A Gentle Touch The weather picked up again last night, so we ducked into White Bear Bay for a calm anchorage.

Our visit to Conne River, a Mi’kmaw community, has been cancelled at the last minute. The staff is good at filling in the blanks, and soon we're off in Zodiacs for a run-up to the end of White Bear Bay. We're in the two lead Zodiacs, with Tony and Fraser at the helm. Tony is chatting with folks on shore, finding out what's going on. We're trying to find a moose to photograph. The fellows across the way start waving, and both Zodiacs head over. Yikes! they were waving us away, too late, as both Zodiacs hit the bottom. Not much good for those new four-stroke Yamahas!

Back on board, Matthew Sr. has decided that there's going to be a Polar Bear Dip practice. 20 brave souls decide to participate, but not me! There have been tours of the engine room and kitchen planned. And staff offer some more workshops to fill in the time. We head into Ramea two hours early, and the town is still crowding the wharf as we tie-up. We've got some free time before the big game, so I'm off, looking for boats! The place is interesting, a fishing community on an island off the south coast. The population is down to 650 from 1300, but they're still hanging in. Some very innovative projects, four windmills offset the power supply (diesel generators), and two more make hydrogen that also runs the generators. Like many of the places we've visited, there's a big spread laid out, with live music. I go check out the soccer team, and we're in trouble, they're all 16-19-year-olds! The game is set to begin, and no soccer ball! I'm not sure if that's one of Matthew's ploys to throw off the opposition. The ball finally shows up, and the Clipper scores two quick goals. Soon we're up 4 - 1, some of our crew has shown up to play. Only at the half, they switch sides, and the kids win 8 - 5.

A Cold One I'm off to find the Post Office to mail some postcards and forget that it's closed. I stop into the Ramea Hostel to check out their crafts, and the owner takes my cards and stamp money and mails them out after Thanksgiving.

We spend more time in town and head out around dinner time. The Captain has decided to hide out in White Bear Bay overnight, and head out early the next morning. Thanksgiving dinner is nice, but not the same. It's the first time in 27 yrs. that I haven't cooked a turkey dinner!

Photos:
Ramea from the water, if you look closely, you can see the windmills

Off the bridge, in the water for a very short time, Polar Bear dippers carry on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram

Shooting dories in Francois...
  Tucked In
 The trip is winding down, this is the last stop on the south coast. We're spending the morning cruising up La Hune Bay and then heading to the small town of Francois (Fransway) for the afternoon. It's the iconic Newfoundland fishing community, complete with laundry hanging, dories at anchor and cod being unloaded at the dock. (Just opened by John Crosbie in August, some of that Conservative government Action Plan money!) No cars here, the town is built on a series of boardwalks, sized to take the wheels of an ATV.

I'm missing turkey sandwiches, my favourite part of Thanksgiving, much better than the dinner! I was hoping that there'd be some leftovers for lunch, but I'm out of luck.

I posted a few cards to some of you from here, the middle photo should be familiar. I was walking around the dock, trying to figure out how to take the shot, when the woman living in the red house came out with a coffee, wondering what I was doing. We chatted about the town, and she told me the postcard shot was staged and took six hours to set up. The wooden dories were all hauled in just for the photoshoot, the local boats moved to the other end of the harbour and lights were set up on two barges. It was entertainment for the day... she radios her husband to see if he's on his way back... I could get shots of his dory as he anchors in front of the house... no luck, they're not heading back until dusk.

I managed some different shots before we left for France. There's never a dearth of dories at anchor in Newfoundland! She also tells me that they head over to St. Pierre for cheap smokes and rum, and is surprised that we're off to Miquelon, which doesn't have very many stores.

At The Ready b:w There are a series of trails around the community, I'm wandering around, shooting photos. I spend some time on the wharf, there's a boat being unloaded. I meet up with a fellow who worked out of Port Hardy for a while. Kyla's always told me that no matter where you travel, there always seems to be a North Island connection. I check out the church, stop off at the Post Office, she's excited that one of the postcards is off to South Korea!

I'm on my way to climb up to the waterfalls with Dave (the poet/pilot), when his radio goes off, there's been an accident with one of the passengers on the Lookout above the town. Accidents always seem to happen in threes, luckily this one is just a sprained ankle, and the fire department uses their ATV to get him off the hill.

 We get invited to the head table for dinner and have a great chat with Holly (the botanist) and Fraser (the marine biologist). We decide to pass on heading back to town for the Scuff. Like many rural communities, residents of Francois have to head to a larger community for health services. The ship raises $1200.00 to help a local family get to St. John's for cancer treatments. I spend part of the evening on the port deck with some of the crew, the ferry crew has bumped up their free WiFi signal for the Clipper. Most of the Filipino crew is excited, they're heading home for three weeks. Most of them have been away for five months. We also notice that the Clipper Adventurer is getting a name change, she's been sold and is now the Sea Adventurer. We notice that all the lifeboats have been started, and the Clipper part of the name has been scrapped off.

The scuff ends early, and we weigh anchor and head off to France!

Photos:
The Clipper at anchor in Francois
Downtown Francois - no setup here, and the dory didn't show up before dusk
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francois,_Newfoundland_and_Labrador