we came in in day light as the leading lights, for some strange reason, lead you straight into the breakwater wall!! Who ever designed that was a great big trouble maker! I wonder how many ships have followed it and crashed?
We anchored up in the bay for the first day and took the dingy into the inner harbour, tying up to a friendly fishing boat then took a wander around town. Its a very small place and when we finally found the library in search of internet access, we found the tiniest little place that only opened for 2 hours on a Wednesday! There were no internet cafes in town and we started to worry that we would have no means of finding a way back to the UK.
There is a small marina in the bay which we went to find information and turns out to be the best value marina so far. $1 per foot which included power, water, shower facilities, free wireless internet and your 4th night free. The next day we moved the boat into the marina and started to make plans.
We arranged the boat haul out with the local ship yard, who were all very nice and it was a very reasonable price for the year. We then contacted Isabelle and Andre who kindly said that they would look after Mano until we could bring him back to the UK.
Click here for pictures of Riviere au Renard
The boat came out of the water a few days latter on the biggest travel lift ever and has been put on blocks in with the other sailing boats and fishing boats. We then stayed on the boat in the shipyard whilst we tried to organise our way back to Montreal. That was the next big problem, although there were many different ways to get to Montreal we had to try and do it with a cat in tow. Our first option was to hire a car, at a glance this looked extremely cheap, although after looking into the charges for one way hire it became ridiculously expensive, we could have brought a car for the price they were quoting. Next option the bus, but no Pets allowed.
Onto the train, which seemed like a pretty safe bet, but upon looking into that we found out that in recent floods one of the railway bridges had been washed away so there was a bus service instead, so again no pets.
Plane, this all looked ok although a little more expensive, but after calling Air Canada and being spoken to like an idiot. They said there is an embargo on carrying animals in July and August because it is too hot! (God doesn't everyone know that!??) He obviously hadn't been to Gaspe (we were freezing!) You can bet you life there is an embargo for the other months of the year for it being too cold!
We were beginning to run out of options. The marina people were really nice and let us continue to bring our computer in to use the internet with no extra charge. We got chatting to the guy at the front desk and he got to know all about our mission, upon hearing our problem he said "I'm going back to Uni in Montreal next week and can take the cat for you!" He was our savior!!
So we booked the bus, gave the cat a half a travel sickness pill to sedate him and dropped him off at 5 in the morning at Eric's before heading up to the bus station. It was a 16 hour bus ride to Montreal but was fairly comfortable and passed quickly, from here we had to get a taxi to the airport, pick up a hire car then drive for 2 hours to Sherbrooke to Eric's house to pick up the cat. This all went fairly smoothly too and Eric and Mano had got back with no problems. He said the cat slept all the way and only started meowing when we got in his house. We thanked him and gave him a little money for his trouble then headed back to Lacolle. We stopped on the way to free the cat from his box and let him go to the loo. The poor thing had been in his box all day. The drive back to Lacolle was horrible. No mater what we did with the cat he wouldn't stop meowing and he was driving us mad, we were so tired it really didn't help. Anyway we made it back in one piece and parked up on the farm at 5 in the morning. We didn't want to wake anyone so slept in the car for the next couple of hours. We chucked Mano out straight away, he seemed to know where he was immediately and commenced chasing Pinta up a tree, he was happy bunny!
At 7 Isabelle came out and told us off for not coming straight into the house when we arrived and said Mano was already indoors making himself at home!!
We spent a very nice next few days on the farm helping out where we could. The place had changed quite a lot from when we were last here. An outdoor arena has been built, 2 new foals have been born and there are a number of new horses. They had a full house too with old friends from Guadeloupe staying so it was very good of them to put us up too. The days went past very quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go back to Montreal to catch our plane. It was sad to say goodbye and felt horrible leaving Mano there, but he couldn't be in a better place and he is no doubt very happy with his situation.
Click here for pictures of our last few days on the farm
We are now back in the UK and trying to settle back down to normal life. We were quite shocked to hear that a few days after we arrived home the company we flew home with 'Zoom' went bust leaving hundreds of people stranded in Canada!! Lucky we came home when we did!
Click here to see pictures of back in the Uk
So that is the end of the sailing diary for the time being, but we still have Marie resting in Canada and will have to do something with her before July next year so watch this space!
Thanks to everyone we have met along the way for making our travels such a fantastic experience.
