Don't Try This at Home

July 14, 2009

The Punchbowl, Labrador

53°15.0N

055° 45.1W

Charred timbers, empty fuel tanks . . . not a war zone but all that’s left of a bustling marine service center in the middle of nowhere.  Capable of seating over 200 at its restaurant, packing, processing and shipping fish and putting people up in its hotel, after the fisheries collapse The Punchbowl is now just a burnt out shell.

But the huge government wharf was in excellent condition and tied on the inside was Caledonian Princess, a 25 foot sailboat we’d met in Battle Harbour.  Wade and Coleen were traveling with their daughters, Julie & Elizabeth.  From St. Lunaire on the Northern Peninsula, Wade was showing them where he grew up. 

A fog induced lay day was spent walking around the deserted buildings and across the rise to abandoned cabins.  Wade and Coleen regaled us with tales of living in this beautiful country, moose in the backyard and ski doing in the winter.  Wade’s brother had a near miss last winter when his boat overturned on a freak wave in early April. Clad in a float suit, he pulled himself onto a bit of ice and a gas can floated up for him to sit on. After two days of singing hymns he spotted the Coast Guard boat cutting through the ice to get him.  It’d been a 

very near miss.

The big event was that night.  Wade invited us to a bonfire.  This wasn’t just any bonfire.  Built on the concrete area in front of what had been the fish plant, Wade had made a bench seat and piled the fire with burnable remains from the fish plant.

I’ve heard fires crackle and pop but this was . . . explosive!  And I mean literally.  We were settled on the bench, enjoying the flames and heat when

kaboom!  The whole fire structure heaved up about a foot, concrete chunks shot out, sparks flew and we all jumped back.  We stood around laughing and talking about the near miss until the heat and flames lured us closer.  After some debate we decided it was the metal pieces in the struts expanding in the heat. So we stopped putting those in.  Time went by and then . . . kaboom!  We all ran.  As Russ said, “Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  OK so it wasn’t the metal pieces.  Final conclusion, it was the concrete.  The heat was causing different stones or air pockets in the concrete to expand and the pressure was causing the explosions. 

 It was the most memorable bonfire I’ve ever attended!

 On a bummer note – You know that niggling feeling you have when you’re packing for a trip that you’ve forgotten something really important but you just can’t remember what it is?  Standing in the devastation of The Punch Bowl as a gust of wind blew my contact into never, never land I remembered what it was – spare contacts!  I have 5 pairs of glasses and lots of contact solution but only one pair of contacts.  What was I thinking?  The photo at the top is me looking for the contact.