Tuesday September 3 2013

Spectacular silence when I woke, and lay motionless in my berth this morning.  For a moment, I thought I was still in Big House Cove—couldn’t find a chart with the inlet Butkus and I explored yesterday named, so decided to name it after the house.  But then it occurred to me that this is the day after Labour Day, and all the summer residents and visitors have gone back to their winter homes. Hooooray!

Then…Shit!

Remembered I was supposed to meet a new reporter coming in on the morning ferry.  That meant the image of a slow start punctuated with multiple cups of coffee and maybe even a pancake and barbequed sausage was erased.

There are several things to explain here. 

First, the reporter is a young journalism school graduate.  She sent me an email back in the spring asking for a job.  I responded with “Why would you want to work here?”  She said “I want to get away from Montreal.”  I said “Why would you want to do that?”  She said “Are you going to give me a job or not?”  I said “Sure.  Do you expect to be paid?” 

Anyway…she ended up with a job, and I ended up with another person on the payroll.

Shit…what was I thinking?

So, this reporter, her name is Clementine—Clementeeen, not Clementiiiine, I’ve be told—was supposed to arrive this morning on the return commuter ferry.  I say “was” because, obviously she didn’t.  Neither did she arrive on the evening ferry.  And, no one is answering her cell.  I’m guessing this means that she finally looked at Midden Harbour on a map (It doesn’t show up on GoogleEarth), and came to her senses, but was afraid to call me because she would look foolish saying she didn’t want the job she’d badgered me for.

At least that’s my hypothesis.  Regardless, I’m happy; there’s one less salary I have to figure out how to finance.

The second thing to explain is the ferry.  Well, let’s explain the local geography first.  As I said in an earlier post, Midden Harbour is a spit of land.  The town can be accessed three ways:  by road, sea or air. 

There’s a stunning bit of information for you!

Air is floatplane.  Land in the inner harbour and tie up at the marnia.  Sea is the ferry, or a private boat if you’ve got friends with money.  Road is a narrow, two-lane deal that still has a 20 mile stretch of gravel.  Not the best way to get here unless you’ve got a four wheel drive truck and don’t care about the paint.  It will get you to the city over a roundabout route that takes about four hours.

The ferry is a foot service that runs twice a day between here and the city.  Small passenger vessel, no vehicles.  There are a few locals who work in the city and commute every day, but it’s along slog.  High school students make up about half the commuters because there is no secondary school here.  Ferry leaves 

 The Harbour at 6:30 and gets back by 10, then repeats the trip late afternoon.

Lots more happened today, but I’m done.  Have to start thinking about tomorrow’s ad layouts.