1 Aug 15

We had a glorious sleep and woke to a glorious morning: warm, clear skies - summer is finally here, maybe. It turns out our quiet little anchorage is quite the weekend hangout, because about 10:00, power boats of every description and jet skis started to arrive, all loaded to the plimsoll line with partiers, and pulled up on the beach. By 13:00, there must have been 40 boats, with more coming in, and a couple hundred people all having a good time on the beach and enjoying the warm sunshine; turns out, this is a 3-day weekend and New Brunswick Day, so there were more than 100 boats there eventually. Not our scene, so we got the hook up at 13:20 and headed up the Miramitchi River to Miramitchi, or Newcastle, depending on who you are talking to. We sailed for the first few miles, but as we got up into the river, the channel narrowed and the wind was, of course, on the nose (finally a SW wind). We sailed into one small thunderstorm. We had already furled the jib and had 4 reefs in the main, but were still knocked nearly flat by a sudden micro-burst, that must have hit 40 kn (I was too busy releasing the main sheet to observe wind speed. But it was all over in a few seconds and things returned to normal. We motored on up the river and were tied up at the Ritchie Wharf in “downtown” Newcastle at 17:00, happy coincidence, just as it started to rain again. As the rain persisted for a couple of hours, we cooked dinner aboard and later had a nice chat with Azade, who is the skipper for and owner of the Miramitchi tour/party boat “Max Aitken”, which is parked right behind us; this is also Miramitchi “Pride” Day, so there was a big group going out on the boat for an evening cruise.

Time-lapse link:

http://youtu.be/NEcD6bVFncw

47-00.278’N, 065-33.778’W

2 Aug 15

As we learned from the locals, today, which is the 3rd day of summer, started warm and clear and stayed that way all day long. Azade loaned us his truck and we made a quick run to Canadian Tire to try to find a replacement drawer roller for the Admiral’s clothing drawer, but no luck. In the afternoon, Azade invited us to join the 15:30 departure of the “Max Aitken” for a tour of the Miramitchi River, complete with a brief history lesson of the area. Fascinating stuff and very generous of him to offer. A lot of the folks on the tour were impressed that we had got there all the way from Texas and wanted to talk to us at length about the trip. After dinner, it was apparent that Azade’s crew had not showed up to help him with the evening tour (his dad, sister and brother-in-law subbed in for the afternoon trip), so we volunteered to help him out with line handling and bar operations (at both of which jobs we have some considerable experience). So, we made the 19:00 departure, which was hosting a family reunion of the O’Neils. By the time we got back to the dock at 21:30, the Admiral and I had both been adopted by the O’Neil clan, although I am pretty sure they are the mortal enemies, for all eternity, of the Kerr clan; I'll have to look into that as it would be a shame to wipe out this entire group of very fine people. Still, a family blood-feud is a thing to be honored; such a moral dilemma. Another fine day in paradise.