Hitting the Road for Cape Breton NS

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Position: St Bruno PQ,
The morning after a great birthday party, We (Mom, Dad, Nycole, Annie and myself) set off to the meet Louise & Andre Fluery, one of the great contributors of the Reseau du Capitaine ( An HF radio net that we speak to daily from onboard as to share with friends how everything is, our position while at sea and who kindly give us the marine forecast for the area we are in, a vital link to our well being.) With goodbyes and breakfast done we get back to finishing backing,
With our 1989 super duty Chevy diesel Van (Painted red with a Roller by its previous owner!) loaded to it gills, Yes a one ton capacity van with who knows two tons of boat parts an our personal belongings, plus two cargo haulers on the roof! Set off on our 1400km journey to Cape Breton, two smiling faces and in the back of our minds will we make it!! Heading down the TransCanada highway at a blistering speed of 80 to 90kms!! not to over push our luck!, as I forgot to mention the van already has 533000km!!. Slowly we pass Quebec City, all still rumbling along and now our sights set now on Riviere du Loup PQ! 12km before RDL well one of our tires starts to grow a large blister, just about to go bang!! We are both looking at ourselves saying that if we need to change a tire we will need to unload the van as it will be way too heavy to lift with our tire jack! So now with fingers crossed we have our four way flashers going and creeping along one km at a time. With 12 km behind us we arrive at a local gas station, both of us worried this is going to be a long wait here as this famous van as 16 and a half inch tires!! No not 16 or 17 inch tires but 16 and a half inch tires.... in Montreal we spend hours and days searching for this very rare size of tire as they have been out of production for some ten years now!!! Walking in to the service station, with a big smile (I know we are F@#Ked) asking the kind gentlemen do you know where we could find a 16 and a HALF inch tire? Without a blink he reaches over and pulls out his shop part catalogue and flips a few pages, picks up the phone and calls the number,,, soon looking at us asking how many do we need! In disbelief we answer one! Within 45 minutes we are back on the road new tire and all. Setting our goals for the New Brunswick border, yes at 80 to 90kms per hour! Throughout the night we rumble along with a few shut eye stops along the way. By noon the following day we are still moving along our fingers tired of being crossed we arrive in Port Hawkesbury NS, (Cape Breton). We had made rental arrangements for a small warehouse as to leave our stuff while we are in the process doing the refit on s/v WeBeSailing. After unloading our tons of stuff we hit the road for the final 45km! to Petit de Grat, we finially arrive to see her sitting pretty.
So if someone asks you how far will a $600 dollar van take you! Our answer is still we don’t know!!!

Link to the Reseau du Capitaine web site: www.lereseauducapitaine.qc.ca

Cheers!

Annie & Eric www.WeBeSailing.com

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Comments

[Gail]

Trail Stop
Hi again - I emailed re: the sails, but just having a look through your site. How wonderful that you can live your dream! Only true adventurers would travel from Alta to CB in a $600 vehicle. Reminds me of my youth! You may have travelled right past our place. We're on the Highway #7 (mainland) that runs along the coast from Hfx to Cape Breton, about 1/2 way down in Moser River, between Sheet Harbour and Sherbrooke. Here's our 'summer' business. http://www.trailstop.ca Best of luck to both of you! Gail http://www.highway7.com Gee, a week in BWI for $800. Hmmm. Maybe a surprise for hubby some day!