Winter came, our second winter in Saint Pierre, and then we start thinking whether we were realy at the right place here.
Nevertheless we took time to enjoy the snow and the ice, wind permitting, in company of our furred and feathered friends, and at spring we sailed again, that time Eastward, to reenconter our families and friends, back to Britany to offer a better shelter for our boat, more in accordance with her past.
After the Great banks and the fog the Azores islands and our friends welcomed us for the summer : Horta, Praia da Vitoria, Santa Maria, still so beautiful and so dear to our heart.
The weather would be tricky for the last part of our journey but at least we will join Praia to Douarnenez with a direct course, this time the huricanes let us pass !
Douarnenez where we found ourselves quickly in our element, as if we had never let it. Here the maritime heritage is not virtual, it’s living and it’s with a great plesure that we reenter the Port Rhu, a place where the sea meets the river at the mercy of the tides, where the boats sleep under the trees.

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Anchored, usualy us sailors we talk of anchorage but now it seems that we are about to be realy anchored in the archipelago. Spring came shyly, slowly, but we had a real summer, even hot, more than 20°C, nearly 24°C ! Of course we have taken the oportunity to pace up and down Langlade, his “Belle rivière” and the peat bogs, Miquelon where we circled 5 times the Cape, admiring the balsam firs, the deers, collecting mushrooms and naturaly enjoying lobsters (thanks to André!). We even took a bath at sea !

Again meetings and visits : Gérard, Linda and this time Michèle and Marc, nearly the whole Dattolo’s family ! Laurent finaly arrived whith his “Julie” and oncle Pierre, Ning, little chinese girl alone on “Andreth”, her 23′ sailing boat, shamely pushed back by the authorities, all together, but we keep the contact with her, “Zhai Mo 1”, another chinese sailing boat coming from the NE passage, better welcomed, difficult to understand authorities decisions…then the “Vagabond”‘s family : Eric, Anne, Léonie and Aurore, here to take some warm after so many years spended in the ice. Then came the sailors feast, the neighbour-of pontoon – feast, always with music, the 14th of July…the historic reconstructions of the Zigotos, demonstrations, unusual in Saint Pierre, far from the ones in “la Canebière”! the photography competition Capi won and boats, boats : a trip to Fortune whith the friend Stephane to unload the king crab, the dry docks of “Elinor Marit”, of “Cap Marie”, and naturaly our’s, where our “Skoiern” will exit, once more, even more beautyfull.

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Anchored, yes, and we are standing well !

A Mare labor, Saint Pierre and Miquelon’s motto. Mare, she is everywhere. Labor, it depends of what you understand in Labor. For retired people it could be an insult, but howewer….It will be without taking in account Stephane’s personality, great fisherman under the look of God, and the sea he knows as it’s pocket since he was a child, who came when we arrived in the archipelago, in the company of the friend Laurent, to ask the Captain to work again, just to give some lessons to aprentice fishermen. In fact time flys in Saint Pierre, even in winter there is no risk of neurasteny. Small territory free from Covid madness, life is quietly flowing.
Quietly, if you don’t tell of the walks in the “moutain”, whatever the weather, with Iris and her dog friends, if you don’t tell of the Tai chi lessons and Taekwondo of Anne Marie, the Star Navigation lessons given by Capi, the learning of the arab language he took again and the book he is writing, the evening meetings by the friend Nathalie listening Irish music, when it’s not time to start singing seamen’s songs like a crew on a binge.

So, we din’t see winter going. As says the locals, it was a very mild winter, enough for us to appreciate the snow Iris love, but not enough to ice the Barachois where our “SKØIERN” lies, nor to use our norvegian sled. Global warming seems to be here, Miquelon and Langlade are ready to divorce, the strand which was united them is going into pieces with the winter storms, it’s only a question of time.

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Spring is coming, very slowly but the sun is already high in the sky, then we are refitting our boat, the sails are back, we prepare oursleves to ear again the song of the water flowing on the hull and the quietness of the anchorages. The “Zigotos” put their dories back to water, they promise to built one for us, birds knows that winter is away, they are getting smart. We will not go further than the archipelago, nothing more, the doors of Greenland and Canada are closed. We made ourselves vaccined to be able to travel, but with not much confidence, we have to be patients, like everybody, we wait arching our back and we know that we are privileged here on our rock.

Drydocking on the Aber Wrac’h’slip for that time, last visits to the Moulin de l’Enfer to admire the “Bel Espoir II” slowly back to life, a trail to the “Pont du Diable”, and same as usual, we sailed again…No like theafts, impossible to live the Aber Wrac’h quietly : the eve of our departure, by chance of the calendar and the weather, the”Etoile”, the “Belle Poule” and the “Grande Hermine” came to moor to our pier. Exchanges, visits (Thank you Guillaume !), mutual respect, we couldn’t thought of a better conclusion to our stay in the Aber. The day after the”Etoile” will leave shortly after us and, in a supreme tribute will salute us when our courses will diverge :them by the Four channel, us by the Fromveur.
Not to much wind to cross the Bay of Biscay, 3 days anchored in Cedeira, Galicia, waiting for a good wheather window, and the wind will acompany us up to Horta, in a single tack from the quarter !

We dind’t realy thouht to stop, but once again it was the wind who decided, and our boat. We have more and more the feeling that’s it him who take us, we just have to let it do, and we like it.
In fact, to be again at Horta, with the Pico in the background, it’s a great pleasure. We quickly had a covid test and a day later we are free, free to meet again our friends, Leandro, who had already taken pictures of our arrival, Pedro, Luis, Rita and baby Francisco, Jose Henrique of the Peter Cafe Sport. Anne Marie make the discovery of Pedro’s garden boat, at Praia da Norte, we meet Anna Luisa, 6 days of feast, of getting together…I leave my third and last oak in the hands of Pedro. With him I am sure, it’s a wonderful gardener, and I was afraid that it will not be able to bear the harsh climate of Saint Pierre. By this way they are 3 oaks planted on our way : one under Jeanne’s guard, at the Vrenig, one by Jean Yves at the “Moulin de l’Enfer”, the last one in Faial, our descendants will have enough wood to built their boat if they want it.

The way to Saint Pierre was not as easy as the one for Horta, much reaching, that nor “SKOIERN”nor us like, and as soon we left the Gulf Stream it’s the fog that welcome us, for sure we were on the New Foundland Grand bank. The fog we will not let us until the arrival, that we will do at night, as usual…

As we wake up Enrique Perez, the Port Captain, tell us that the harbour is closed and ask us when we are about to leave. We answer that we didn’t intend to do so and that we come here to stay and live in. Great laugh, the ice is broken, a covid test more and 24 hours later we start our life in Saint Pierre.
If we would have thougt to be secret, we failed : the day after our arival we are at the TV, for the 20h00 news on SPM 1ère ! It’s he first time for us, we discover an unkown world, and this will introduce us in the islands : everybody saw us, know why we are here, our projects…and come to see us and talk. And it’s not the radio reportage, the day after at “Radio Saline” where we are invited which make any change….
What is realy extraordinary on these small french rocks which disturb so much canadien people, is that it’s a meeting point for the sailors and other travelers. There is not a day without meeting a friend, or a friend of our friends, which we have not seen for years, here, on the other side of the Atlantic! Bretons, Marseillais, sailors like Laurent ,with whom we sailed together on the “Liberté”, 40 years ago, Gérard, our friend radio, Linda his wife, who came to visit their daugther Sonia…others who come from l’Aber Wrac’h, hard to beleive it.
Nature is beautiful at Saint Pierre, it remind us of Norway, Canada, we like this post glacial vegetation, the peat bogs, the ponds with carnivorous plants, the trees fighting the wind. Visits to Miquelon, Langlade, the horses island, the Ile aux Marins, it’s the “plate bierre” (the yellow berries of norway)season, bluberries, raspberries, blackberries, you have just to pick them up.
Winter is coming soon, we have to prepare us, another adventure…

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