Sep 272015
 

We’re back in Ontario – our summer adventure sailing in Newfoundland now but a happy memory – great late summer and beautiful fall weather here at home has made the transition from sailing adventure to home life easier to take. I just thought I would publish a few last photo galleries before too much time goes by. In my last post we had sailed in difficult conditions, against 20-25 knot SW winds to Port Union/Catalina, and attempted to leave once but turned back. The waves crossing Trinity Bay were just too uncomfortable and progress too slow. That worked out ok, giving us an excellent chance to explore Port Union and take the dinghy over to Catalina, a few miles away. With SW winds still hovering in the 20-25 knot range we powered past the light house that marks the passage to and from Port Union/Catalina and “power-stay-sailed”, or “motor sailed” to escape the big square waves built up near shore. Out further in Trinity Bay we encountered fog but managed a direct course towards Bacalieu Tickle about 20 miles away. We hove-to, backing the staysail against the rudder and centering the main to enjoy hot soup Jayne had prepared before we departed. We’ve found it best to fill wide mouth thermos bottles while at shore and not light the stove in rough conditions unless we have to.

TrintyBayChart

There are no longer human residents of Bacalieu Island which lies a couple of miles off the upper Avalon Peninsula, but the island is a refuge for sea birds and the tickle for marine life, whales & dolphins etc. The wind subsides in the tickles shelter and we tacked around Bay de Verde head into the pocket harbour of Bay de Verde, joining another sail boat at the floating dock, among dozens of shrimpers. In late August the shrimp season is in full swing, with many boats unloading their fresh catch at the plant across the harbour. If you walk over and take the stairs up to the office they’ll send someone to fetch a bag of fresh shrimp from the plant below, I think it was 5$ or 8$ dollars. Above the town a steep walk leads around the bay to Lazy Rock where I snapped the obligatory picture of Jayne holding the rock up, we had our packed lunch and rested, Jayne made a painting while I snapped pictures, before walking back many kilometers under the hot sun. Back in town I stopped to photograph the last remaining piece of stage – once the entire inner harbour was covered by acres of stages, used to dry and salt cod, residents would pass under them on their way to boats laying to bow and stern anchors in the harbour. Long before the breakwater was built. There is an excellent museum in “Blandon House” high on the hill above where Phanty sat at the dock, its filled with photos and objects that describe life in old days as well as new interests such as wild life in the “tickle” at Bacalieu.

Invalid Displayed Gallery

  One Response to “Bay de Verde”

  1. you have some wonderful pictures – port union is a great place.. your pictures of the sail across trinity bay are excellent – the boat heeled over in high winds with you handling the wheel is wonderful :-). it’s been so perfect to share pictures of your time in nfld this year with you and jayne while dad and i have been visiting you in cobourg. thank you both for everything.
    love,
    jennifer xoxo

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)