PEI is the smallest Canadian province, 139 miles long by 4 to 40 miles wide.
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7-11 August 2011 0701-1339 Summerside to Charlottetown, PEI 46 nm
It used to be the only way to get to PEI was by ferry. In 1997 a bridge was built spanning the narrowest part of Northumberland Strait. The bridge is 9 miles long. We passed under the bridge enroute to Charlottetown, the provincial capital. Mary & Jim Fitzgerald have driven from the Cleveland, Ohio area to join us on the cruise from Charlottetown to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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| Confederation Bridge |
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| Coming home after an afternoon of sailing lessons |
We also caught up with Tim & Carol Tessier on M/Y Entre Nous. They are from Annapolis and are also doing the Down East Loop. They've been a good 2 weeks ahead of us on this trip.
PEI is largely a farming community. We hit a Farmer's Market and I came home with a fresh 10 lb chicken (do I have a pan big enough on the boat?) and fresh ground lamb. Also tasted the local beef. Bought a colorful assortment of local new potatoes (purple, red, white) as well.
The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts is located in Summerside. Since Mary & Jim had a vehicle we headed over to see their Highland Storm performance. We all really enjoyed it. Well worth seeing if you are in the area.
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| Pipers |
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| Musical instrument - 2 spoons hooked together back to back |
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| Highland dancing & piping |
We were able to do a little more exploring with a car handy and also discovered COWS super premium ice cream. If you are an ice cream fan, it is excellent. 32 varieties (and counting) including "Gooey Mooey", "Wowie Cowie" and "Moo Crunch". Named best ice cream in the world in a 2008 international competition. We took the creamery tour and had our share of Cows while we were in PEI.
We couldn't figure out why we never saw any marine stores in any of these little towns. While we were in PEI looking for some boat stuff, we learned from the locals that Canada does not have marine stores like we are used to finding. Charts and some cruising guides may be found in some local bookstores. We probably drove to 6 different places looking for stuff. One store would have one thing and another store would have another. The best place we found was Mermaid Marine. They are a distributor to boat builders, engines and transmissions repair shops, marine supply stores, and cooperatives in eastern Canada. Imagine a huge West Marine that is more like a warehouse with all the items on shelves. You can't go behind the counter but if you know what you are looking for they can tell you if they have it. There is also a catalog you can peruse. We have one of those now.
From here we leave PEI and cruise into Nova Scotia. The remainder of our cruising in Canada will be in Nova Scotia.
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