Day 5 - July 25th The "Voyage" Home!

Saturday, July 25th - We were up very early on Saturday morning as we had 8:00am reservation for the ferry...but we had to be on site by 7:00am. We are very fortunate that we had two nice days to tour the Îles de la Madeleine! Unfortunately, but not to our surprise, it was raining...the positive, we only had about a 7 minute ride to the ferry terminal. I wrapped my pack in plastic and loaded in on the V-Star.



Once at the ferry terminal, we had a short wait and then we were loaded on the boat. As mentioned in my day 1 post, the advantage of being on a motorcycle is that you are the first ones loaded and the first ones off the boat! Prior to loading the boat, I looked out at the water and it looked very rough!

Once you are loaded on the boat, the crew uses a large block of wood to wedge your motorcycle in place. I am not sure what they would do for a sport bike with a lower cowling??? You can see very clearly the wedge under Martin's Suzuki...



In no time, the ferry was off and we were out to sea. As I anticipated, it was rough. There was a small boat that left the harbour around the same time we did. The two pictures below clearly demonstrate what we were in for!





About half an hour into the cruise, we passed by Entry Island. As mentioned in my Day 4 post, this is a small Anglophone community where fishing and farming are the major industries.



Since this was the last view of land we would have for 3 hours, I decided that I would take advantage of the photo opportunity.



You can clearly see some livestock in this picture.



For some people, the next 4 hours on the ferry were not very pleasant! I was okay, but barf bags were in heavy demand and the boat staff were very busy dealing with people who were sea sick. Luc, Susan & Martin handled the crossing pretty well too, however, Luc & Martin did not move around too much!

We arrived in Souris, PEI around 1:00pm, unloaded, fueled up and hit the road! It was not raining, but the skies looked like they could explode at any moment! My rain suit did not hold up on the trip to the Îles de la Madeleine, so we stopped in Charlottetown and I purchased a new rain suit. By the time we reached Borden, PEI and the Confederation Bridge, the sun was shining. We drove pretty hard as we wanted to make it home before dark! We did make a stop for supper and fuel and then proceeded home. About 60km from Fredericton, Luc & I split from Martin & Susan as we live on different sides of the river. I was looking forward to seeing my wife and kids!

Overall, this is one of the best motorcycle trips I have ever been on and I would highly recommend it to my fellow motorcyclists! Also, Luc, Martin and Susan are great traveling partners! The 1200km journey and the 5 day trip to the Îles de la Madeleine receives a 5 star rating from me!

Til next time, ride safe!