July 15, 2009
Black Tickle, Labrador
53°27.5N
055°41.1W
Our Northernmost point, Black Tickle seemed very different from other places. The barren, rock strewn landscape harbors a community of roughly 200. Not connected by road but by ferry and a small airport, ATV’s rule in the summer and Ski Doos in winter. We saw only a few cars. The fish plant is the biggest employer and next is the school.
Andante tucked inside of the 85 foot OSC Mariner, rigged for catching snow crabs. One of the Mariner’s crew took our lines and before we knew it, we were getting a tour conducted by her captain, Adrien Duquay. Adrien’s borther Paul is ships engineer and all around fix it guy as well as fishing. Adrien’s son, Mark is deckhand and Deano from Labrador is deckhand. The boat comes up from St. John’s in the spring, stays here fishing all summer and heads down to St. John’s when her crab quotas are met. The galley area looks like anything you’d see in a really nice house and the bridge looks like a spaceship’s. The living quarters are spacious to us but the bulk of the boat is taken up with fishing gear. We had them over for an evening and they were amazed at how compact everything was on our boat. It was great fun learning about fishing and chatting with them. They gave us an arctic char. A lot of folks up here say they like it better than salmon. We ate on it for several days and it was very yummy.
Adam, who lives in Domino Run at the other end of the short, dirt road, took us fishing on his ATV. Hoping for Arctic Char, we caught a sculpin. Didn’t get a picture but if you want to see a really ugly fish, google it!
Our mast made the paper! The local politician was doing what we’d call a grip ‘n grin tour. Her helicopter landed right at the fish plant and out poured several women in sequined jeans and a photographer. I had been feeling like we stuck out like a sore thumb but they made me feel like I blended just a little! Andante’s mast made it into the shot of Yvonne Jones, the local MP (Member of Parliament) chatting with the forklift driver.
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