Friendly Conche, Part 2
It is still rainy and grey when we wake up on Sunday. Harald is out checking the lines when the fisherman from the boat behind us comes along. He is emptying his boat of crab-fishing gear and preparing for the start of the cod fishery next week. He tells Harald the turkey dinner started at noon! That was thirty minutes ago, so we quickly don our “Sunday best” and walk the fifteen minutes to the school.
Worth The Hike
Many have already eaten and left, but we buy our $15 tickets and within minutes are served a hot turkey, roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, turnip, peas and carrots, bread stuffing and tasty gravy. One of the servers comes by, sits for a minute and tells us the Conche Garden Party has been running over 100 years - back then it was a true garden party. The meal is prepared, hosted and served by the women of the church. She tells us to come back at 3:00 for the talent show.
We head back through town and up the trail toward The Glass Hole. We pass The Outport Garden and the 1942 crash site of the Douglas DB-7. A story board has been installed this year.
It is warm and a bit muggy. The grass underfoot is damp so the sections of gravel trail are welcome. The way is steep, with wild strawberries, raspberries and unripe cloudberries lining the edges of the path. The view to town and the bay is spectacular.
From the top of the ridge we can look out over the open ocean, with two large ice bergs in the distance and a few whales surfacing below us. So worth the walk - and we wore off the yummy homemade sweets served for dessert.
We are back at the hall just as the talent is about to start.
With help to spring off the wharf from our very tight quarters, we depart Conche in the late morning on Monday July 31. The large ice bergs at the head of the bay have broken apart with bits floating as close as the wharf. The whales appear as soon as we round the Conche Peninsula at Cape Fox. They keep their distance and so do we.
We have twenty nautical miles to go for our stop in St. Julien’s Harbour. The day starts pleasant with a bit of cloud and about 15 knots of wind. We are motor sailing as the wind is on our nose. Things change rather quickly, though, about three miles from our turn at St. Julien Island. The swells are over two meters and the seas seem confused. The wind is about 20 knots, still on our nose from the North - not the forecast. Not pleasant and we are both starting to feel a bit unwell.
With the Mulou Shoal on port, I take us down the west side of the island and into Great St. Julien Harbour. We are treated to a pair of caribou grazing on the hill. The anchor is down by 3:00pm but the fetch from the north wind continues long into the evening.
Our unsettled stomachs are calling for spaghetti and an early bedtime. We stay until Thursday enjoying the quiet and the views of the ever changing shoreline as the sun comes and goes.
