Charlottetown, PEI
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 7 Aug 2007 12:52
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46:13.753N 63:07.426W
We had a nice mostly sail, partly motor from
Summerside to Charlottetown on Saturday (8/4/07). Just as we arrived in
the Charlottetown harbor, a storm was brewing, and looking very nasty. As
we semi-frantically (ok, I was semi-frantic, Don was fine) radioed the
yacht club, and when they didn't answer, the marina, to inquire about dockage
for the night, the storm hit. We clocked the winds at 43 knots [non-boater
translation: ~50 mph] which was a bit scary. No problem though - we
just pointed the boat into the wind and kept the motor going enough to
basically keep us in the same position in the harbor until the
storm blew over. Shew! That was another first for this trip -
the highest winds we've seen so far (although pretty short-lived at only 5 or 10
minutes in duration). The wind seemed like nothing when it calmed down to
30 knots after hitting 43. I think that's the trick to this sailing
thing. Every time we experience something remotely scary (scary for me,
Don is more like a rock and doesn't seem to scare), the next time the same
circumstances occur, it's no big deal.
After the storm passed, we were able to contact the
Charlottetown yacht club and secured a space on the outer wall for the
night. As we pulled up to the wall, there were about 15 fishermen hanging
out on the dock. They helped us in, which was great, and once we got
settled, we noticed that the big pile of stuff on the dock wasn't fishing gear,
but empty cases of beer - about 8 of them. Apparently it was fishermen
party day at the yacht club (it was Saturday, after all). Whrn
we left to go to dinner, the partiers vowed to look after our boat for us.
We left the boat feeling pretty secure (really) that the partiers would guard
our boat well.
We stayed in Charlottetown only one night - all the
excitement with the storm (and the three additional storms that followed it
later that evening) and the partiers was enough for us and we headed out to
Pictou, Nova Scotia early on Sunday morning.
Once again I forgot to take the camera into town
and therefore we have no pictures of Charlottetown. This is too bad since
the town really is quaint - most of the buildings were built in the 1800's and
many are still in good shape and/or in the process of being renovated. We
had an excellent dinner at the Merchantman Pub - highly recommended for anyone
that visits PEI in the future (Bill M. - they had cod and lots of
it!).
Anne
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