21 July 2024 – Sunday – To Fleur de Lis

Another beautiful sunny day ahead. Max had his cousin Tony pick him up to fill up eight 5 gallon jugs of fuel. They returned to ask what we wanted for breakfast from Tim Horton’s. For those who aren’t familiar, Tim Horton’s is the place to go for coffee, muffins, breakfast sandwiches and such. It’s Dunkin’ Donuts more than Starbucks. It’s such a Canadian institution that I can’t imagine there could be any competition. A man in line behind me asked where I was from. Clearly I am not a local. When I told him New York City, he said that St Anthony isn’t as busy as NYC. HA! Then he asked how many people live in NYC and when I replied 8.5 million, he said that all of Newfoundland doesn’t have that many people. He has lived in St Anthony all his life. As is typical in my experience, people are very friendly. 

The wind is against us today so we aren’t going as fast as we did yesterday. Our intended destination is 75 miles away. We will have a long day. But..we saw whales and dolphins twice. Moya went back to the whales to get pictures. She said there were 4 or 5 fin whales. Photos from yesterday indicate that we saw a blue whale too. Mia has the outlines of all whales and fins so we could check. Pretty amazing. 

As we entered Fleur de Lis harbor there were whales everywhere. The harbor is a long entrance that is extremely well protected. We arrived at a long dock and several locals who were watching us came out to help tie up. 

Birthday celebrations started with Pol Roger champagne and hard smoked salmon that Moya had been given in square island. In lieu of birthday cake, I requested a tomato tart which we were supposed to have made a few days ago. Birthday cake is not my thing. 

We will move on to dinner next and then get ready for an early departure for Fogo island. It is a place I have wanted to visit. Very exciting. 

A breaker tripped as we were cooking. It required moving furniture around to open the floor. Then the fire extinguisher got set off. We are having a very fashionable late meal around midnight. Lots of laughter.