A windstorm with rain during the night but the mastboot did not admit water.
In the morning I had planned to go obtain the nautical charts published by the Canadian Hydrographic Office that describe the remaining waters of Canada that we plan to cruise on this summer. Our chart book, about 85 pages, describe from Block Island to the Canadian Border and cover St. Andrews, but not beyond. We do have electronic charts, two different systems, for the days ahead, but I have always taken comfort from paper charts.
Our normal supplier, who sold me the charts we used in Nova Scotia, Landfall Navigation of Stamford CT, advised that they need lead time to print charts and with my mate’s ambivalence about whether we would go this far (her “one day at a time” plan), I had deferred purchasing the charts until Eastport, which is on the Canadian border. The cruising guide said that the hardware store there sold them. But back in NYC, when I called to confirm, the answer was “no longer, but try X”. X said, “Sure we have lots of Canadian Charts.” Two days ago I called X again with the numbers of the charts I wanted and was told “Don’t worry, we will set them aside for you. When I called told them that I was coming by to pick them up, they asked, “Which numbers, again? “ and then reported that they did not have them!
I was angry. I am being involuntarily thrust into the digital age and have brushed up my chart plotters “routing” feature while in St. Andrew’s and have way painted routes (series of red dots at waypoints connected by black lines) through unfamiliar waters to our next four stops. I don’t follow the routes precisely, but it is good to know, when getting near a place to change course, whether is is to port or starboard and how much of a turn.
The morning in Eastport also saw a two person cleaning team attack the dirt in ILENE’s interior. One small carpet had been soiled and I took it to the dock with scrub brush and soap, only to be confronted by the no running water problem. But I noticed a puddle of rainwater from the night rain. It worked.
The route to St. Andrews began with a counterclockwise trip around most of Eastport, and the crossing of the huge Passamaquoddy Bay to the entrance to the St. Croix River. That river is the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, much as the Rio Grande divides Texas and Mexico.
We left our Deep Cove mooring at 1:10 pm, both because there was no wind before then and because the tides became favorable later. I had called Canadian Customs and Immigration in the morning to let them know we were coming but they said we should not call until we were “on our mooring” in St. Andrews. What I forgot was the time zone change. So we arrived after a bit more than 2.5 hours, at 3:50 PM Eastern Time. But this was 4:50 Atlantic Time, just ten minutes before Customs and Immigration closes for the weekend! We had some anxious moments when the recording kept telling us to wait — “on pain of losing your place in the queue”, for half an hour. It was well after five and we were about to give up hope of getting ashore this weekend when a lady answered, asked us our names and birth dates, ILENE’s boat registration number, whether we had cannabis,etc. aboard, how long we planned to remain in Canada and the purpose of our visit. Then she gave us our ten digit Clearance Number and said “You’re cleared”. She did not ask for our passport numbers, the dates and places of their issuance or about our cats. We have their papers but I had expected to be asked.
We dinked ashore, visited the supermarket, had a dinner at the Kennedy House, built in 1881 (second consecutive night with mussels, a visit to the SAYC, showers, and back to ILENE. THE club was closed and consisted of a 35 by 20 foot one story one roomstructure at the water’s edge, with no docks or access to the water from the premises.
Next day we got a late start due to jet lag perhaps, did laundry, had an elegant lunch at the 1889 Algonquin Hotel,
now a Marriott, very Scottish, the help all are wearing quilts. With a mussel in the chowder, this marked the third consecutive day that I, who always thought I did not like them, enjoyed mussels. Then a tour of the Kingsbrae Gardens, with 26 separate gardens, each with a different theme such as this, the most formal garden,
Sadly no time for the museum, the library or any other notable attractions.
Was St. Andrew the Parton Saint of Scotland? The town is also very British with its grid of five by eleven blocks, and it was a “loyalist” town. The mooring field is protected by Navy Island and most of it is very shallow, requiring a huge pier that extends out into it, upon which sits the office of the “Wharfinger” (think harbor master) and two very clean and well run shower rooms. Promoting tourism, the second night is less expensive than the first.
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