Deck log: the 07:00, and a kitchen at noon

Written in the truck at the Westport landing, Monday 9 November, 12:50.

"She'll tell you she's worked that ramp since '88. I'll tell you she's been late for supper since '88." Arthur Thibodeau agreed to the kitchen on one condition: he got to talk too. He drove the fuel truck on the Freeport side for twenty-two years and has never once crossed Grand Passage as a passenger. "Why would I? I can see it from here."

The 07:00 was the school run. Four kids, one teacher, and a crate of library books in the back of a Subaru. Bev counted the books at the ramp. Forty-one. She says she always counts something.

At noon there was fish chowder, which we had not budgeted for, and which puts the Vinalhaven chowder line under pressure before we have left Canada. Cal set the recorder up by the window. Arthur asked him to move it, because that is his chair. Cal now has four minutes of a man explaining a chair. It may be the best thing we have.

The 15:00 back to Freeport, then the long drive to Digby. Inés has asked for a window seat. The ferry has no seats.

— I. & C.