Leaving the Maine-land

Leaving the Maine-land....Road Trip!

We’ve been in Maine for a month, waiting a couple weeks for Journey’s End to complete the process of recommissioning AQUAVIT. One of the hold-ups was installing Weaver Davits that hinge our inflatable dinghy onto our swim platform. It’s been a slow start but the weather is better this year; much better than last summer when all of July was lost to wind, rain, and fog.

Although we haven’t taken AQUAVIT out, we’ve been keeping busy with projects of our own and visiting with Pat and Judy in Searsport for brunch and exploration by car of Islesboro. Pat drove, taking the car ferry across from Lincoln. We returned to Lincolnville in time to share a nice dinner with them before heading back to the boat and they to their home in East Blue Hill.

On another day, we took the ferry from Rockland to Vinalhaven. We drove around the island and had a nice lunch at a little café. To be sure that you have a way to get off the island, you must make prior arrangements by calling the Vinalhaven ferry office to obtain a number for a specific ferry time. Our return to Rockland was on the 4:30, the last ferry of the day.

Usually, in most hurricane seasons, July is not an active month, especially in the Gulf of Mexico. It seems to crank up in August, with most storms going to the Atlantic until later in the month when they start forming and/or heading into the Gulf. Although the pre-season predictions were for a very active season, July seems to be quiet again this year. So, we decided to watch the National Hurricane Center forecast and make a road trip up through Nova Scotia and Cape Breton to Newfoundland. When we get back to Rockland, we will be ready to resume cruising the Maine coast, all while keeping a vigilant eye on the tropics.

Rockland to Calais to enter Canada

One of several places to cross into Canada from Maine is Calais. To get to Calais, you drive through Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, another place where, in our working career, we produced interpretive signs and kiosks. (Thanks George A. for driving the delivery truck up!) 

At the Canada Border, the usually friendly and laid back Canadians were off duty, and a more diligent border patrol officer inspected our Volvo for guns, they said. It took us an hour or more at the Customs Office and much deliberation, but we were admitted, after paying sales tax on Marvin’s paintings that we brought along with us. (There really is not room on the boat for them so we store them in the car.) However, the Canadian Customs Officer thought we might be selling them in Canada without paying proper VAT. Thus, we were charged a $79.00 tax that can be refunded if we check with border officials on the way out of the country to show that we still have the 4 paintings we came in with and didn’t sell them while in the country. Even though it was time consuming and a bit of a worry, in the end, the officers were nice and found a way not to confiscate the artwork. 

We drove north to Moncton, New Brunswick and then crossed into Nova Scotia near Truro, where we spent our first night. Truro is at the head of the Bay of Fundy and it is one of several places around the Bay where it is possible to observe the tidal bore. The tides in the Bay are notoriously high, up to 23 feet and there are 2 high tides and 2 low tides each day. That is a lot of water being pushed up into the Bay so when the high tide comes in, all that water creates a wave, called a tidal bore. It can be 1 foot tall or up to 12' high, moving at up to 15 km/hr!

We were at one of the places where the bore can be watched as it moves in, but we were a little early and had to move on up the road. Fortunately, we were greeted by a juvenile bald eagle (nearly white head but tail wasn’t white yet) as it perched on a pole. On the road, Lee connected into the tide-cam to watch the bore. But it was a fizzle because there wasn’t much difference in low and high tide on this day.

This part of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was central to the deportation of the French Canadians by the English, as recounted in the poem “Evangeline” by H.W. Longfellow. The explusion and the seven years of war are a horrible stain of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The French first came to the First Nation Mi'kmaq region in 1534, but only created a settlement in the early 1600s. The English (Protestants) were established in Massachusetts and the French Acadians (Catholics) were in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It seems the French and English mixed like oil and water and neither could tolerate diversity. After the French ceded most of its New World territory to England, following war and treaties, they were kicked out, spreading to parts of Newfoundland, PEI, and Louisiana. Then, the English brought in English, Scottish and Irish settlers to replace them in the mid 1700s. Marvin’s maternal line traces 6 generations back to a small ship building community in this area of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Rambling around on the way to Sydney on Cape Breton Island, there are so many maritime venues to explore. And, there are surprising treats, like a park and museum dedicated to Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel, at their summer estate, Beinn Bhreagh Hall and Gardens near Braddeck. (We reckon she was the original “Ma-Bell”.) The estate, which overlooks Bras d'Or Lake on the Red Head Peninsula, is still in the family, but is within the national park. With a day in Sydney we've got some time to explore before the ferry departs for Newfoundland. So the adventure continues.

Thanks for reading!

Stand by for more updates on this road trip to Alantic Canada.

07.24.2024