August 4, we knew today we would be home and we were all very happy with this. It was a great trip, but we were also eager to be home as well. We got up and had breakfast before leaving Caton's Island. The weather was fair with light winds and a trip up the St. John river was always a beautiful trip. Internal waterways like the St. John are always much warmer than time in the Atlantic. Suzanne was eager to get moving and it was obvious she wanted to start her day moving towards Douglas Harbour, where I have my permanent mooring. We dropped the mooring line and we were off heading up the St. John River again. We past Belleisle Bay, Gagetown and the ferry, and turned into the Jemseg River. When we reached the raft channel in the Jemseg River, we called Mike's wife Bonnie, who was going to meet us at the wharf in Douglas Harbour. It was not long before we entered Grand Lake and headed towards the entrance to Douglas Harbour. Suzanne sat on the bow seat for much of our trip and was happy to see the clubhouse come into view as we past "The Bedroom", where our boat would be homed from now on. We made our way to the wharf and tied up. We were here, home! We planned to leave the boat on the wharf for a bit to offload our supplies, luggage, etc... . There was little activity due to COVID so we would not be in the way of anyone else needing the space. Mike offloaded his things, and we loaded them into the car. We headed towards Oromocto, to drop Mike and Bonnie home. After a month at boat speed, the car seemed fast and foreign. We had begun to insert ourselves back into the world of what most people know and do daily. We dropped Mike and thanked him for assisting us to get the boat home, and hit the road again, driving back to the boat on our way home. We offloaded the fridge foods and got our luggage that we needed for home and were off. It's only 13 minutes from the boat to the house and we arrived and only had one thought; we have to go get and see our animals. We had missed them immensely, and they were excited to see us! The boat would need a going through to bring stuff home and a good cleaning, but we had time and planned to do this at a slower pace. The next day we would get it from the wharf to her mooring and start making her ours. We have some plans and we will start as time is available. She is home and that is what matters. It was not an easy trip, but it was an adventure for sure and we did well. It is an experience we will always remember.
August 3, we planned for coffee and breakfast under way this morning and threw off the dock lines leaving Dipper Harbour as soon as we had enough light to see going out the harbour. We had a flood tide with us and made very good time; so good in fact, we had to slow down so we didn't arrive too early. We were going to leave the Bay of Fundy today and enter the St. John River system. To do this, we need to get through Reversing Falls at the mouth of the St. John River, and it has to be timed perfectly, as the currents are strong with the outgoing river fighting against the strong tides of the Bay of Fundy. You don't want to be where these two meet anytime other than slack tide. At slack tide, you only have to worry about the outgoing river currents. We had already checked the tide tables and knew when the slack tides would occur for the day. We took in the sights along the New Brunswick coast seeing a few dolphins and seals, but still no whales. Maybe next year Suzanne will see some. I did see a large sunfish at the surface, but he wasn't there long. We entered the busy port of St. John passing tug boats, ferries and ships waiting to enter to offload their cargo. There are a few checkpoints throughout the Bay, which we radioed in letting Fundy Traffic know our location. We thought we would venture in a bit to look at the state of current nearing Reversing Falls, and it was still fairly strong, as expected. We turned the boat around and headed over to the Market Slip, near downtown to tie up till we reached slack tide. We sat tied up for an hour and a half, sunning ourselves with a freshly brewed coffee waiting patiently. Confident we were now at slack tide, we got underway again and passed through Reversing Falls with smooth, reasonable currents flowing out of the river. Now through our last bottleneck of concern, we focused on the next plan of checking in with Canada Customs. The Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club is a check in point for Customs, so we tied up on the fuel dock and called them on the cellphone to arrange someone to come to us. While we waited, we topped up with fuel and water, pumped out the holding tank and tidied up the boat. We were not allowed on shore yet till we had met with Customs and had been cleared in. A couple hours later, we had a guy and a lady agent show up to process us. The lady was great, but the guy had an attitude you could see in his walk as he strode down the dock. He went inside the boat, with us all on the dock, and stayed inside for a half hour, coming out and bringing me aside to question and give me a hard time for the next while. So much for welcome back to Canada. We had nothing we weren't allowed and eventually he let me go, as we were in compliance with everything. We were not happy to hear we had to quarantine for 14 days, even though we were all fully vaccinated. Fly or drive in and there was no quarantine, but by boat it was the same as if we had not been vaccinated at all; government logic. I'd worked for the government long enough to not bother trying to reason with them.
The 2 agents left and we did as well heading up the river to get a little closer to home. There was now strong winds blowing astern all the way up Long reach. We headed to the protected water in Caton's Island, where there are always available free mooring balls. New Brunswick has lots of mooring balls that are help yourself, as long as you know where to look. There were not a lot of boats here today, no doubt due to COVID as many boaters never bothered to launch, and even less were out using them. During this trip, I had still been fairly grumpy after dealing with the agent with attitude. I had started to calm by now and we had supper in the cockpit with a few beverages. We were happy to be cleared in and in New Brunswick, only a few hours from my own mooring ball in Douglas Harbour. August 2, fresh brewed coffee in the french press and another great breakfast made by Suzanne being complete, we headed to the fuel dock to top the tanks. American fuel is always cheaper than Canadian, so this was my last chance to buy fuel at a discount, so we were going to squeeze it in. We got to the wharf, near the lobster weighing area, and climbed the ladder the 20 or so feet to the top and went inside the building to let them know I wanted to top up on diesel. The guy came out and lowered the fuel hose over the side of the wharf so I could reach the deck fill. We couldn't really see him while filling, so Suzanne stood on deck and shouted up to let him know we were ready to fill, and Mike filled from the hose, while I dipped the tank so we would know when it was full. Fuel now done, I grabbed our fresh water jugs and topped up. This is water we use for cooking and drinking. We still had lots of water in the tanks, but I wanted to give these a good clean before we used them for consumption. I did drop some javex in when we first started out in Vermont, but it had sat for a couple summers, so we decided to use jugs we knew were good till we got a chance for a deep cleaning. We were now ready and eager to start the day. Today, we enter Canadian waters.
We headed out of Cutler, with Suzanne's IPhone still sitting on the ocean floor under our mooring ball we used the night before. Her Instagram emoji still showing her at the location, and would for the next few days. Some people expressed concern later as we no longer posted and the emoji never moved. Davy Jones now has full use of the phones texting and internet plan. I hope he can get better reception than we had with roaming. Out the harbour entrance dodging lobster buoys as we went and headed into the Bay of Fundy. We headed towards Canadian waters as there are no lobster pots. We did not see anymore for the rest of our trip. We passed Grand Manan Island to our right and continued on to Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick. It was another cold trip as we left Maine, and the Bay of Fundy is not known for it's warmth either. We hoped to see some whales since Suzanne is an Ontarian and has not had the chance to see any before, other than in 2015, when I brought her on a whale watching tour out of St. Andrews, NB. She did see a Minke at that time, plus some seals and dolphins. No luck today with whale watching, just a few dolphins and seals, all of which were camera shy. We got in to Dipper Harbour, which is not much more than a wharf to tie up fishing boats. We couldn't go ashore here because we had not cleared into Canada Customs yet. We had the quarantine flag up, and the American down. We were getting low on supplies at this point, and Mike called a friend that lived a short drive away. He and his wife showed up with more than we expected. Fresh eggs, bread, bacon, etc will make our morning easier. The wine they brought would make the evening happier. I happily offered to pay him for these supplies, but he refused any money, and was happy to be able to do this for us. It was very much appreciated. The harbour was deserted with numerous boats tied up waiting for the next season's haul from the ocean. |
AuthorMy name is Joe, and we are a couple travelling with our furry friends. Exploring East Coast Canada from Grand Lake, New Brunswick to where the world takes us. Archives
January 2024
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