More Summerside, PEI
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 7 Aug 2007 12:49
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46:23.307N 63:47.189W
We found Summerside and the Silver Fox Curling and
Yacht Club (yes, curling with the ice and brooms as seen every 4 years in the
winter Olympics - people really curl up here in Canada) very pleasant
and ended up staying for 3 nights.
There are lots of sailboats here in Summerside -
the most we've seen since the Thousand Islands and Quebec City. Also,
Summerside is the first place we've been where other boaters have done, are
planning to do, or are doing the type of boating we are - not just the weekend
kind of boating, but the extended vacation or live-aboard kind of boating.
Everyone we ran into was extremely friendly and helpful.
We met a couple from Maine, sailing on a 36' Cape
Dory very much like our old boat and Pan (the husband) was more than happy to
spend a good hour reviewing anchorage stops along the coasts of Nova Scotia and
Maine with Don.
On Thursday we met another couple, Cheryl Picard
and Charles 'Chick' Silliphant (see picture below), whose hospitality went
beyond our wildest expectations. Starting with a lobster lunch, driving
tour of the island and dinner on-board on Thursday, and ending with
lifts to all kinds of places for errands shopping and a pizza and beer
dinner on their 40' CS sailboat named 'Great Habit' on Friday.
About a year ago, Cheryl and Chick sailed to the Caribbean, spent 15 months
cruising there and sailed back. As a result, they had all kinds of
excellent advice for us including passage planning, safety ideas, weather
contacts along the way, food planning, provisioning and interesting tidbits like
we may want to re-think our wardrobes as cotton clothing tends never to dry
in the hot, humid Caribbean air - this pertains to underwear as well.
Hmmmm, no cotton underwear? This might be a struggle for Don.
In the midst of the flurry of activity with Cheryl
and Chick, we had the pleasure of meeting Cheryl's very spry 87 year old dad,
Ted (he climbed up on our boat like it was nothing) and Chick's sharp-as-a-tack
93 year old mother. When Chick introduced us and told his slightly
hard-of-hearing mom that Don and I had a 52 foot sailboat, without missing a
beat she asked, "What, are they trying to show off??"
Evidence that this is a very small world that we
live in...
Chick's nephew Kent and his wife Sonia participated
in the 1997 version of the same world sailing rally we will be joining in
January. As a matter of fact, Chick and Cheryl traveled part of the way
with Kent and Sonia including their Panama Canal transit. So, when we went
on the driving tour of the island, we dropped in to meet Kent and Sonia,
and they dropped what they were doing to break out some beers and share their
own round-the-world sailing memories with us. Considering that the
round-the-world rally has only been held 2 times in the past ten years
(1997 and 1999), and each time only about 50 boats participated, most of
which were European, isn't it kind of amazing that we ran into two of the
very few Canadian participants? Anyway, it was great to hear about their
experiences and it got us excited about our 'real' adventure, which doesn't
start until we get to St. Lucia in January.
Just a few notes about PEI...
We didn't get any pictures since I kept forgetting
to bring along the camera on our many outings with Chick and Cheryl.
Oops. So, I'll try to describe it. Rolling green hills, small wood
frame houses and buildings, many nice sand beaches, lots of red dirt, many
red dirt roads, lots of agriculture, mostly potatoes, bicycle trail from end to
end (PEI is 185 miles long), settled by the French in the 1500's and overrun by
the British in the 1700's, Scots came along in the early 1800's, lots of
fishing, lots of golf courses, economy driven by tourism and potatoes. As
tourists, we ate potatoes just to do our part to support the economy.
In general, very pretty scenery and extremely friendly people.
We left Summerside Saturday (8/4/07) and headed for
Charlottetown, PEI. Below are pictures of the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht
Club and a lighthouse we passed as we left Summerside early on Saturday
morning.
Thanks to Cheryl and Chick for a great time in
Summerside.
Anne
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