Saint Pierre et Miquelon
I'd heard about these small islands in highschool at some point when learning about funny geographical strangeness around the world. These got grouped in, or at least how I remember it, with things like Point Roberts in Washington State and the Russian island being just 6 miles away from a USA island up in the Bearing Sea.
With about 5,500 people on the island living in the main town of St. Pierre and another 500 or so on Miquelon, the larger island with the smaller town strangely enough, these are common stopping points for yachts traveling in the area. It may be because France makes an effort to ensure it's small outpost communities have the same goods as their mainland, and possible also doesn't have the same alcohol taxes as Canada does, so the wine and cheese selection is wild after traveling in small, expensive Canadian villages. That all being said, it's not like St. Pierre is a large place.
Arriving
We sailed in from Ramea essentially motoring the entire way through very lumpy seas and pea soup thick fog. Easy trip but mostly just holding on and watching the radar where we also didn't see much. Coming around the north end of Miquelon, where we had heard there is also French customs, the fog lifted for a moment and we were surprised to see quite a mountain towering out of the water.
Around the corner and towards the small wharf we had no idea what the layout of the marina was or if we were allowed to go in without checking in and so on so we just approached the huge beach and anchored close to shore but still unable to see anything due to the fog.
Immigration
I rowed the dink in hoping to catch some french officials or learn at least something about the area and confirm we were allowed to be there but all I found was Christophe aboard Apsara who had apparently arrived that morning. We chatted on the dock for a while and caught up as to where we'd been and what we'd seen. Being French and having already checked in he was sure they were low-key but due to a few yachts having issues in Canada with arriving in the evening but reporting the following morning I wanted to make at least some sort of contact with someone.
The customs and immigration was closed but they had a form I could fill out and email to them. I did so and barrowed Christophe's French phone to call the number on the door where I'm pretty sure I caught someone just sitting down for dinner who literally said, "did you send the email? Well then you're good why did you call?". Okay, easy enough? We went back in the next day an actually got stamps because stamps are half the fun of going places hey!
Miquelon
Knowing we had a sort of short time before a good weather window was coming along to go straight to St. John's Newfoundland we were planning to head the 25 miles down to the larger town of St. Pierre that day. But, being as we were here and there were the prospects of french pasteries we went ashore in search of some and a small walk before taking off.
The town has a small square and then some houses around really. There was a combo gift shop/visitor-centre/cafe building which we went into but they only had one orange cake available in the whole place. Obviously expecting not too many guests it looked like they just didn't make too much as not to waste it. We had a slice of that and went on our way for St. Pierre.
St. Pierre
Arriving through their port the town sits very nicely in the hills. The building style is simple but still distinctive from the Newfoundland houses and the town layout also had it's own feel. We went through two layers of break waters, past French ferries and other interesting cruising yachts looking for Whalie Bird who was tied along side the public wharf where yachts can stay. There weren't any spots so we rafted alongside and settled in as it turns out the harbor is free if you don't use their facilities.
Gettin' Settled
That night we learned there was a music festival so Heather and I took off in search of french baguettes, cheese, and wine, before returning to go to the concert. We found one opened bakery, also not very well stocked but it was 5pm, and then hit the large grocery store in town which was impressive both as of how large it was but also as it was a very European store with what they had and their prices. A few wines and cheeses later we returned to Karma to drink wine and have charcutterie in the cockpit while the concert right on the wharf began.
Whalie Bird came over as we were finishing our wine and Sebastien from Boreas came over on his dinghy and we were all aboard, having wine, and preparing to go to this concert as it was getting louder. We got over to the music and were surprised to find such a turn out! It's obvious that there is a good group of modern younger people in places like this but it's cool to actually see them. The concert was a local band that mainly did covers of Quebequois songs and other classic American hits which everyone was real into. Overall it was fun to see the crowd. Also interesting to have Flurian and his wife, the Swiss couple who'd just had a child in St. Pierre during their sailing adventure, partying whilst holding their baby monitor to their ears in the case one had to go back to the boat quickly to check on the newborn.
Planning and Croissants
Really our main goal in the area was to do some exploring, some provisioning, and get some french croissants. Turns out the croissants were a bit more of an ordeal than we expected as we seemed to keep getting to bakeries that were closed or didn't have them. Lots of places seemed to have a few breads, a few random pasteries, but were mostly empty. Turns out you really do have to go early to get a hold of some. Everyone else made it sound so possible! We did finally find them, after getting to one of the three bakeries earlier, they were out, but we decided to stay anyway, and they had a few on the way! We each got two but the whole sheet was gone within a few minutes as we were sitting, enjoying ours, and plotting our way through Greenland. It was fun being tied along similarly aged cruisers with similar destinations in line. We are hoping to cross bread crumbs with them again.
The island has a really cool, mostly hard rocks and low trees and shrubry feel to it. The town extends up the hills and then sort of fades out and the roads leave in a few spots like you'd expect in a valley in Europe, but then looking at the map, just out of sight the road just hits the end of the island and ends. Walking up one of these gave us a neat view of the town down to the bay and then had access to a trail system.
Wandering back we passed by lakes and really sturdy trees. We over dressed, as we continue to do on this supposed to be cold coast, and eventually got stuck in the rain. It was the perfect day though to go on such a walk as the other days were far foggier and we wouldn't have seen much otherwise.
Overall it is a really interesting spot. Seems to be a bit of a hub for cruising yachts, espeically Europeans who, I'm guessin?, seem to find a bit of home away from home here where everyone is French speaking and they can use their regular phone plans and bank cards. The position of the islands, with their access to European foods, makes them a really practical spot on an otherwise rather remote coast which brings people in, but there is something else which I could imagine would make you stay for a bit longer. I mean, the Swiss yacht showing up post Greenland on their East-bound trip and staying for a year and having a child there speaks to that.
Departure
It makes sense to keep moving, the weather was good, and a chance to race contemporary cruisers on another steel boat of a similar size? We are taking that window. We left at 4am at the same time as S/Y Whalie Bird headed direct for St. Johns with a sweet weather window. We'd end up loosing this, but they motored more and they only won by an hour so with the cruising class handycap they aquired we definitely won ;)
