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Following the Fundy Flotilla: A June idyll on Canada's long, lazy St. John River
Published August, 2004
By Bernie Wideman
For Points East
Fundy Flotilla 2004 will be remembered for the long, vertical ladders the crews had to climb in Cutler Harbor to get from the dinghy floats to dry land 12 feet above the water.
And it will be remembered for the east wind that blew straight into North Head Harbor at Grand Manan one night while the boats were double- and triple-rafted at moorings — keeping crews awake fending off neighbors most of the night.
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Fiddler's Green on the left and Restless cruise up the St. John River while rafted together. Fiddler's Green took care of the motoring while Restless prepared lunch. |
And it will certainly be remembered for the fog and rain that spoiled the celebration marking the 400th anniversary of the first French settlement in North America at St. Croix Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, while the flotilla sat wet and bedraggled in St. Andrews Harbor, 5 miles from the equally sodden festivities at St. Croix.
(The planned boat parade from St. Andrews to St. Croix never happened, and the 10,000 celebrants expected at the hillside overlooking St. Croix were, in reality, no more than 2,500 spread out throughout the day.)
The boats that elected to dock in the slips at the Royal Kennebecassis Y.C. in Saint John will likely always remember the unexpected and nerve-racking practice they got backing into those slips with a strong crosswind blowing — not an easy maneuver.
In the face of all these adversities, you might think that Fundy Floitlla 2004 was a washout. But you'd be wrong. Because the very strongest memories will probably be those involving fast passages with westerly breezes under blue skies spotted with fair-weather clouds, idyllic cruising on the rippling St. John River, and the goodness of all the Canadian Maritimes folk encountered during the flotilla cruise.
And there will even be good memories of the impromptu boat parade organized by a local skipper in St. Andrews Harbor after the 400th Anniversary organizers cancelled the real parade because of heavy fog and drizzle. The impromptu parade was watched by about 50 locals, most of whom watched from the comfort of their vehicles parked on the wharf.
Every boat crew will have their own special memories from the cruise, some of which you can read on these pages. Here's a summary of the basics of the cruise:
Fundy Flotilla 2004 was the sixth annual Fundy Flotilla organized by Points East Magazine and the third to voyage to the St. John River. The flotilla started at Northeast Harbor, Maine, June 19 and concluded at Eastport July 4. Other ports of call were, in order, Cutler (where the local church put on a fine lobster dinner for the crews), Grand Manan (where crews toured the island by foot, bike and rented school bus), Saint John (where the hazards of the Reversing Falls were vanquished by two volunteer "pilots" from the RKYC — the lovely old club where the crews would later enjoy a catered buffet dinner), and Gagetown (reached after a peaceful cruise up the St. John River, flowing placidly between banks of trees and cow pastures — and the starting point for a bus tour to Fredericton to celebrate Canada Day on July 1. There were 27 boats in the flotilla — 15 sailboats and 12 powerboats.
Fundy memories: By the time they left Canada, the cat had become kittens
Bernie Wideman
Cruise director
My own special memories of Fundy Flotilla 2004 include the entertainment provided after the Cutler lobster dinner by two residents who performed on steel drums as the crews sat in the church pews.
Then there was the Grand Manan girl (maybe 7) selling Kool Aid for 25 cents a cup from an improvised juice stand in front of her house alongside the road leading to the campground where the crews trooped for showers. Asked what she was going to do with all the money she was earning — it looked to be about $2.75 when Jeff Neville and I stopped for a drink — she replied, "I'm going to give it to my mom. I lost a library book and my mom paid for it. So I'm going to give her the money."
I'll also remember helping Grand Manan native Harley Griffin rig his C&C 29 Real Time — twice. Harley, who's in the aquaculture industry on Grand Manan, had set out the moorings for our 27-boat flotilla, because dockage and moorage in Grand Manan are precious. His boat, sans mast, was in amongst the fishing fleet in North Head Harbor. When I saw his mast being trucked onto the fishing wharf, followed by a boom truck, I figured he might need a hand. He was anxious to get the boat rigged so that he could get to Bass Harbor, Maine in time for the Admiral Digby Cup Ocean Race, another Points East event.
We had the boat rigged, with sails on and all lines run in approximately three hours and motored back to his berth. The following day a carpenter drilled a hole in the bottom of the boat while installing a teak-and-holly cabin sole that Harley had constructed over the winter. While a boom truck went to get the boat cradle at his house, a heavy crane rumbled down the wharf. The boom truck returned to pull the mast, after which the boat was plucked out of the harbor in slings and set in its cradle for repairs, which were accomplished in jig time. The following day the boat went back into the water, the mast went back into the boat and Harley and I went back to rigging it again. We managed to get our time down to about two hours.
The upshot was that all the fishermen and whale watch skippers had a good laugh about Harley's bad luck. But Harley took it all in stride — as New Brunswick people tend to do when faced with adversity — and just got on with the job. There was never even a four-letter word spoken. (I believe one such word was begun but not finished.)
I'll always remember one of our powerboats, Fire Escape, whose skipper and crew rescued a pregnant cat that became the best friend of all the crews in Gagetown. When a waitress in the local restaurant mentioned that the cat and her kittens were likely to be done away with by the cats' owner, skipper Dave Bickford and crew Ed Howard spirited her aboard on the day of departure. The next day she gave birth to four kittens, and the last I heard the mother and her kittens were doing fine on the bridge of the boat headed for Eastport.
One other memory of mine concerns the No. 10 bus in Saint John. This bus runs from the neighborhood of the RKYC to the city center. The flotilla crews were scheduled to have a 10 a.m. tour of the operations center of Fundy Traffic, the controlling authority for shipping in the Bay of Fundy and Saint John Harbor. Fundy Traffic is housed on the Coast Guard Base near the city center.
The No. 10 bus is the best, and cheapest, way to go. The only problem was the No. 10 bus runs only every 40 minutes and the last run of the morning — the 9:19 run — ends more than a mile from the city center. I had called the dispatcher around 7 a.m. to let him know there'd be about 45 Americans getting onto the 9:19 and needing transfers to get to city center. When we boarded the bus I was surprised to learn from the driver that the disptacher had told him not to issue transfers to our crews. Rather, he was to extend his run to the city center and drive right up to the Coast Guard base.
In the Maritimes — as we've learned on all our Fundy Flotillas — such uncalled-for kindnesses are quite the norm, whether it's the offer of a ride or the lending of a vehicle or the offer of a shower, or changing a bus route. I'm quite sure every flotilla member has at least one such memory from the 2004 cruise.
Janice and Richard Weisman
Jessarah
As first-time Flotilla participants we had a wonderful experience. The two weeks flew by too quickly. Most important, besides the beautiful scenery that we saw, were the very fine people who shared this trip with us.
Everywhere we traveled we encountered extra kindnesses. Of special note are the St. Andrews wharfinger, B.B. Chamberlain; the Eastport harbormaster, Eric Voisine, our pilot through the reversing falls; Frazier Forsythe of the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club; and finally the owners of the Gagetown Marina and their staff in the Up the Creek Pub which stayed open an extra hour to allow two baseball-starved flotilla members to watch a Red Sox and Yankees game on television.
Lucia Hatch and John Marshall
Fugue
In spite of some weather that wasn't always the best, Flotilla 2004 was proof again that flexible structure makes for a great cruise. Bernie (Wideman) provided an appealing framework and itinerary that matched destinations, people, and boat characteristics. People with more experience helped to increase the comfort level of those less experienced. It was good to renew acquaintances with veterans of earlier flotillas as well as meeting first-time flotillians. It would be difficult to pick the best of our destinations, except that things got better as we progressed. While we enjoyed the time ashore in Grand Manan, due in large part to Jessarah's family connection there, it was a miserable anchorage. Three nights there were two too many.
Pamela and Jack Dempsey
Moxie
We decided to join The Points East Flotilla to the Bay of Fundy knowing it would be a good way to meet people and a great shakedown cruise for Moxie and myself. It was a beautiful trip, and the Reversing Falls along with the scenery up the St. John River were something to remember. The interesting places that we went ashore varied from a lobster dinner put on by a local church in Cutler with a steel band, to the wonderful hospitality of the RKYC and the Fourth of July celebration in Eastport that showed true patriotism. The harbormasters and wharfingers along the way only added to this amazing experience with their hospitality and endless generosity. The best part of the whole experience was the new friends we made and the knowledge that we gained from the experience. The pictures are of Richard contemplating his next move (at right) and John inspecting the insides of his eyelids.
Ed and Nancy Haley
Syzygy
Great sailing, hospitality and entertainment, interesting rafting, unusual Reversing Falls passage, scenic pastoral motor in river, delightful Canada Day celebration. Weather bone chilling cold and wet to glorious sunny and warm. An adventure with new acquaintances.
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