It's 5:30 am and we have a long trip planned as we first have to leave the Harbour on the south west side and go around her to the north before heading down the east side to our distination of Val Comeau. This added an extra 20 miles to our trip, therefore we will have to do more than 60 nautical miles today. It's an eerily calm morning with dense fog setting in and perfect for Phantom Ship sightings. People tell the story of Captain Craig, one of the more notorius pirates of the region and say that on mornings like this people have seen the "fire ship" coming out of the mystique waters. People have seen it from the beach and fisherman have tried to over take her but none have been successful. As legend goes, the tall ship would come into the bay and raise a flag to send a signal to the local Pilot to come aboard. The pilot has the local knowledge of the area and can navigate the ship to a disignated point close to an Indian village. Once the crew was done there trading and got the furs they could, they would then give them alcohol and steal the rest. On this fateful afternoon when the business was done, the pilot was summoned to once again take the ship out to sea waters, but as he did so he could hear someone crying down below. The pilot, a hugh man, immediately ordered the ship to stop and he found two young indian girls kidnapped and tied up for the Captain and his first mate. They would later have thier way with them and then once finished, discard them over the side to the sea. The pilot knew this so freed the girls and sent them to shore. The girls fearing for their lives ask the pilot to also come to shore as the ship was destined for disaster. The pilot did not believe the girls and stayed with the ship only to have it hit the rocks and break into a ball of flames. The entire crew parished except for the pilot, captain and first mate. The pilot swim to shore but the other two drown as they were not good swimmers. And so the legend of Captian Craig was born of the "fire ship" in the bay. Thousands of locals, fisherman and even scientists have debated whether it is a natural phenomenon of supernatural manifestation. We were not lucky enough to witness the "fire ship" but it allowed for some entertainment as we slid through the foggy morning. Our destination is a park and said to be very shallow. We were not sure if we could even get in so we phoned the coast guard the night before and they thought is should be ok. The person on duty was kind enough to call his Captian and later recommended that we go in on high tide which meant getting there by about 5:00 pm. Going into the channel was plenty deep but there are areas of silting and we saw some depts below 5 feet. The harbour itself was under 5 feet at our designated slip but the tide was only going down one foot at this location so we had a few inches to spare. We are the only sailboat here as the harbour was filled with fishing boats. Our excitement came later that night as we heard an alarm around 10 pm and within minutes over twenty cars showed up circling the wharf. We later found out it was the coast guard calling them because someone was setting off flares at the local trailer park which by the way is a big no no.
Val Comeau to Miramichi
We don't have far to go today so we planned to leave around 8:00 am. Doug and I went up to the office to speak to some locals including the harbour master. One old timer, says we will have to build a cottage here and come back for a visit. When we do, his was the first house on the left and he would like us to stop by for some free coffee and cake. During our conversation the harbour master suggested we should go sooner than later as the falling tide creates lots of current in the channel and we wouldn't want to be pushed into a sandbar. Taking his advice we were off in the building knot and a half of current. We stayed to the track layed from the day before and all was good once again. The winds are perfect as we set sail and can point straight to our turning point. A few miles out from our turning point though the winds shifted and are now on our nose as we enter Miramichi bay and river system. We still have 22 miles to go before we reach Station Wharf where we plan to be for a couple days. This is a perfect place to be as Bathurst is 45 minutes to the north and we have to pickup our friend Bob for the next leg of our trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment