Who ordered that?*

A few days after my big birthday party we launched Pachina Mia. Everything went perfectly — too perfectly. We soon noticed:

Our raw water coolant pump had developed a serious leak. After consulting with Brian, the yard manager, we remove the pump and he took it to his shop where he disassembled it and determined that a back seal had cracked. A new one was ordered, but it would take a week to get the part, so ‘the boys’ moved us over to a temporary nearby slip.

A week later the new part arrived, Brian made the repair, and we reinstalled the pump. And it worked!

While we were waiting in the temporary slip we spent the days getting the boat ready to live in, and eventually to sail away. Cleaning, sorting, rigging, getting the water system running… it all takes time. But one really fun thing we did was go see the local production of Come From Away.

It always takes a lot of work to get the boat ready to live, and then sail away in. But it’s not all toil and trouble. A couple from Rimouski sailed in, and they turned out to be fantastic musicians. What else could we do but hold a Newfoundland Kitchen Party!

They regailed us with beautiful songs, so we had no choice but to join in.

And of course, we had to share some Newfoundland high culture with our new friends:

The days moved on as normal. Work continued on the boat, such as doing the big climb to mount the wind instrument (Ann’s turn). It all felt quite normal… up until our new friends Deirdre (De) and Steve sent us a little notice about a house for sale in, of all places, Ramea. And… we got interested.

Ramea??? Ramea is a small town, on the south shore of Newfoundland. But it’s more than that. It’s on a small island, off the south west side of Newfoundland. It can only be reached by water, or by emergency helicopter. The ferry ride is over an hour. In short, it is a long way from everywhere.

The house on offer was small, inexpensive, and nice. De & Steve, who also own a house on Ramea, invited us to accompany them when they went back in a week. We thought, what the heck. Let’s go look. If nothing else, we’ll see another part of the province. So we went, although before we did, we managed to spend a few days off the dock at a nearby anchorage before heading off. Fellow sailing friends Duncan & Renée joined us for a couple of days.

By the time we were ready to head off to Ramea, we learned the house had sold. So be it… the road trip would be nice, and we’d still get to see a whole new part of the province. And different it was. We saw caribou on the road to the ferry, and then got to ride the little boat to this little island with views of the Atlantic all around.

Ramea itself turned out to be captivating and lovely, in a stark and harsh way. The terrain is devoid of real trees, mostly dominated by rock and scrub. It looks like a northern landscape, above the treeline, and yet it is relatively far south, and the climate is pretty mild.

The town of about 400 people has nearly everything one might need, including two grocery/general stores, an ATM, and one gas pump. There is an operating fish plant, a museum, a decent wharf, and a restaurant (although it was temporarily closed due to an ownership change). The island is ringed by a board walk that is maintained by community volunteers. We walked nearly the diameter of the island with De and her dog Farley, and probably met 1/2 the town-folks.

We spent three days wondering the town and the island, getting to know the area, and some of the people. Then we decided to head back to Lewisporte so we could carry on with our boring lives of sailing Notre Dame Bay. The very next day De emails to say another house has come up for sale. “Are you interested?” I guess we are…

Steve & De kindly volunteer to go look at the place for us. They send us a bunch of pictures, and give us their report. Bottom line is, they think it’s a steal, “and if you don’t buy it, we will,” they say. So we did😳😳😳🤯🙀

So our nice simple life of summer sailing and winter house-sitting has now been thrown into a tizzy. We really don’t know what we’re doing, or how life looks going forward. We definitely did not come to Newfoundland this year with any plan to buy a house. But we do know this seems right for us — at least right now.

What all this will mean, especially for sailing, and Pachina Mia, is up in the air. In fact… there is a possibility we might be selling her back to a previous owner. But as of press time, nothing is certain.

BIG NOTE: While all of our life-changing events were going on, our good friend Mark was solo-sailing the shores of Labrador. He left even before we launched the boat, and has been braving the wonderful and dangerous Big Land all on his own. We’ve stayed in touch, and offered what little assistance we can from afar. It’s a huge achievement, and to do it solo puts Mark in a very small and rarefied group of sailors. Truly impressive, and amazing.