Down the East Coast of Newfoundland

                                                           Fogo Harbour

Newfoundland is mostly a province of fishing villages.  The towns are built higgily piggily along the rocks around natural harbours. We were told that the houses had to be built close to where the fish were because back in the day before there were engines, you sailed or rowed out to the fishing grounds.  Almost every cove we have seen there are houses.  Even in the abandoned outports some people still maintain their former houses as summer homes or as temporary shelter when they are out fishing.  Dwellings are perched atop the most unhabital looking rocks, on islands miles from shore.  

                                          Salvage, a truly picturesque spot. 

                   I love all the shades of red on these two story sheds in Salvage. 

Gear stacked in the fishing sheds. 

The other day we took a day off from sailing and stayed put in a wonderful little hurricane hole called Puddingbag Cove. That's another thing, the place names here are just marvellous, Mosquito Harbour, (who would want to go there?) Heart's Delight, Ireland's Eye, Snook's Arm and Mickles Tickle to name a few. We went ashore in Puddingbag Cove and picked berries. The raspberries were ripe but the blueberries were about a week away from being ready.  We had them with some yogurt for dessert that night. In Salvage i saw a saskatoon bush and a pincherry shrub, there were apple trees around town and I couldn't tell if they were crab apples or just regular ones. 

                          Remnants of a drying stage in Puddingbag Cove

                                        Rock crystals that caught Barry's eye. 

The weather was warmed up and shirtsleeves and shorts were in order once we went ashore. The wind has deserted us these last couple of days and we are motoring in the fog today to visit the town of Trinity.  It is a historic site and there are regulations in place so that the town maintains it's look.  Everything is within walking distance so we are looking forward to exploring it. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

 

Musgrave Harbour  49*27' N X 53*57' W

Tied up to fishing dock, lots of water on dock closest to breakwater. 

Diesel available at gas station, 3 km Barry was given a ride 1 km into walk there. 

No info. on other services. 

Puddingbag Cove   49*06.2' N X 53*36.7' W 

Anchored in 6m very good holding mud bottom, lots of swing room, protected, execellent anchorage

Locally known as Safe Harbour, good raspberries and blueberries in season. 

Watch out for crab pots in the anchorage.

All services available 1.5nm by dinghy, floating dock to tie up to at fish plant or a local dock near grocery store. 

Salvage   48*41.4' N X 53*38.5' W

Tied up to floating dock.

Well marked entrance, attention needed, have a good look at charts before entering.

Lots of hiking trails. Bar with food within walking distance.

No other services. Grocery store approx. 5km away. 

Gorgeous setting, well worth a stop.

Bonavista 

Tied up to floating dock reserved for pleasure craft. 

Laundry $1.25/load, showers $4, wharf fees $18.50 for our boat, water and electricity available.

Call Harbour Master after hours, he gave us a key to do laundry and access showers. 

Groceries about 1km away, all services available.

Replica of John Cabot's boat built in Bonavista at top of quay. 

Leaving Northeast Newfoundland.

     

                     At anchor in Pikes Arm just past the tickle from Herring Neck!!

We made some pretty big jumps in the last few days.  When we left the Northern Pennisula we sailed to the port of La Scie which is just south of Cape St. John.  We had a great wind for the first 20 miles of our 40 mile journey and it was warm!! We are seeing lots of dolphins and the occasional whale still. The entrance to La Scie was very dramatic with high cliffs protecting a great harbour. The next morning the wind was on our quarter and the current was with us as we flew around Cape St. John, whopee what a ride, I saw 9 knots on the GPS. We dead headed across Notre Dame Bay, which is supposed to be a great cruising ground and stopped at Twillingate. Since I was obeying doctors orders and resting I stayed aboard and Barry went off to get groceries.  He did not feel like sight seeing alone so we left the next morning.  

Our next anchorage was in a spot which did not appear on the guide book so we were concerned about the holding.  Barry went off on a hike up to a viewpoint and took the lovely shot above. It blew a houlie over night but the anchor did it's thing and with the forecast for the wind to veer and blow again we set off to Fogo Island, which has a great harbour with some very interesting history. 

          The town of Fogo Harbour with Brimstead Head in the background.  

We arranged a land tour around Fogo Island, our guide was Edmond a retired school principal, who was very knowledgable about the island.   When he was born in 1942, his mother was taken by passenger ship to the next town where there was an American air base, which had a doctor. As the story goes, aboard the vessel there was the captain and Edmond's mother and father.  Edmond is very active in the community and he was at a function when an old fellow started telling a tale about taking this young mother over to Joe Batt's Arm to have her baby and he wondered whatever had happened to the baby.  Edmond exclaimed, "After 72 years, you're looking at him!"

Fogo Island is a fiercely independent spot, when the moratorium on cod fishing was in the works the islanders took the bull by the horns and bought the fish plant from the owners and turned it into a Co-op. Each community on the island has a separate identity and Tilting is where the Irish settled when they came over as workers on the fishing schooners. Barry heard one of them talking and you would think they were straight from the old country even after 200 years of living here. Their town has been declared a National Historic District and I wished our guide would let us take time to read some of the signs all around town. 

     A British cannon used to fend off the French and also the Yanks during the war of 1812. 

   Mother and son in the boat, father operating the hoist in the background. CP 4 in very back 

We went for a very short stroll down the dock and a skiff with a load of cod stopped to offload it. I really enjoyed talking to the plant workers and the fishermen. It was a middle aged man with his wife and grown son, they had 1,700 lbs of fish aboard and their quota was for 6,000.  They had set their nets earlier in the day and had taken 4 hours to haul them in. The fishing is good. We bought two pounds of frozen crab meat from the plant office and had a feast of it with pasta for Barry's birthday.  

                                    

This is Brimstone Head which according to the Flat Earth Society is one of the four corners of the earth. The other three being spots in the Bermuda Triangle, Greece and Papua New Guinea. Being Newfies they have a bit of fun with it and on the way up the hill there is a sign stating that you had better be careful because it you take another step you may fall off the edge of the earth. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

 

La Scie Harbour  49*58' N X 55*37' W

Tied up to the floating dock.  No water, or power available, no charge, but we came late and left early.

Dinghied over to town and tied up to a private stage but the fellow had no problems with us doing that. 

All services available in town. 

Well protected behind a breakwater. 

Twillingate    49*40' N X 54*46' W

Tied up to fishing dock.  Busy, lots of fish boats. Water, power, $20/ night. 

TV lounge with Free Wifi in Harbour Master building at end of dock. $5/shower, 1.50/ load of laundry 

All services available 

Pikes Arm   49*38'.8 N X 54*34'.1 N  Not in book

Anchored in 8m. water.  Good holding, unsure of bottom, lots of kelp. 

Protected from all but northerlies. Swell came in when wind switched to the north. 

No services. Hike available to lookout point with wooden steps where needed. B & B 

Good shore access via dock 15 min. dinghy ride away. 

Fogo Harbour 49*43' N X 54*16' W

Tied up at dock.  No water but electricity available. $20/ without elec. No showers or laundry. 

Fish plant attached so was smelly.

All services available, but big grocery store and perhaps diesel not within walking distance. 

Great deal to see on the island, got a land tour, had to make 4 calls to arrange. 

A tickle is a narrow entrance. 

Down the Northern Pennisula.

Our buddy Lar, notice the crosses painted on the doors, when I asked he said it was tradition. 

We stopped in Crouse Harbour in order to see the French shore tapestry in Conche and got more than we bargained for.  The people in Crouse and Conche were the friendliest we have met yet.  There were a couple of old fellows who greeted us when we came ashore, they gave us directions.  The interpretive centre and the 217 ft. tapestry about life on the French shore were on of the best museums we have encountered. 

When I walked up to the building I could not imagine how they would get a 217 ft. tapestry in the building but they very creatively have wound it around one room.  An artist dreamed up the concept researched and created it and with grants from the government employed lots of women to sew it.  There was over 20,000 hours put in to making it.  The tapestry depicts the history of the French shore of Nfld. from the beginning until the present.  There are 4 languages on the tapestry, French, English, a Scandanavian language and Gaelic. There are panels on the top and bottom and the main theme in the middle, a person could spend hours noticing all the details. 

We got a ride back to the boat after Barry mentioned my sore ankle to some people we were chatting to.  I saw a Dr. in St. Anthony and he said I had damaged my ligaments and I am supposed to rest my foot for a week.  I am trying very hard not to walk around but it is difficult when that is your only mode of transport and there is so much to see.  Oh well I guess I had better suck it up and stay put if I don't want to walk around in pain. 

  

   The stage (or dock) at Crouse, they used to dry and salt the fish here, back in the day

Once back in Crouse we ran into the old fellows again and one of them invited us in for a cup of tea.  He realized that we had not been back to the boat since we had left in the morning and we ended up with a lovely feed of potatoes and fresh cod!! We got to hear wonderful stories about the old days.  Lar is 84, the road and electricity did not come to the area until the 1960's.  He remembers going out with dog teams, if someone was really sick that was the only way to get them to help.  He said there were 18 men on snowshoes in front of the sled to break the trail and the leader would only be able to walk 25 feet, sinking into the snow up to their thighs before the next man in line would take the lead. The snowshoes they used were a lot smaller than the ones we have now. They were very self sufficient, they had gardens, picked berries, and the goats, sheep and cows ran wild, there were only 3 horses in the area. There was a plane that crashed in the area in 1942, it was being ferried back to England.  He was in school and the teacher would not allow the kids to go to the windows to watch the fellow who parachuted out or the plane which crash landed, but the other two aboard lived.  The other fellow, Kenny, mentioned the same thing, the teacher would not let them watch, that obviously made a big impression on them, planes were a very rare sight!  Kenny, who is 85, has hardly ever left the community. He has been to St. Anthony once when his father died, and it is only an hour and a half away by car or boat. When Kenny got talking fast he was really hard to understand. 

We sailed and motored down the coast in foggy conditions with very light winds.  There was an old whaling  station in Forche harbour that Barry wanted to see. He says it was a mess, it closed in the 1970's. It was a fiord with steep sides and waterfalls running down from the cliffs. The anchorage was dicey so we motored 10 nm further down the coast of Orange Bay. 

The community of Deep Harbour was resettled in 2003. The town was gettin too small to warrant ta teacher, nurse and the weekly boat that came in with supplies, it was noticeable that a number of houses are still in use.  There were two 50 foot fishing boats in the harbour when we arrived and about 7 or 8 skiffs. Summer holidays could be spent here and a house kept available for the fisherman when he was out on the boat. We wondered how far away the families went when they resettled?? We know of one community on the south coast they are trying to resettle and they are offering each family $250,000. 

We are headed to La Scie just east of Cape St. John.  After that we will be in Notre Dame Bay which has a lot of lovely spots  and good harbours to poke around in. The Northern Pennisula will be behind us and the East Coast beckons. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

 

Fourche Harbour    50*31' N X 56*19' W

Anchored in 13m. of water just off the old whaling station, only a lunch stop.

Very exposed to winds off the ocean

Fiord like spot with high hills and waterfalls running into the bay form the top.

No services. 

Great Harbour Deep    50*22' N X 56*30' W

Anchored in 8m. of water in Sault Cove just north of town. 

Very good holding, good coverage from all winds except SE. 

Winds funnel in this area so take care where you decide to anchor.

No services, town abandoned in 2003, beautiful spot. 

Over the top

We lucked out with another great day to visit L'Anse aux Meadows, the site where the Vikings had a settlement over 1,000 years ago. Oh, we learned they should be called Norse, Vikings were only the ones that pillaged and plundered . Along with the informative displays and movie there is a re- creation of a Norse settlement.  The sod structures were fascinating, I had read about them but never seen one, they were supposed to be fairly warm, but they were very dark inside. 

We also went down to the other site that is in the area mainly to view the Viking ship the Snorri, that reenacted Lief Ericson trip here from Greenland. 

The ship was built in Maine, using know Norse building techniques, put on a container ship and sent to 

Greenland.  Then 7 American sailors and I from Newfoundland sailed her for 97 days in the 90's following the route that the Norse took.  They used woollen sails. It was wide open, with no cover available, they must have froze but there was a place they could have built a fire on it.  

We had had a very bad sleep due to a rolly anchorage so we moved a couple of miles to a spot where Jacques Cartier sat out a gale from May 29 to June 6, 1534. The island that protected the spot was named in his honour. We rounded the top of Nfld. the next morning and were greeted by the sight of more icebergs.  This time we were under sail and did a 360 around a good sized berg. I wish there had been another boat there so we could have had pictures with Cat's-Paw IV doing her thing.  It was nice to have it to ourselves though.

We spent two nights in St. Anthony's.  The second because it poured and was very cold and miserable. The boat was dripping wet inside with the humidity, we had the furnace on but that just made the cold hull weep more. Barry finally got wet and cold enough, our gear is old enough now to have lost most of it's ability to repel water, that he went off and bought himself some fisherman's rain gear, yeah. Today dawned bright, warm and sunny and we made tracks down the coast with a gusty west wind.  

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Quirpon Harbour  51*31'.6 N X 55*27'.1 W

Anchored in 8m. very good holding 

Excellent flat achorage with almost 360 protection. 

Jacques Cartier waited out a gale here so it was good enough for us. 

No info. on services. 

St. Anthony Harbour  51*22' N X 55*35' W

Anchored in 8m. just NW of the Grenfell docks, very good holding

Great 360 protection, no swell

Dinghy access at Grenfell docks, the whale watching outfit there was very friendly and welcoming

All services available except no showers, Laundromat at Irving Gas Station, $3.00/load. 

Crouse Harbour  50*54'.3 N X 55*53'.3 W

Anchored in 7m. fair holding, had to anchor twice, put kellet down, no dock. 

Good protection from prevaling SW winds but wind may funnel through high sided cliffs. Open from SE. 

No services, walk 1.5 km to see French shore tapestry, a must see, small store in Conche. 

Fisherman moor boats, watch for mooring floats. 

Icebergs and Whales

                                                Our first view of Labrador 

We sailed across the Strait of Belle Isle yesterday.  We had a favourable SW wind but we did not get to enjoy the scenery because the entire journey was made in dense fog.  It is a good thing our radar and AIS are in good working order. When we were within 5 miles of Red Bay, Labrador,  Barry saw a contact on the radar, we could not hear anything and figured it might be a fishing boat mucking about out in the Strait. We steered away from it and inched our way into the harbour at Red Bay, completely blind. We set anchor and soon the fog began to lift. We were in a lovely protected bay, the small town laid out in front of us. 

 We were very excited to see a bergy bit floating into the harbour and as we rounded the corner to go take pictures in the dinghy, we saw the bigger berg grounded in the entrance. 

We had sailed right past it without even knowing, then it dawned on us, the mysterious radar contact that we couldn't hear was most likely an iceberg, as well. 

   A 400 year old shaloop, a small boat used to harpoon the whales, found beneath the San Jaun. 

Red Bay was the site of a Basque whaling community in the 1500's.  A woman archaeologist poured over old documents in Spain and discovered that there had been a whaling settlement here.  Discoveries were made in the 1980's of ruins of the pots they used to render the blubber into oil.  There was also an indication in the literature that a whaling ship had gone down in the harbour.  An underwater excavation was undertaken and the San Jaun was discovered. There is a huge wreck,1985, that is still aground and they followed it's path to doom to find the vessel that sank in 1587. Instead of trying to re float the San Juan they just brought up every timber, measured it and took pictures and then returned it to the deep.  There is a scale model of it in the museum with the timbers they recovered done in a different colour than the rest so you can see how much they actually recovered. There were as many as 2,000 men and boys there at one time, now it is a town of 300.

My hand compared to a whale's fluke, and note my elegant boat attire, there is a layer there you cannot see!! 

We woke this morning to a clear day and the thermometer read 10 degrees, yikes!  Luckily I had my new woollen Labrador socks on to keep my feet warm. 

The Labrador flag is green and blue with that plant in it, I imagine it is meant to be Labrador tea, but I am just guessing. As we getting ready to pull anchor Barry said "look" and out in the Strait was another iceberg which somewhat resembled a house.  

We headed out and circled the two icebergs that had appeared. While we were heading towards them, there was a big  splash and there were bergy bits everywhere. We were gazing fascinated at the behemoth and a whale blew in the distance, it's spume hanging in the air so we could spot it.  Can it get any better than this!  As they say, a picture tells a thousand words so I will let them speak for themselves. 

The second one was much smaller and ready to break in two. 

We had set sail to return to Newfoundland when two whales surfaced fairly near us, wow, wow! After they had gone past us and were what we figured a safe distance away they put on a show, breaching and tail flapping. There were whales everywhere, this would be similar to the spectacle we had off of Cape Cod.  I guess those Basque whalers knew a good thing when they saw it!! 

It is really hard to take a good picture of a whale while underway, with all that flapping and blowing going on and the boat heaving and rolling beneath your feet, it is a miracle if you get a good picture, I will save you the torture of looking at my miserable attempts. A description is in order though.  First you hear the exhalation of air as the whale surfaces, and you look around to spot the water molecules hanging in the air. If you are lucky the whale starts to breach, a big black torpedo goes straight up into the air and gradually it falls backwards into the water and there is an almighty splash, the white water cascading everywhere. When you are quite a distance away, you can see the splash and then hear the whap as 15 tons of whale hits the water. Next it might try the tail flap, the tail appears and whack whack whack, the sound races across the water towards you just after you watch it happen and see the water soar up around it, quite the spectacle. Meanwhile Barry is having a fit, I must admit when they are within 20 meters of the boat I am hoping that they don't pick that particular moment to decide to breach, they never have,  so I figure they know we are there and are being careful!! 

As I sit in the cockpit sipping on my rum and coke, cooled with 10,000 year old ice, I wonder does it ever get any better than this.  This day has been one of the highlights in our nine years of cruising. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Flower Cove  51*18' N X 56*45' W

Tied to the dock which was under reconstruction, to be finished fall of 2015.

No services on dock at this time.

Groceries, liquor and fuel available 20 min. away on foot. 

Entrance had lots of hazards but was well bouyed with leading lights. 

Red Bay, Labrador  51*44' N X 56*26' W

Anchored in harbour in 8m. between Saddle Island and the mainland. 

Good holding in settled weather. 

No info on services in town. 

Great museum on Basque whaling ashore, well worth the stop. 

Hay Cove, Nfld.  51*36' N X 55*31' W

Anchored at the end of the cove in 4m. Open to the NE, swell comes in from Atlantic. 

Good holding in settled weather. 

Beach landing available with road access to former Viking settlement. 

Spent a very rolly night, moved anchorages the second night. 

Northwest Coast of Nfld.

We had a lovely time in Gros Morne National Park.  The day we sailed in the mountains were covered in clouds, almost as it should be, and the peaks played peek a boo with them.  There were some gorgeous cliffs down the south side of the bay as we sailed 10 nm into Lomond Cove.  We anchored successfully in the cove, but we were a bit apprehensive about the holding so we put down our kellet(an extra weight attached to our anchor chain) and we felt fairly secure then. The next day was bright and sunny and we set off on a hike.  I was going to ask for a map, but a fellow had described the path to us and Barry figured we didn't need one. I should have known better, in our long hiking history a map is always a good thing.  We walked about an hour before finding the correct trail!! I had hurt my ankle walking on the rocky beach in Arichat and it came back to bite me.  By the time we finished the 4 hour hike I was limping, not good when your only method of transportation is on foot. It was a lovely walk through the forest and we turned around at the suspension bridge over a salmon fishing stream. 

    

        The dock at Rocky Harbour, we tied up on the opposite side to the black and red boat. 

We made a brief stop the next day at Rocky Harbour at the entrance to Bonne Bay to buy groceries and do our laundry.  We were going to stay the night but could not find a good spot to stay so headed off up to Port Aux Choix about 80nm away. We figured with good wind and the amount of daylight we have now we might have been able to do the distance in a day sail but we would have been pushing it so an overnight sail was a good option. 

As we left port the fog rolled in and we sailed on through the night with the radar going and a light SW wind pushing us up the coast.  It wasn't raining but the fog was so heavy our clothes and everything else on the boat was dripping wet.  

Port Aux Choix was a great stop for us.  There was room at the public wharf to tie up and the people were great. We visited the National historic Site exhibit, there has been continuous human habitation here for 6,000 years with 4 distinct aboriginal groups residing on this spot over the eons.  There are archeological finds all over the peninsula and one fellow was asked to move his house when he found ruins as he was enlarging his basement.  We met a local character named Raymond who regaled us with his life story.  He started fishing with his father when he was 10 years old, and lost his 50 foot boat to the bank when they put the moratorium on the cod fishery. He was kind enough to give us a ride out to the museum because my ankle was not up to the 5km round trip. The landscape was very different here. It is very flat and barren looking compared with further south.  The underlying rock is limestone and there are over 300 plants  found in this region which are found nowhere else in Nfld. 

At the moment we are headed to Flower Cove and the wind has come around onto our nose, from the NNE at 10-15 knots. It is another beautiful sunny day and as we are sailing along we can faintly see the coast of Quebec as we approach the Strait of Belle Isle.  That is another name from my school days, I can remember having to write it on maps. Who would have thought we would ever be sailing on it??

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Rocky Harbour 49* 35'.5 N X 57* 55'.2 W  Gros Morne National Park

All services available here. Laundry just up the road from the wharf. 

We tied up to the outside of the wharf in calm conditions but left once the wind came up, we wer bashing against the dock. 

If there was room on the inside of the wharf it would be good protection

The dock on the south side of the harbour is reported to have a vicious undertow. 

Port Aux Choix 50* 43' N X 57*21' W 

Tied up at public wharf. Lots of dock space in harbour. Good protection. Major fishing port.

Free Showers and cheap laundry available at Coast Gaurd dock. 

All services within easy walking distance. 

The Haven, St John Harbour on St. John Island 50*48'.7 N X 57*14'.3 W 

Anchored in 8m of water with execellent holding on sandy bottom. 

Great protection from all directions, no swell even though wind was blowing in from the ocean. 

No services, limited shore access. Few dwellings that fishermen use. 

Our Navionics electronic charts were out in this area. It said we anchored in 0.9m of water. Take Care

Up the west coast of Nfld.

 

We had a vicious start to our Nfld. voyage.  I said it was a good weather window and that we should fly across Cabot Strait.  Well we flew, we neglected to pay attention to the fact that there was a 60 % chance of rain, and you guessed it, it rained.  None of this lovely tropical warm rain, oh no, this was a horrid cold driving Maritime downpour. It was not fun standing our watches in the middle of the night soaking wet and cold, ah well, I guess it can't all be fun.  We landed in Port aux Basques, Nfld. and spent two nights at the public dock there.  

We hopped up the coast to Codroy, we were only going to stop there if there was no wind and we got five miles past it and the wind just died.  There was approx. 100 miles to go to the entrance of the Bay of Islands and we didn't want to motor so we did something we very rarely do and we turned around and backtracked and pulled in to the dock there.

I wanted to go to a music festival that I had read about in Port aux Basques and Barry didn't so I headed out to see if I could find it.  As I walked up the hill away from the docks I encountered a wedding which had just finished.  There were four men standing across the road with shotguns in their hands.  A lady went by and she informed me that it was a tradition in Nfld. to have shotgun weddings.  As soon as the bride appeared the men fired off round after round to celebrate the nuptials. What a treat to see this!!! After asking around I found out the music festival was more than walking distance away, so I stuck out my thumb and the nephew of the groom picked me up and went out of his way to take me to where the festival was. 

                         I love the way the actual players blend in with the backdrop. 

 Each act put on three songs and some were great and some were not, there was some great accordion playing and at one point an audience member got up and put on a great exhibition of jigging, that in itself was worth the trip there.  I had to walk a long way before I got a ride on the way home but finally a lady took pity on me. She let me off at a store and told me to ask inside for a ride, I did but no one was going my way, so I started walking again.  Then a guy that had been in the store said he figured he should give me a ride even though he was not going my way and he and his wife and I had a great chat on the way back to the boat. 

The next day we did an overnight sail up to the Bay of Islands.  It was cool but the clouds cleared and the stars were out and we had a nice 10-15 knot soueaster to blow us up the coast.  I was on watch as we approached our port and I rolled in the genoa to slow us down.  The cliffs were huge and very large and foreboding in the dark. I knew the entrance to Little Port should be there but I could not spot it in the dark and sailed circles until the dawn broke.  We wanted to go in to Corner Brook, having heard about it over the years. It just so happened that Barry was talking to a fellow on the docks and he said he was going in to town at noon and was willing to give us a ride. It was a truly scenic trip along the Humber Valley into town, it took at least 45 minutes. 

This was a sign in the Corner Brook museum, this addition of the sporting review was published in 1937, how times have changed. 

We got there and then figured, my gosh how are we going to get back!  We ended up taking a taxi, after the offer of a fellow in a bar to get us a ride fell through, it was $55.00 to get back but the view was well worth the price. 

We visited two more spots in the Bay of Islands before heading up to Bonne Bay, which is located in Gros Morne National Park. A friend of ours suggested that I put some weather and anchorage info on the blog.  I never really wanted to because this is just a personal log but I was trying to learn something about sailing around Nfld and was checking out other blogs and there was a lot of (as Barry puts it, blah, blah, blah) on the blog but not a lot of yatchie info so for our buddy, who shall remain nameless, and any other yatchie who wants the nitty gritty here it is. The rest of you can just ignore the following. 

IMPORTANT SAILING INFO.

We are using " The Cruising Guide of Nfld." published by Members of the Cruising Club of America and so far it has been very helpful.

Ports or Anchorages

Port Aux Basques.  47*34.5 N X 59*08' W

No problem tying up at the public dock.  $15/ night, electricity,  extra $5/night. 

Showers, Laundromat $1.00/ per wash or dry,  right at dock, not open in evening.

Groceries, hardware store, bank within close walking distance. 

Codroy  47*52' N X 59*24' W

We tied up at a deteriorated dock on the breakwater because there was no room at the inner dock.  We draw about 6 feet and we only had about 1 and 1/2 feet under keel at low water. No problem though. 

Fresh water available, but you have to walk to get it.  There was no charge to tie up. 

No info on groceries. 

Little Port 49*06'.4N X 58*25'.3 W  located just outside Bay of Islands

Tied up to local dock, no charge, 8 feet at low water at the end of the dock, electricity available

Water at dock but did not use because it was discoloured. 

Toilet available but no showers, no other services close by. 

Good hiking trials very close to dock, lovely spot. 

Woods Island Harbour,  49*06'.1 N X 58*13'.1 W  in Bay of Islands

Great anchorage, almost 360 degree protection, great holding 

No services, but good shore access to some walking trails. 

North Arm Harbour,  49*11'.6 N X 57*58'.7 W in Bay of Islands

Good anchorage, good holding in 9 meters at the end of the bay, probably could have got shallower. 

No services, but it was a five waterfall bay, very quiet

Open from the southwest 

Lomond Cove,  49*27'.9 N X 57*45'.8 W in Bonne Bay, Gros Morne National Park. 

Guide says there was a 60 ft. dock.  It is no longer. 

Anchored in 8m. There is a rocky beach so worried about holding, anchor dragged awhile before catching so we put down our kellet (extra weight we put down chain to shorten scope) for more security. 

Shore access, Nat. Park Campsite here, water, shower, garbage disposal available. Nat. Park Fee should be paid. No groceries or other stores.