Nomad's Travels: St.Pierre

Entrance to the inner harbor

The island of St Pierre with 6000 people is the population center of St.Pierre et Miquelon. This is mainly due to the large natural harbor on the island, while Miquelon, although much larger, has only a small man made basin.The children from Miquelon come here to finish their education and then they all go to France for for college. There is quite a bit of history here,from settelment times and the various wars to the rise and fall of the fishing industry. The largest boost to the local economy was during the USA Prohibition era when St Pierre was a major port for smuggling alcohol into the USA. It was far more profitable than fishing. I was anchored here for several days, but was

French wine

unable to row ashore a few times due to high winds. When the forecast for the next storm went from 35 knots to 55 knots overnight, I decided it was time to find a dock. With the help of the local tourist office I received permission fro the Captain of the Port to tie up on the dock below his office on a Sunday afternoon, and remained there until I sailed for the Azores. I took a guided tour of the island that was very worthwhile learning about the place from a local resident who also speaks english. I explored most of the town on foot as it is not very large. There was a gas station near the docks, but it had been closed due to a fire. The other gas station was across town, but it was next to the fish market, so I came home with fresh fish and diesel on the refueling days. I had

Around town

refueled in Miquelon, but I was running the heater quite a bit in addition to the fuel I used motorsailing down from Miquelon. I looked around carefully but I could find no berries to pick, the season for them was over. There is an abundance of roses around St Pierre, so the big juicy rosehips became the fruit of the day with breakfast. Grocery shopping was quite the adventure. Besides the linguistic challenge, there were many French and European foods I had never tasted before. There is a yacht club here, but their docks were very expensive.They also had the only public laundry in town that I could pay a small fee to use. I met one of the sailors from Miquelon who sailed here the day

St Pierre

after I arrived. After cold front associated with the storm that had just passed, there was a nice break in the weather clear across North America. Since it was getting late in the season in this area, I decided to forego anymore stops in Newfoundland and sail directly to the Azores while the weather was quiet.