Saturday, 05 August 2006

Blanc Sablon to somewhere in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

It was difficult trying to sleep with the cranes loading the containers aboard, and worse once the engines started and we set sail. I'm sure that I must have got some sleep before we docked at St.Augustin at 5 am. By breakfast time (7:30) we were en route for La Tabatiere - and it was pouring with rain.

Lunch in the restaurant was surprisingly good. An excellent pan-fried turbot. There are a lot more passengers on board for the week long round trip cruise than I had guessed from last night which might go to explain the good food. Of the communities we visit along the coast, some are anglophone, some francophone, and some aboriginal. You can make an educated guess which is which from the name.

After lunch I caught up on some sleep (why is it easier to sleep in the day than at night?) which is a shame as it meant I largely missed out on the visit to Tete-a-la-Baleine (Head of the whale) as it turned out to be quite sunny. At 5 pm we docked at Harrington Harbour an outport which, although quite large, has only wooden boardwalks to connect all the houses. A film was made here (La Grand Seduction) about a little outport community trying to get a new doctor for the village. The doctor is keen on cricket, so the villagers must quickly learn about cricket and arrange a match to convince the doctor to stay... I must try to see it.

The visit to Harrington Harbour clashed with dinner time, so I had to have dinner first, but that still left over an hour to wander around and take lots of photos in the bright calm evening.