Redemption on St. George's Bay

The Jimtown Department of Public Works seeks its wayward raft on St. George’s Bay.

On Saturday The Jimtown Department of Public Works took to the sea seeking not just a large boat-shaped raft but also, to a degree, redemption.

The Department was well aware of observations, from certain corners, that this wasn’t the first time the Jimtown raft has gone waltzing matilda on St. George’s Bay.

Like with any reputable municipal agency, it stings a bit when our competence is questioned.

Two mornings earlier the Mayor exited his cottage with a head full of plans for the day ahead only to notice the raft was missing.

A 35 knot northerly gale had come up during the night sending a swell pounding into the bottom of the Bay.

CJFX, aware of the significance of the Jimtown Raft, graciously put out a call over the airwaves.

Perched atop Sam’s Hill, Noreen Nunn took to her spyglass scanning the shore as the Department’s humble servants cruised beach roads praying silently to themselves that they hadn’t created a hazard to marine navigation.

Noreen spotted it on Dunn’s Beach.

Evidently the vast sucking power of Antigonish Harbour had overwhelmed its bid for freedom and landed it on the Southside Harbour share of the cut.

This came as a great relief to the Department.
Once the swell subsided, we loaded jacks, timbers, rope and a few children upon a borrowed pontoon boat (thank-you Gerry Doucette) and steamed toward what we are best at – rescuing rafts.

Jimtown Department of Public Works foreman Jamie Braid jacks the raft on Dunn’s Beach in preparation for rescue.

You see, our lives (at least this writer’s life is) are just as filled with the self-doubt, quandaries and tedium as those of non-members of the Jimtown Department of Public Works.

But when we are called upon to rescue the raft we get, for a few hours anyway, to feel a refreshing sense of purpose and resolve.

In the face of it all, the rescue was anti-climactic.

We jacked her up in all her weathered and pummeled glory, jammed rollers underneath and hauled her back into the sea with Capt. Doucette’s pontoon boat and its 200 horsepower motor.

The Jimtown Raft sits on her home beach now, a place for children to play.

And the Department will ponder the virtue of its own audacity.

Is it enough to have repeatedly sought to moor a large-boat shaped raft exposed to the whims of the Gulf of St. Lawrence?

Can we rest upon our laurels and keep her ashore?