There's a sparkle in Martine's eyes.
- I feel at home when I'm at sea.
Martine Bourque is a captain in the Canadian Coast Guard, in Cap-aux-Meules, Magdalen Islands. But her interest in the sea and the wind has always been there.
She was ten years old when she started taking sailing lessons. Over many summers, she learned the ropes, come rain or come shine, on the small dinghies designed to be used by children or teenagers. No insulated clothing! Two pairs of shoes, a change of clothes and a thick wool sweater were enough. She remembers the "pirates fights" the small boats were waging, trying to board each other and sink the "enemy" ship... Read more...
Small, festive groups of people in disguise go from house to house. Called Mi-Carêmes after the French name for the Mid-Lent celebrations, they step into the living rooms and kitchens of the neighbourhood where the game is to guess who's who - identities are well hidden behind masks and extravagant costumes. Once a group has been found out, it heads for the next house. Mid-Lent was a French custom and is now celebrated in Fatima, on the Magdalen Islands. The event spans over three days, in the middle of Lent, three weeks before Easter. Some Islanders, who now live on the mainland, find it very hard to spend this local holiday away from home and family. Gilbert Chevarie remembers the winters he spent working away. Read more...
"We used to play fishermen when we were kids. We were throwing our pots off the porch." They laugh, thinking of those days.
The Poirier brothers welcome me in their workshop - the "shop." Jean-Mathieu is doing the storytelling.
"I still see him in his small pick-up, leaving for another drive around the docks. Maxime the Good Samaritan, on his way to give a hand to a friend, and who ends up helping everyone out."
As a kid, Maxime is always on the docks when his father - fisherman himself - comes back from the sea. He doesn't want to go to school, he doesn't want to stay with his mom; he wants to be with his dad on the boat or at the "shop." He's given a piece of mooring line or a piece of wood, and he "works".
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"Captain!" Read more...