Day 35, July 31, 2007

Day 35, Tuesday, July 31, 2007
From St Peters Community Campsite we meandered up the road. We followed Highway #16 along the coast today. It passes through most of the small towns, and we pulled off into anything that looked interesting. If we do this much more it may be October before we get home. All the towns, well not towns but villages, because a lot have only a store and or a restaurant maybe 10-20 houses are geared towards the sea. Fishing, lobster, crabs is all there is. Lots of farms up this way and most cut right out of the bush which although not very tall it is dense. The mainstay seems to be potatoes and I think a fallow crop of oats or barley but I don’t think for market, maybe just to keep the nutrients in the ground. We walked in a fishing village called Narfague, it is situated on a little pond with a quay for access to the water. 100s of lobster traps, you would think they would fish it out but they seem to keep going. Up the road we drove into a little village, but bigger than Narfague called North Lake and North Lake Harbour. Lots of boats and 2 or 3 warehouses where they deal with the daily catch, which at this time is tuna. From North Lake we continued East to East Point which is the most easterly point on PEI. There we visited the light house which was built in 1876 and located just off the Point by a half a mile. This created some problems because boats thought it was on the point and swing around it and land on the reefs. So later in 1880 plus or minus they moved the structure a little too close to the point and had to move it again years later because the banks were eroding. I don’t know how they did it but they did. This is one of the oldest still operating lighthouses on the Island. It was open for tours and Willa and I did a walk through. It is 68 feet tall and 64 steps to the top but what a view when you are up that far. In the four of the corners and there are six sides to the light house (I think or 8) anyway in the four corners there are 24 inch beams that run from the bottom to the top (all one tree). The trees were taken from right around where the light house was built. The light house still functions but now with GPS and other navigational aids they tend to be obsolete. A number now have been taken over by Parks Canada and are being restored. It is interesting the amount of holdings that Parks Canada has. Fort Henry, The Rideau Locks, Lighthouses plus a number of others things I’ve heard they have bought or are buying. Looking today in the same area, I doubt there are any trees that are higher than 15-20 feet and I don’t remember seeing any that were 20 feet. The gift shop had internet and so that is where Tegan spent her time and the gift shop was well stocked and very reasonably priced. We got talking to a couple from Scotland and they had heard a big Tuna was coming into the North Lake Harbour. So we were finished at the light house and we headed back to North Lake Harbour to see the big Tuna. It is only about a 10 minute drive but a 20 minute process to find a parking space for the motor home that is level and not blocking someone’s driveway. Well the first boat came in but someone said it was coming in too fast, so no Tuna, and they were right. A couple of other boats came and finally a slow boat and it was towing a Tuna. They are too big to bring into the boat, let me repeat this, TOO BIG TO BRING INTO THE BOAT. The first one was a big fish and I am guessing at about 400-500 lbs. These fish are caught with a rod and reel! Yes a rod and reel. The next boat that comes in is on our side of the wharf and we can watch them hauling the fish in. The boat owner and his wife on shore and other people are all excited about the size of the Tuna, the biggest they have caught for a while. Before the head comes out of the water they have to tag it, too dangerous to do in the open water. Well they haul this Tuna out and weigh it in at 940 lbs, this is caught with a rod and reel but not as big as you might think. They cut the head off and tail and get it ready for the auction that will take place the next day. The price has been as low as .50 cents a pound but lately the price has been $3.50-12.50. The owner of the boat that landed it said it did give him some trouble getting it to the boat. Well I guess it should have at 940 pounds. By the way the rod is hooked to the boat. That was a real treat for the day. From there we headed to Red Point Campground for the night and maybe stay an extra day to lay back and relax. The site was full so we ended up in the over flow for the night and hopefully a site will come up for tomorrow, although I should be good for 2 days. It was cloudy most of the day and so a little cooler. With no hook ups of course no air conditioning but with the wind and the clouds we really didn’t need it. We arrived a little earlier than normal around 3:30 pm. So had time to set up, relax, read and then start supper. I do the BBQing and we have BBQed just about every night. Keeps from heating up the motor home by cooking inside. We walked down to the water and waded out. Looks like a sandy beach for 1-2 miles and where we are it goes out maybe 400-500 feet and doesn’t get over your waist at low tide. I off loaded the bikes and we have them to putter around the campsite. We noticed another BC license plate but no one home to see what part of BC they are from. Tomorrow will be the first day that we sat and didn’t go anywhere. Should be good.