We spoke to John Fallon twice during the day yesterday on the Ham Radio, once at "Net" time (Mississauga Maritime Net, at 9:30 a.m.), and the other was a schedule we set up to meet him at around 4:00. The last time we talked, I told him that it would be an easy trip into Jonesport…just one hour to get to the buoy where we'd turn, and then another easy hour into Jonesport. Well, we hadn't taken into consideration the number of fishing buoys that would be spread out before us, haunting us like land
mines. A caught line in one of our props would mean a delay while Laurie donned his wetsuit to get the rope untangled, and a bit of a fear of damage to rudders or saildrives. We wove our way very carefully, each foot behind us without an accident was a blessing. When we finally arrived into Jonesport just at dusk, we realized that the book we were relying on for information, failed to tell us that all the municipal mooring balls were on the other side of the bridge, which was too low to go under!
We got into an area with lots of fishing boats on moorings, and when we spotted one without anything tied to it, we took a chance and grabbed it and tied on. We were hoping to stay for several days until the weather system passed. We crossed our fingers that nobody would notice a catamaran in the middle of a sea of lobster boats, but it wasn't long before someone by the name of Karrolle came knocking on the side of our boat. At first, I sensed a negative reaction from him, but after he spoke
to us for a bit, he softened up. He did indeed own the mooring, and told us that he was nervous for us that it wouldn't hold us through a storm…only 700 pounds of rock down below! (Would have loved to have that mooring at Grand Lake instead of the little one we have!) He welcomed us to use it for the night since it was very quiet and the storm would be arriving a day later. The only option for us would be to get up very early the next day and head out an hour before high tide to maneuver through
the land mines (bouys) and find the perfect place…all before the storm arrives later on Friday.
Our buddy Karrolle came for a visit at about 6:15 am on the way to his boat, and told us that we needed to hit the trail pretty quick if we were to get an 8 hour day in before the storm ("when the weather would turn sour"). He was genuinely worried about us! Laurie asked if he knew of a place closer by to weather out the storm, and Karrolle told us that "Eastern Harbour", only about an hour away would be an ideal place!! He thought they even might have a few "guest" mooring balls. Well, he was
bang on and here we are sitting looking over the cove. I see loads of fishing boats, commercial docks, and some pretty expensive homes sitting up on the hills. By the sounds of the weather, this will be our home for the next few days. We have lots to keep us busy…reading, movies, soduko puzzles, and of course chores. We had a lot of movies and documentaries already packed, but Jeanne and Doug dropped off several more when they visited us at Market Slip in Saint John before leaving. Maybe I'll
even make dinner for Laurie tonight, since I was a bit too frayed to face food last night after our arrival…(of course, Laurie was calm and ravenous, so he put together a nice meal, a can of "New England clam chowder"…how fitting!)
You can see our current location on Winlink (you'll find the link on the left side of this Blog). It's a tidy little harbour, and should be quite safe.
Until the next time,
Dawn (&Laurie)
