Farthest North

Farthest North

Clark Harbour, Labrador
07/25/2013          

 

 

 

 Dressed in a layer of polypro, 2 pairs of socks, and a wool hat, I'm ensconced in my sleeping bag with an inner liner. My gloved hand holds a book and my voice fills our forward cabin as I read to my similarly clad and ensconced husband. Our breath comes out in visible puffs as rivulets of condensation make their way down every vertical surface. We're at Clark Harbour, the northernmost harbor on the Labrador mainland and the harbor at the entrance to McClellan Strait the narrow, tide ripped passage that leads to Ungava Bay. The only reason we're able to relax enough to read is we were up at 5 this morning running a line ashore. The wind is forecast to pipe up and we're afraid, after our 3 attempts to anchor yesterday, that the only thing attaching our anchor to the bottom is a bunch of kelp and sea grass.

This will be our northernmost anchorage for this trip and it feels very north. Andante's interior hull temperature is reading 33.5° Fahrenheit. The thermometer inside our bubble (the nickname our dodger has acquired on this trip) is 36°. The land is lacking any softening layer of vegetation, at a glance it looks like pure rock.  We made a foray onto shore, being very alert for bears, and found up close it's a different story. There are plants here. Lichens, moss, and wildflowers tiny enough for a gnome's home lay in crevices. Their height is measured in millimeters as they seek shelter and warmth from the rocks around them. 

 We'd thought about continuing north from here but fuel consumption is becoming a concern. To get this far north this fast, we've motored on calm days, and there have been a LOT of calm days. Now we need to make sure we have enough fuel to get back to Nain or tuck in somewhere safe if the weather turns nasty. Earlier, we'd thought about crossing Hudson Strait, one of the foggiest places in the world, and visiting Baffin Island but we'll be saving that for another trip. We're quite happy to have safely made it here and we can see Cape Chidley when the fog lifts.

 Next morning we rose early to retrieve our line ashore before the rising tide put it under water. After a leisurely breakfast we began raising the anchor and cutting kelp off as we went. Glancing off our stern a pair of black eyes stared intently at us, nose in the air using that incredible sense of smell to discern if we were edible. Our seventh polar bear was young, a male we think, and very, very curious. He clambered up the rocks until he was looking down from the nearby cliff. Out came the cameras. Russ shot video and my job was to #1 keep us off the rocks and in deep water and #2 get some stills if I could. "Clark Gable" happily obliged and posed for us. These young males are known as the troublemakers and we were glad we hadn't encountered him on shore the day before!