Friday, August 13

It’s Friday the 13th and Ananda’s crew is content to stay in the marina in Shediac–especially with all of those lobster pots waiting out there for us! Best not to leave the dock on such an infamous day/date. Besides, we had a long day’s passage from Chandler, Quebec the day before so it was nice to just chill out and enjoy the rest. I contacted a few friends in Moncton and arranged for them to drop by the marina for a visit later on in the day.

Joan had been working pretty hard in the galley these past few weeks so we thought we would give her the morning off and take her out to breakfast. We walked down the pier to one of the local restaurants but the proprietor told us that they only served breakfasts on Saturdays and Sundays. We asked if there was another place close by and he told us there was one just around the corner at the lights, past the Irving station. So, we set out for a pre-breakfast walk. About 2 miles later (whew!) we finally arrived at our destination. The fellow we got directions from did not realize we were on foot and his “just around the corner” turned out to be a few miles—before the corner. Oh well, we needed the exercise anyway and it sharpened our appetites.

After a great breakfast we figured that if we had come this far we might as well get some groceries to replenish the galley. I asked our server in the restaurant if there was a grocery store nearby. She quickly replied “yes, there’s one just up the road a bit”. I thought wait a minute, I should tell her that we are on foot. As soon as she heard we were on foot, up the road a bit turned out to be a 50 minute walk—that took us even further away from the marina. She kindly called a taxi for us and we were grateful that she did.

Our taxi driver turned out to be a local fellow who moved to Toronto as a young man and then spent 58 years working there before he retired and moved “back home to Shediac”. He said that he drove taxi part time to get out of the house more often and keep busy. When we arrived at our (grocery store) destination we expected the fare to be about $15.00. When I asked the driver what I owed him, he said “$5.00 will be fine”. We all smiled and Chris immediately said “this sure ain’t Toronto!” (where it cost about $5.00 just to get inside a taxi) and we all had a great laugh—our taxi driver included.

After we got back to the marina I found a comfortable spot in the Yacht Club clubhouse to set up my computer and work on my blog. Fueled by multiple cups of great free coffee, I managed to get all caught up on the blog. I also managed to connect up with Kathryn Barnes, Ron and Judy LeBlanc and with Mike McWilliams from Moncton.

Kathryn is a long-serving member of Moncton City Council and I got to know her quite well when I was working on the public-private-partnership (“P3”) project for the City of Moncton Water Treatment Plant. Ron was the City’s Capital Project Manager and the Moncton WTP was his project. Mike McWilliams was our company’s solicitor for the P3 contract. I spent about 4 years working closely with the City staff and politicians on this important P3 project and during that time I got to know the city and several of its people quite well.

Unfortunately, I have not had many opportunities to get back to Moncton over the past years but I still have many fond memories of my times there and was very glad to get a chance to see Katherine and to meet her friend Claire, to see Ron and Judy and to catch up with Mike on the phone.

Chris declared that he would be “chef du jour” and that he was making a chicken curry stir fry for our dinner. That was fine with Joan and I. Joan deserves a break from all of her hard work in the galley looking after the rest of the crew—and, don’t tell them, but my “plan” is working great.

When Chris and Joan first joined me in Longuiel, Quebec I proudly showed them the stockpile of Spam and Minute Rice that I had assembled and declared that we would eat like kings and queens on this journey! Their lack of enthusiasm for my culinary skills was politely evident. Next, a few days later I declared that I would make the breakfast for the crew and boasted about how great my poached eggs were. Well, the poached eggs ended up looking like a pair of yellow eyeballs on toast with some white slurry on the side. They politely ate their breakfast and I have not had access to the galley ever since! Joan suggested that I stick to navigation and engine care and that she and Chris would look after the galley. It works every time!