Whales, icebergs and UNESCO World Heritage sites are all on the agenda for our cruise in Newfoundland and Labrador
Byron at Bay of Islands Yacht Club, Corner Brook has just sent us this photo.
He writes: Winter in Corner Brook is extreme this year………. Lots of snow and now very cold -22 this morning. See attached photo of your baby.
Too much snow for the solar panels to be working and lots of build up on deck but she looks nice and sound.
You can see the anchor chain let out onto the ground. It’s a great way to clean the salt off the chain and allow the anchor locker to dry out. With this much cold the interior of the boat can get nice and dry. This year we added a garboard drain so water coming down the mast doesn’t build up in the bilge so she should be really nice when we get back in July.
Jayne and I are getting very excited about this summers sailing in Newfoundland and Labrador – just got a bundle of CHS charts and sailing directions from our friend Ross at nauticalmind.com as well as the latest ATL01 BSB charts on CD. We use a laptop chartplotter interfaced to the GPS, Radar and Autopilot – and us of course. The paper charts are always nice to have to keep an hour by hour plot or for use in the cockpit.
This year we also have a great new Vesper 8000 AIS – http://www.vespermarine.com/transponders/xb8000-ais-transponder.html/
and an iPad air running Navionics. The Vesper creates a local wifi network and all of our on-board devices can access AIS and other information through it, even Jayne’s Mac Book Pro !
We plan to sail North from Phanty’s over winter site in Corner Brook on Newfoundland’s West Coast to Neddy Harbour, and hike the 7 hrs up to Gros Morne? From there it’s North, perhaps as far as Red Bay or Battle Harbour on the Labrador coast then South to St. Anthony – my Mom and Sister Jennifer are there right now – visiting the place of Jennifer’s birth. Just spoke to them this morning, it’s a bit cool there still with some ice still in the harbour.
Posted the complete video from last years sail down the St Lawrence to Quebec and all the way out to Newfoundland – it plays for about 80 minutes and gives you a quick look at all the stops on that 1500 NM route, nauticalmind.com have DVD’s if you’d like to see it on the big screen in full HD
Mike
10 and a half busy months have passed since we sailed down the St. Lawrence and crossed the gulf to Newfoundland. We flew into Deer Lake from Ontario on the 13th and took a cab the 55 km into Corner Brook.
We’ve booked a room at the Garden Hill Inn – under the excellent management of Bill and Carrie Dennis. From the inn it’s just 8 km to Allen’s Cove where Phantasia our Niagara 35 is stored.
Corner Brook on beautiful Humber Arm is a fun and friendly place with excellent services, we’ve rented a wee Toyota to run around in. The tasks to put Phanty together again are many:
Cleaning !!!
Laundry !!!
De-moulding boats woodwork !!!
Install new galley taps
Install garbord drain
Repack the stuffing box
Install our repaired Renai water heater
Launch
Provision
Sorry Phanty, no time to wax the topsides this year, I think its the first time in 14 years we have not.
We did have time to enjoy an Iceberg beer, or two, made with 25,000 year old water, as Jayne points out, along with some excellent “Newfound Sushie”
Arrived at Eastern Head, Bonne Bay, in 50 knot katabatic winds yesterday, that stripped “green hat” from Jayne’s head, alas hat is lost but we’ve arrived safely. Fantastic sail down from Bay of Islands, 20-25 knots winds behind and dolphins racing under and around Phantasia. We’re anchored in Neddy Harbour (behind Mike’s left shoulder), at the moment on the wifi at Norris Point, after a day hiking to the “Lookout”, see the picture, if it comes through. Next stop is Cow Head, we hear they have a great theatre and resturant, as well as as good harbour there. Then Port Saunders, St. Barbe and across to the Labrador side and Red Bay. Will post from the next wifi, best to all.
m&j
Green hat has not been seen again but a replacement has been found.
From our anchorage at Neddy Harbour we took the dingy ashore and tied beside a local boat owned by Reg, with his pal Morris and son Owen. We got some fresh cod from the guys as it is open season. There is no commercial fishery but individuals can take 5 fish or 15 per boat. Everyone is out on the water.
We met Renne and Gail while hiking and will have people to visit when we are in St. John’s next summer.
Also stopped into the studio of artist Christine Koch, who summers in Woody Point but has her main studio in St. John’s,
http://www.christinekoch.com/index1.html
But amazingly she remembered meeting me when I visited St. John’s about 20 years ago! We had a great visit.
Still getting my painting legs but here’s a sample.
Gros Morne.
Hi all, boat is running like a clock, we had a great sail up from Bonne Bay, the north flowing inshore current gave us an extra knot and we arrived by 1300. We’re just at Shallow Bay Motel for dinner and checking email, updating the site and downloading the paper on their wifi. Tomorrow’s forecast is for light southwest winds and we’ll move onto Port Saunders. We have the AIS and new radio working, a bit of reading up to do on both, the sound from the Icom is superb, still need to install the cockpit remote.
best, m
Wonderfully calm when we crossed from St Barbe NL to Red Bay Labrador, many boats fishing capelin, puffins and dolphins also fishing capelin. The previous days sail up from Port Saunders was opposite with winds to 30 knots and some exciting 3 meter waves crossing Ingornichoix Bay. We are docked here in Red Bay at their town dock, several fishing boats for company the first night and several local people stopping to visit as well as a nice couple from Massachusetts.
We hiked the lookout and whale bone trails yesterday as well as visiting Penny Island by dinghy. There are two Basque whaling schooner wrecks found in the harbour and today we’ll visit the museum describing them and that fishery. Tomorrow we’ll sail north 60 miles to Battle Harbour then south towards St Anthony, light SW winds are forecast for several days.
Magnificent, exhilarating sail up from Red Bay to Battle Harbour, winds lights SW to start, which built to a steady 20-25 by late afternoon. By 1000 we were spotting icebergs along the Straight of Belle Ilse western shore. Just outside Battle Hrb, beyond the jagged reef there are half a dozen or more huge bergs slowly sailing down the strait.
When we arrived at the circuitous north entrance to west of Great Caribou Island we took a break to gather our bearings and then thread Phanty into the inner harbour. The restored settlement is a delight of hand hewn buildings that speak of the regions history.
After a quiet night at the dock we spent August 1st exploring rugged Battle Island, the pictures in the gallery are:
Icebergs in the Straight of Belle Isl, purple wild flowers, ripening cloud berries, the memorial to the 1973 Beaver floatplane crash, the berg turns over, Jayne’s berg painting, ice from the berg and scotch with berg ice. Cheers !
We’ll spend today Saturday here then sail on to Noddy Hrb near L’anse aux Meadows Newfoundland tomorrow – nice SW winds are forecast.
There has been lots of painting opportunities but not so many chances to get them uploaded. Most days we have been at anchor or in very small places (think dial-up) so now we are in St. Anthony at the library using their connection.
From Bonne Bay (Gros Morne) to Port Saunders and St Barbe, then Labrador (Red Bay and Battle Harbour) and back to Newfoundland at L’Anse aux Meadows, I’ve had my paint box and brushes out. Some of the paintings were done from the boat on a very calm day going from St Barbe, NFLD to Red Bay, Labrador but most have been done during walks and hikes.
Hope you enjoy my water colour pictorial!
The fair winds and strong current that swept us north to Battle Harbour turned against us as we headed south, across the Straight of Belle Isle and back to Newfoundland and it’s Great Northern Penninsula. There is a convenient and secure anchorage at Noddy Bay where we left Phanty and walked 4 kilometres over to the L’Anse aux Meadows Viking site. An interesting tour by Parks Canada’s guide after which Jayne stopped to paint while I rested up for the long walk back to the boat. Many people were in the meadows picking Bake Apples or Cloudberries and fortunatly a small market on the road provided us with potato chips. Back on the ship I spun a “Roberta’s” Brooklyn pizza which we devoured to the last crust. The sail down the East coast from Noddy Bay was dramatic – winds to 20 knots on the bow and some nice graceful rollers coming in from the big blue Atlantic. At Cape St Anthony we were greated by an iceberg and actually cleared the point without tacking tacking, again. We sailed 35 miles to get less than 20 as the crow fly’s.
Just updating the site, reading email and downloading the paper from St Anthony public library, after lunch at “Jungle Jim’s and food shopping this morning. We’ll try and walk up to the old radar site where Dad worked in the 50’s tomorrow. It’s fun telling people that “my sister was born here” and then discussing the old radar site etc.
That’s Phanty at the St Anthony Public Dock with the ex fishing boat “Baffin Sound” behind.
After the wild, remote North Coast we are now safely ensconced in beautiful Notre Dame Bay – in the Green Bay section, anchored near Squid Cove, opposite the town of Triton Harbour. Again waiting out strong winds and heavy rain to cease before we move towards Lewisporte, which is only 40 miles from here.
It’s been a fantastic trip down from the North East Coast/St Anthony, I’ve created a web photo gallery to show some of the highlights, click the link to open the gallery that goes with the text below.
Rounding Cape St John
We start on the Public Dock in St Anthony, the crew of the tug Kaliutik helped us tie up and loaned us a very long extension cord to help power and charge Phanty. Those tall fishing boat dock are something else to attach to then scale! From there we toured Dr. Grenfell’s House and the excellent museum honoring the work and dedication of him, his wife and the incredible health services they provided on this then so very remote coast. A nice berg was grounded in the outer harbor, seen from behind the Grenfell Home/Museum. The poor bear that drifted into town on an ice flow is forever preserved in a glass case at town hall.
We left St Anthony with a not great forecast of 20+ knots, planning to sail 40 miles down the coast, with higher winds and significant waves encountered, Jayne and I decided to shelter in Maiden Arm, just 20 miles South. We spent 3 days there in a maelstrom of wind and rain – blew so much our small wind generator topped the batteries to full – 490+ amps! The thick muddy bottom of the cove held Phanty very fast and we collected rain water to drink while waiting it out, escaping for a walk on the beach on the second day.
Down the coast to Englee then up the fiord of Fourche Hr. to anchor under the cliffs at Northeast cove. A day spent wandering among the sad ruins of the last whaling station to operate, closed in 1971, in Newfoundland. The large tanks held whale oil and the winches were used to haul the carcasses of the poor creatures into bays for carving. Exiting the inlet, fog set in for part of the crossing to La Scie, where we were welcomed to the first floating dock since leaving Corner Brook on July 18th. We celebrate with a dockside banquet and sunlit view of the Scie (Saw) hills surrounding the harbor and town.
Leaving La Scie we struggled against some adverse winds as far as Bishops Rock off of magnificent Cape St. John where the wind faired and we enjoyed our first sail under spinnaker of this year’s trip.
The last group of pictures are of entering the pocket cove at Nippers Hr. It’s quite an amazing place, historic wooden churches, friendly fishermen gave us fresh cod fillets, hiking trails and another easy to access floating dock, “The Lion” rock (and berries), and two of Jayne’s painting at Noble’s Cove near Nippers. Jayne prepared a delicious moose stew from meat given to us by a fisherman at La Scie Marine, thanks Rex !
Sun is coming out a bit now and the boats swung round to point west – a good time to get ashore – up to Fudge’s Restaurant and make this post, also must call Lewisporte Marina and book a time to haulout next week.
Just a 3 minute intro to our latest DVD, Newfoundland Circle Part 2.
Available at The Nautical Mind, http://www.nauticalmind.com/Gone-Sailing-Newfoundland-Circle-Part-Two-Gros-Morne-Labrador-Notre-Dame-Bay-pr-82854.html