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30 July 2010

Louisbourg V: Fri 30 Jul – "La(z)y Days" or "Lay Daze"?

The next leg on this cruise is a 2 day offshore jaunt to Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, small French islands off the Newfoundland coast, and we leave this afternoon to arrive Sunday morning. The weather these last few days has offered up winds of 25 to 30 knots, rain squalls, and big seas, so we’ve been sitting and waiting. The “we” includes Jean and Josiane on Kurika and even a few RVers in the motor home park. Kurika is an Amel 46 ketch, massive compared to Kerry Deare, and even experienced sailor Jean who’s crossed many oceans was sitting this one out.

So what does one do to fill the time? The short answer is quite a bit. For starters there’s always an opportunity to waste hours at the computer (photo upper left). What did we do prior to becoming online slaves? And then there’s a sailor’s favorite: shopping.

Wednesday morning looked like just another maintenance day when Josiane announced that Sid and wife Dorene in a motor home would be driving to Sydney, the largest city on Cape Breton, for shopping and had offered the three of us a ride. Naturally we jumped at the opportunity (photo middle left). Jean and Josiane hadn’t done major provisioning since leaving the Caribbean over 2 months ago, and I was eager to avoid boat chores. The 5 of us fit comfortably in Sid’s large pickup and were shortly standing before the Wal-Mart in Sydney River (photo right). It was “just like home,” including the distasteful feeling some get from the Wal-Mart “experience.” Yet there’s no question we shopped and enjoyed doing so (photo left).

Thursday evening Kerry Deare hosted Jean and Josiane for wine and cheese (photo right), a dangerous undertaking considering that I had on board only the basics for entertaining, and my guests would be Parisian world travelers. We conducted a tasting of 2 California chardonnays and the verdict was: “Acceptable or Better.” The visit seemed to work to the satisfaction of all including my crew teddy bear Polo, who finally got the attention he deserves (photo left).

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