Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th, Monday 7th July. Storm bound

By 1pm, the winds were blowing strongly across the harbor, but Quinita is pretty well sheltered.  When the ferry goes past however, it sends quite a swell which rolls the boats around a bit.  Forecasted winds are from the SE (blowing us onto the wall), becoming W later, which will blow us off the wall and should be more comfortable. 

We had a coffee at the local hotel, and caught up on internet stuff – bills, blogs and (Teresa) sifting through the hundreds of iceberg photos…  We saw Joe in the hotel and he joined us with his computer.  We had appetizers for lunch and stayed all afternoon with the occasional check on the boats.  It was blowing hard and rainy.  We got caught up on blogging, and other internet stuff and helped Joe download some updates to his Chartplotter, (which took a while since the internet connection was not lightning fast). 

Suddenly it was dinner time, so we did!  Ron had Cod Tongues and Moose Stew.  Yum yum. 

After dinner the rain had eased and we (Ron & Teresa) went for a walk around town before returning to Quinita.  We were being blown off the wall and so had a comfortable nights sleep.

On Sunday, it was still blowing hard when we woke, but we were still pretty comfortable.  It was raining again and cold.  In the afternoon we took a scenic drive to the Rose Blanche lighthouse.  The drive was beautiful and the lighthouse was very interesting.  It had fallen into disrepair and recently been restored.  They made a very nice job of it.  The wind was howling at the lighthouse, almost blowing us over, which made us realize what a nice snug harbor we had for Quinita.  We had another quiet night, despite the wind.

By Monday morning the wind was starting to ease.  The forecast was indicating that we might be able to continue our travels tomorrow.  We’re hoping so.  There’s not really much to do here at Port aux Basque.  In the afternoon we went for a drive with Joe and found some very interesting dirt roads.  After driving through huge potholes at 5 mph for about 45 minutes, the main road re-appeared, but it was touch and go whether a road car would be able to get across the last big dip in the road.  We unloaded passengers to save weight, and cautiously crossed the last hurdle. 

Friday 4th July.

We had been monitoring Hurricane Arthur for the past few days.  It wasn’t expected to reach Newfoundland, but its effects would probably be felt in the next couple of days.  So we cut our trip short, and returned to the boat.  On the way we popped in at Gros Morne, a huge national park.  We didn’t have time to do the park justice, but we did manage to hike to the start of the boat tour into the inland fiords. 

We got back to the boat at 9:30pm after a long day mostly driving.  It was still light and so were the winds, so we decided to move the boat to a better location before the predicated strong winds arrived tomorrow.  We tucked ourselves into what we hoped would be a relatively sheltered spot against the harbor wall.  Two other yachts had arrived since we left 3 days ago – one from Germany and one from Maine, heading for the North West Passage.  So in the past couple of weeks, we have met one boat on the way and another planning a trip to this tough sailing area.  Good luck and fair winds to both of them!

Thursday 3rd July- Icebergs off the Starboard Bow!

Fortunately it wasn’t the bow of our boat, which is tied up 390m south of here.  We took a tour of the icebergs with Cecil http://icebergtours.ca, and it was fantastic.   He has been giving tours of the icebergs for 30 years and is still so passionate about them, and of course very knowledgeable.  As you probably know, icebergs are very dangerous, since 90% of them are below water and their centre of gravity changes as they melt which can cause them to suddenly roll without warning.  Our skipper pointed out icebergs that had recently rolled – he could tell from the texture of the ice whether the exposed part had been underwater recently but I forget the details.  He was still cautious of course about going too close but we did get some amazing views of them. 

Teresa must have put a really big roll of film in the camera, ‘cause she took ~300 photos which she has pruned down to 136.  It was extremely difficult but she’s chosen a few to include here – enjoy! Note that one of the photos is an eagle nesting in the mountains.  The photo was taken from the tour boat. What an amazing area!

In the afternoon we went for a short and very hilly bike round around North and South Twillingate Islands.  The islands are very pretty and hilly and the weather was unbelievably warm – 33C, 92F.  We took a hike up to Long Point lighthouse and just missed seeing an iceberg calve – when a large chunk breaks away and forms a smaller one.  In fact we heard the crack and by the time we turned around, just saw the remains of the splash. 

In the evening we went for a ‘Theatre Dinner’.  This took place in a community centre and was attended by a mixture of locals and tourists.  We had dinner, then the wait staff took up guitars, accordions and various props to entertain us with music and sketches.  The jokes were intentionally corny, but the whole experience was enjoyable.  It took me (Ron) back to the middle 1960’s when my Boy Scout troop performed “Gang Shows”, attended mostly by friends and family, to raise money for the troop.

Wednesday 2nd July.

We set off north in the car bound for Twillingate, a beautiful fishing town on islands off the northeast coast of Newfoundland.    It was a beautiful drive, although rather long – 620Km, 390m.  When we got to Twillingate it was even beautifuller and we were treated  to the site of several big icebergs.  Yes, that is a big iceberg behind those buildings in the second photo.   Our B&B was very nice – a small room, but what the heck, we’re used to living in a small space!  We went for a short bike ride, saw more icebergs and then had dinner on the outside deck at a local fish restaurant. The Snow Crabs were delicious.   We never dreamed that we’d be eating outside in shorts, t-shirts and sandals at 9pm watching the sunset and looking at icebergs.  What an amazing contrast.

Tuesday 1st July.

We visited the harbor master and moved the boat to a more secure berth.  This was however a fixed dock designed for fishing boats, not a floating dock which is usual in a marina.  Floating docks have the advantage that they rise and fall with the tide.  We spent some time therefore adjusting our lines so that they held the boat at high water but had sufficient slack for low water.   

Once satisfied with the lines, we went for a short bike ride around town.  July 1^st is Canada day, so there was music playing all afternoon close to the boat.   There were also a few brightly coloured booths  selling ice cream, doughnuts, etc.  We listened to the music for a while, then sauntered through the booths until Ron saw “Deep Fried Mars Bars”.  This was a challenge that couldn’t be ignored so we bought one.  It was actually pretty good – a Mars Bar wrapped in some kind of thin bread dough and fried!

We alternated between the boat, (to check the lines and get warmer clothes), and the music bandstand and marveled at the locals standing around in T shirts.  (By this time we had donned sweaters and wind breakers). 

Late in the afternoon an American powerboat arrived and tied up in front of us.  It turned out that the skipper, Joe, was single handed and hailed from Beverly, MA – our sailing buddies Brenda and Vin’s home port.

We had organized a rental car for the next few days to explore this large island, and the rental guy called us to arrange delivery.  We were having lunch at the time and agreed to meet him in ½ hour at the boat.  20 minutes later, as we were walking down to the boat, a car wound down its window and a voice called “Are you the car renters?”  I guess we were the only 2 people in town that the rental guy didn’t recognize.  Life is different here!

We had dinner on board and then went back to the music and watched the Canada Day fireworks.  Ron woke at 1am to check the lines one more time. 

Monday 30th June.

A long passage today – 65nm to Newfoundland.  So we woke early @ 5am to find all the fishing boats were long gone.  I guess 5am isn’t early for fishermen!  We did however get to see a sunrise (which we don't see too often!)

The forecasted winds were perfect 10 – 15knots from the south and even at 5am there was a light and very warm breeze in the harbor.  Once out to sea however the winds turned light and so we motored for 1 ½ hours.  Then the winds arrived and we set sail with the forecasted perfect winds for today’s passage.  Once again they died after about 2 hours as we approached the shipping lanes and St. Pauls Island, 47 11.85N 060 08.96W, and the engines went on again.

AIS (Automated Identification System) is a very nice aid that has been available to ships for many years and has recently become affordable for pleasure craft.  Essentially, it transmits a small digital packet of data on VHF radio containing information such as vessel position, course, speed, name, etc.  Any vessel with a receiver is then notified of the precise position, course, etc. of nearby vessels, and this information is typically shown on a chartplotter.  A very nice feature in fog, rain or at night.  For the past few years, we had an AIS receiver, but this year we upgraded to a transmitter/receiver so that other ships can “see” us.  Approaching the shipping lanes our AIS notified us of a large ship on a near collision course.  We first saw the other  vessel  at a distance of 11nm so we both had plenty of time to take avoiding action.  We kept an eye on her, and passed by astern of her.  I called her on VHF, explained that we had recently installed as AIS transmitter and asked her to confirm that she could see our AIS signal.  The response was, “Please wait a minute while I check”!  In other words for the past 11 miles while we had been constantly watching them on AIS, they hadn’t even looked at their AIS receiver!!  After a few minutes, they came back on VHF and reported that yes we were transmitting correctly.  In their defense, it was a clear, sunny day and we didn’t need AIS to see each other, but still …

We passed close to St. Pauls hoping to see colonies of seals but no luck.  Teresa did however get some shots of the island including a house built in the 1880s and still standing despite the fact that it's no longer being maintained.    

Some very light wind did return but they weren’t strong enough to get us to Port aux Basque before nightfall, so we motored or motor-sailed the rest of the way.  The weather turned cold and drizzly, and on approaching Newfoundland, we noticed there was still some snow on the hills.

We entered Port aux Basque, 47 34.44N, 059 08.32W, at 18:50 local time (which is ½ hour ahead of Nova Scotia) and tied up to what we thought was a public dock.  The dock shifted a little after we tied up to it, so we made a temporary repair to the dock for the night.  Tomorrow we’ll seek out the harbor master and hopefully find a more secure dock for our stay here.  Welcome to Newfoundland!

Ships Log: 3741.9, Todays Log: 64, Seasons Total: 153.9

Sunday 29th June.

We woke to a hot and sunny day.  The forecast was for winds later in the day, and given that we only had 35 nm to go today, we didn’t rush to get up early.  At about 9:30 we felt a breeze stirring in the harbor, and so cast off and set off.  Once out to sea however, the wind disappeared and so we had another day motoring.  As we rounded Cape St. Lawrence (the northern tip of Cape Breton), the wind picked up so we hoisted sails and stopped the engines.  Sailing at last!  It was short lived however, and after ½ hour the winds died and the engines came back on.

We entered McDougal Pond, 46 59.97N 060 27.78W with some trepidation, since our guide book warned us of a very narrow channel with shallow water.  As we entered, the harbour master, Fred, met us, assured us there was plenty of water and guided us to the fuel dock and then a berth for the night.  McDougal pond is a fishing harbor in a glorious setting – mountains all around.  The fishermen were very friendly and several came over the shoot the breeze, ask us about our travels and tell us their fishing tales and folk lore of the area.

Fred also runs a camp ground and invited us to use the shower there.  (Hmmm, now that I think about it I think he was standing downwind of us when he made that offer!)  We walked the ½ mile up the hill to the shower and Teresa took photos of the beautiful area. 

Ships Log: 3677.9, Todays Log: 34.8, Seasons Total: 89.9