Annes, Lobsters and Windy Days

We spent a lovely few days at Summerside on PEI. There was a great marina - the Silver Fox Marina and Curling Club: boats in the summer and curling (throwing heavy "rocks" down an icy lane) in the winter. We were there with two other cruising boats, Ke 'Ola Kai and Tanglewood II, and their crews whom we have seen before at other ports and it was great to see them again.

Summerside is famous for its College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts. You can't get a degree there, but you can learn to play the Highland bagpipes or Scottish snare drum or learn Highland dancing or Island step dancing. We attended an afternoon mini concert with talented and earnest teachers at the college, which was great fun and later we attended their evening extravaganza, "Highland Storm," with lots of pipes and drums and jumping dancers.

The next day we rented a huge van (it was that or a small convertible that no one could in the back seat) and invited Dave and Lisa from Ke 'Ola Kai to join Tom, Mary Margaret, Jeff and I on a tour of the island. 

We saw lots of beautiful farms, red soil, potato plants, sandy shores and made a pilgrimage to the north shore and the provincial park of Green Gables, fictional home of Anne Shirley. The author of "Anne of Green Gables" spent summers with an aunt and uncle and based Anne's home on their house. It is quite the place - full of tourists, many from Japan where the movies were very popular and there was even an animated show based on the characters. It was great to be there with one of my "kindred spirits," Mary Margaret. We've both been reading the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery and were full of Anne lore. 

Jeff of Green Gables

We skipped the author's birthplace, school, the fake town of Avonlea and Shining Waters Amusement Park. It is a very Anne-y place. The dock master at Summerside said he has three red haired daughters and is very weary of visitors commenting on them (I'll bet none of them are named Anne - with or without an "e").

We headed home through Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island, then to the PEI end of the Confederation Bridge. This is the longest bridge built over water that freezes in winter - 8 miles long - connecting PEI with New Brunswick. We found a knitting shop nearby so it was a particularly good stop.

We left Summerside to cross the Northumberland Strait to Shediac, NB. The Pointe du Chene Yacht Club welcomed us warmly with a great dock, a yacht club flag, a lovely trail to town, friendly people and delicious seafood chowder. We walked to the main part of town to see the huge lobster statue, which almost ate M2! A former Wisconsonite stopped by to say hello and offered a ride to our crew to the train in Moncton the next day. Another couple lent us a car to get heavy groceries - what a wonderful group of people. 

 We picked up a new crew, John and Jane, and left yesterday to head back to Charlottetown by water. The wind picked up as we traveled, so we passed under the Confederation Bridge and ducked into a harbor that was the ferry dock that is no longer in use. We tried anchoring, but it was very bumpy in the wind and went into the inner harbor and are tied to a fishing boat listening to the wind howl. The weather prediction is for diminishing winds later today and we're hoping to cross to PEI later, but will have to see. Books and yarn certainly make waiting easy! Sally