Sunday we left Ramea. Destination was the highly recommended town of Francois. It was pretty calm, just a 25 mile motor boat ride.
Francois (the locals pronounce it Franz-Way) is located in a natural amphitheater with 600 and 700 foot hills surrounding it. It’s really an astoundingly beautiful place.
Before we had the lines on the dock a friendly man named George came to greet us. Again we got the run-down of the town’s history, changes that had happened, what it offers. (WiFi wouldn’t work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 12 pm and 6 pm due to power shortages in Burgeo, no cell reception, but every house has a telephone and TV!).
Immediately upon arrival TJ put the dinghy together and he and I went out into the bay to try and catch some cod. According to the locals the cod like anything for bait, and you can even catch them without bait. Not us! It was granola bars for dinner. Just kidding, thanks to Carol we were being fed properly throughout the trip for once.
Monday was beautiful and we all went to hike up to Charlie’s Head, from where one has a fabulous view of the town and the whole bay. Once we got above the town it was off-leash time for Mr. Baxter and he was happy as a clam, roaming around on the hunt for bears and Caribou. Not that he would know what to do if he ever encountered one…
On our way back I was hanging back, taking pictures when I encountered two locals leaving their house. They asked if I was on the sail boat and invited us all to come to the local ‘pub’ that night. The pub turned out to be a very small house, though according to Greg, the owner, they managed to fit 60 people in there at one time. A bit claustrophobic I would imagine! We met Greg and his friend Mark, who turned out to be from Halifax but spend about a month in Francois every year in the summer. A nice young couple joined us later. They came to Francois on the ferry, on a holiday from Calgary. A quite enjoyable evening!
The good weather didn’t last, however. It rained all day Tuesday. We had asked the locals about getting water and they referred us to a well. A well! Too funny, but we gathered our jugs and made several runs to the well and back. The water was slightly brown and tasted earthy, but I figured since the locals all use that for drinking water and look quite proper it would be just fine for us.
Wednesday it rained on and off, but TJ and I managed to go for a nice long walk around the lake without getting wet.
When we returned one of the locals had come down to the boat to tell us we better move to another dock. The forecast was for North East 30 knots, but the wind there wraps around the cliffs and on occasion North East 30 can turn into North West 50. So we tucked in and waited for things to come.
Yet nothing happened, and Thursday afternoon, after yet another walk around the lake we left Francois, destination Trepassey, hooking onto the back side of the departing low.