The Madeleines

August 3, 2025

JACKPOT!!!!  We have hit the mother load of fun.  WOW.  This is true cold country, so cold in fact that I don't think us southerners can really understand it.  But, when the weather breaks in the summer, all communities come out to celebrate.  The events, games and fun are by the people and for the people.  Some of the towns we have been in have little to no tourist impact and yet the events are held like it is the King's inauguration.

Charlotte Town, PEI

The fun began in Charlotte Town, PEI.  The city marina was festive the moment we stepped off the boat with a Tiki bar, band and red sand floors right at the marina.  Off the boat to get some famous PEI oysters.  Now mind you, they are extremely proud of their oysters at $3.75 each ... but hey, that is Canadian $3.75 so does it really count? (about $2.75 US).

Whereas they were stupid expensive, they were outstanding.

To see more of PEI, we rented a car and drove all over the island with the crew of Grand Life, Patrick and Leila.  They are proving to be outstanding travel companions with an adventurous spirit and fearless attitude.  Their saying to each other (for one to convince the other to do something stupid) is "Are we epic?".  We are so going to steal that line.

The drive was fantastic with spectacular views and great food.  We are really in seafood country now with lobster, clams, mussels and more on all menus.

Souris, PEI

You have never heard of Souris.  No one has.  It is the butt end of nowhere.  As a matter of fact we were going to skip it.  The original plan was to go to Pictou, Nova Scotia and then make a 140 mile jump to the Madeleine Islands. The weather forecast was such that if we went to Pictou we would likely miss the Madeleine Islands.  I had previously identified a tiny port town called Souris on the Northeast tip of PEI that would shorten the jump to the Madeleines to only 80 miles, so we went there instead.  WOW, am I glad we did.

The town was having its "festival" the night we arrived.  What a blast.  The events were all home grown and largely competed by the town people.  First up, the greased pole.  They had attached a pole to a forklift, greased it, put a rubber squid at the end and then held it over the water.  People had to shimmy out the pole and grab the squid.

  

Next up was the tub race.  They had the large tubs that they loaded fish and ice into to get them to market.  A two man team had to climb into them and then paddle around a buoy and back to win.  These things were so unstable that half the teams couldn't even get in them.  All but two tipped over when racing.  

Finally,  they had the ping pong ball race.  They sold numbered balls for $5 each.  The fire department used their hoses on a hill to channel the balls in a raceway.  At the bottom was a fireman's boot.  The winner's ball received $1,000 (again, Canadian).  When they announced the ball number, I immediately screamed at the top of my voice "Yea" while throwing my hands in the air.  With the whole town watching me, I said "Oops, wrong number!".

So a funny story:  All the towns we are visiting have federally funded ports.  This means each port seawall consists of giant rocks to offer protection.  While in Souris, Terri and I were climbing on the rocks to get a nice seat for the sunset when she dropped her prescription sunglasses between the rocks.  She definitely needed these or seeing navigational objects.  Being the chivalrous gent I am, I went after them.  Within 3 minutes, I figured out this might not have been my best idea ever.... 46 inch shoulders do not fit ....

Fear not, I managed to work my way out and at that very moment I saw a young couple walking in our direction.  My conversation went like this: 

• Me: How would you like to make $20?
• Him: What do I have to do?
• Me: Sorry buddy, you are to studly for this, I am asking her?
• Her: What do I have to do?

I explained and into the hole she went and out came the glasses.  I gave her $40!  Momma was happy.

Iles de la Madeleline

This was a total stretch goal.  But ...  WE ARE EPIC!  We made it.  I can't believe it.  To get here, you go to the Northeast most point of PEI and then go ANOTHER 80 miles North into the Bay of St. Lawrence.  This truly is smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

Yes, that is right ... it is almost to Newfoundland ....  And we made it!!!!

And oh my gosh, the beauty is beyond concept.  The water is almost as blue as the Bahamas.  The people are hard working fishermen with hearts of gold.  

On the ride out, we had an incredible treat.  It was an extremely rare day for this body of water with the winds down and water calm.  This allowed us to spot whale after whale.  Suddenly, one breached right in front of the boat.  I immediately cut power and turned to avoid it.  We don't know if it was a sign of gratitude, curiosity or simple luck ... but the fellow decided to swim right next to us breaching 3 or 4 times.  This was taken on a standard camera phone without a zoom:

Iles de la Madeleline, Entry Island

Due to shortening the trip by launching from Souris and the extremely nice weather allowing us to move faster, we arrived at the island chain pretty early.  The first island was Entry Island which has a reputation of being pretty but not worthy of an overnight. It is unique in this archipelago in that the 100 or so inhabitants are from Scottish and Irish descent.  The other islands are French Canadian residents.Since it was early, we pulled into the marina and decided to explore.  Pretty is an understatement.  It was gorgeous.  These pictures do not do it justice.

And YES, Yudee still LOVES going on these hikes.  He was playing like a puppy again. (Meaning, he was doing whatever he wanted without paying attention to our commands ... sigh.)

Iles de la Madeleline, Havre Aubert

Our marina is in the middle of the island chain at one of the more populous towns.  After exploring this area for a day, a local suggested we go to the southern most marina, Havre Aubert, because they were having their festival to celebrate their Acadian heritage.   I had already paid for this marina but decided a day trip would be nice so the crew of Grand Life jumped on board the Shorebilly and over we went.  What a treat!

Picture a quaint town jam packed with all the festival goers.  There was music playing on the beach (stone beach I might add), people dancing and shops open with ice cream.  But the main event was a contest.  Each team had four hours to build a boat and then they had to race it against each other.  The three teams were:  A chair with a woman dressed like a lobster.  A paddle wheel with a cow head on front and a sailing raft.  

The lobster woman had to much wind resistance and never got off the starting line.  She ended up just swimming in front of the crowd laughing and smiling the whole time. 

The paddle wheel just didn't have enough propulsion to really do anything. 

The sailing raft was genius.  They paddled like crazy in the upwind segment and then opened the sail in the downwind home stretch running straight to victory.  

What a blast.

Iles de la Madeleline, Dune-du-Sud

Grand Life was not going to be outdone by a Shorebilly.  Having come up with yesterday's plan, today they suggested Dune-du-Sud.  Of course the answer was Yes! I mean, WE ARE NOW EPIC! (I love that term.)  

First problem, how to get there.  It was seven miles away and taxi/ubers are almost non-existent.  To the shock of Grand Life and my wife, I walked up to a fisherman in his truck and asked if he was going that way.  He said no but would take us anyway!  Thank you Alton.  These people are amazing.  He offered to pick us up for the return but we did manage to get a taxi for that.  Back at the harbor Grand Life saw him and he offered up his other car for the rest of our stay.  We could not accept, it was to much.  These people are really amazing.

So what are the dunes?  Well, it was one of the most amazing beaches I have ever seen.  The island cliffs come right up to the sand.  The "rock" is a very soft clay/sand stone and the water cuts caves into them.  The people put their beach chairs in the caves where is it protected from both wind and sun.  Way cool.

Looking Forward

We actually gave serious thought to making our next jump to Newfoundland.  It is only 80 miles away.  However, the coastline that we find accessible offers nothing in terms of services (Marina and fuel).  Also, finding a weather window in these parts is difficult and such a jump would then require a second window to make it back to Nova Scotia.  That might take a while. 

So now we are hoping to move the boats over to Havre Aubert tomorrow.  Today is Sunday (8/3) and the forecast looks like we will not be able to get back to the coast of Nova Scotia until Wednesday.  From our day trip, we learned that Havre Aubert has more to do than where we are.  It also positions us better for the bigger trip on Wednesday.  The winds are scary high right now and will need to settle for even this small 10 mile jump is a stretch at this moment. 

Grand Life

Buddy boating with Grand Life has been interesting.  We are very different boats.  Grand Life is a 1991 45 foot (50ish overall) Grand Banks Classic. It is extraordinarily well built and can handle anything thrown at it.  It cruises at ~11 mph.  We cruise at 18 - 21 mpg.   They cannot speed up and us slowing down makes our ride rough. On these big open water jumps, we give them a 2ish hour head start.  We then pass them about half way through.  This allows us to check on each other.  We are in radio range ~1.5 hours before passing and ~1.5 hours after.  It gives us a good safety check on each other with both boats operating as designed.  

Jason and Sisters

Well, I learned something ...  Grand Life and the Shorebilly are not boats.  They are toys.  Above I mentioned the gentleman that drove us to the beach.  I saw him back at the marina and he offered me a tour of his boat (Named after his children; "Jason & Sisters").  What a ship. It is about 44'11" feet long with a 18' beam.  He built it himself with 3 other men.  They did it in just six months, November through April.  

I was blown away.  It is perfectly trimmed with a full galley, sleeping berths for four, stand up head, refrigerator and more.  I have never seen electronics like this before.  What I have on the Shorebilly are simple gadgets compared to his.  

He has dual helms allowing complete control of the ship when working.  It can be configured for Lobster, Cod, Halibut, and family fun.  Amazing.  Alton was a true master of his craft and a kind gentleman to boot.

What an incredible series of places we have gotten to visit.   More to come!

Stay safe my friends,

With Love,

Terri and Aubrey

Post Edit Addition:

While Terri was doing all the edits and cleaning up my Shorebilly English, two things happened.  First, a small sailboat rammed us at the pier.  Nothing more than a few scratches that can be repaired.  But, when I looked down, Alton was there on the dock standing beside our boat with his hands full of seafood all of which he had either caught or killed himself.  He had seal burgers, lobster dip, clams and halibut.  Unbelievably nice.