Garden Party

Conche, Newfoundland

50°54’N 055°54’W

July 29, 2009

"I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends. A chance to share old memories and play our songs again . . . "

Hard to think of a better escort than a pod of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. If watching them frolic (there really is no better word for what they do) in our bow wave doesn't bring a smile to your face, something is seriously wrong. So we entered the lovely, protected harbor of Conche with huge smiles after our dolphin escort pulled away.

Conche is a beautiful little town of around 240 people nestled on the inside of a natural harbor. It wasn't connected by road until 1969 and I think it was a dirt road until well into the 70's. There wasn't much of a write-up in our cruising guide but we decided to give it a go.

We tied up near the end of the large municipal dock and I started dinner preparations. The docks tend to be a guy hangout and I hadn't realized I was missing some girl time until Russ said, "There are some women walking down the dock." Dinner preparations were hastily dropped in favor of conversation.

That's how we met sisters-in-law Clara Carroll and Clara Carroll. We can relate as we have a son named Josh and a son-in-law named Josh! Clara's granddaughter Bridgette was visiting and gave us a lesson on squid hounds, the local name for Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Someone mentioned toutons and we had to confess our ignorance. Toutons are Newfoundland's fried dough concoction. Really, is there any culture in the world that doesn't have some version of fried dough in their cooking? Somehow we'd made it 1/4 of the way around "The Rock" without sampling this delicacy.

There's a joke about Newfoundlanders, "Where can you find the largest population of Newfoundlanders? Alberta!" After the collapse of the cod fishery a lot of Newfoundlanders move away from home to find work and a lot of them go to the oil fields in Alberta. Added to that, a lot of small communities have been resettled to create larger concentrations of people so services like electricity can be delivered more efficiently. All of these people living away from home have started a new tradition of celebrations - "Come Home Week" or "Garden Parties" are designated times when far flung family and community members come back. It's a great time to enjoy the best of Newfoundland ~ visiting, music, drinking and eating . . . not necessarily in that order.

We finally said good night to our visitors with plans to meet up the next day. After dinner, Clara stopped by with some touton dough and fancy molasses. Visions of fried dough filled our dreams and they became reality in the morning. Yum! It’s a very tangy dough, not a sourdough tang but a sharp tang. The fancy molasses was a tad strong for me but rolled in sugar the toutons were very yummy indeed!

There’s great hiking around here and we set out to explore. Meeting Clara on the way, she invited us to a kitchen party at a friend’s fish stage. A little dictionary input on Newfoundland terms: fish stage – building, sometimes built over the water to house all the paraphernalia associated with fishing; kitchen party – held in a kitchen, fish stage or wherever there’s space for a gathering includes lots of music, lots of drink and a great time. Yeah!

I’m a museum nut and the French Shores Interpretive Center more than satisfied my fix. They’ve been working on a tapestry depicting the history of the area and I got to embroider a bit on it.

http://www.frenchshoretapestry.com/en/news.asp

Our hike led us onto the ocean side of the cliff for incredible views. Then by the site of a World War II plane crash. The BZ 277 had engine problems and crash landed in a field. The children watched form their schoolroom and thought they were being attacked. All three crewmen survived.

The kitchen party was a little slow in getting started so Tom, one of the hosts, loaned us his car so we could drive around a bit. The lookout on Sailor Jack’s Hill (big enough to have a dance party!) the French cemetery . . . France still had interests in Newfoundland until 1904. The French Navy used to come to restore the cemetery every year until Canada enforced the 200 mile limit in 1972. An invitation has been issued and the community hopes they’ll get a French ship visiting soon.

Wow, what music at the kitchen party! I’ll try to put up some video clips. Clara’s niece sang. And Clara Carroll from Flowers Cove has 2 music CD's out and she sang too. Russ pulled out his mouth organs and I tapped my foot.

Dinner at the museum and Tom showed us some of the things his family donated including a beautiful brass spy glass. One of the favorite activities of boys in the winter was jumping from ice pan to ice pan. An ice pan is basically a slab of ice that’s floating. Jump on it wrong and you’ll end up in the drink. Tom rescued a cousin who fell in.

BINGO! The ladies invited me to join them at the bingo table and set me up. OK I was a tad nervous about juggling 4 cards but it wasn’t quite the rapid fire calling of numbers I was expecting. Fun hanging out with them though. Hot chocolate at the local café and we said our reluctant good byes. More Garden Festivities that we'll miss but the weather clock is ticking and we still have a looonnnnggggg way to go.

Conche goes down as one of our favorite stops. Lots to do here, great hiking, and some new friends.

St. Anthony

July 27, 2009

No, Andante hasn't suddenly sprouted a gigantic mast. We got a ride on the Bowdoin. Built specifically for sailing these ice packed waters by Donald MacMillan, the Bowdoin has been sailing along the coast of Labrador since 1921. We'd love to follow her wake further up the Labrador coast some day. She's currently owned by Maine Maritime Academy.

An interesting bit of history . . . Donald MacMillan made a journey to Greenland in 1913. The expedition was stranded there until they were rescued by Robert Bartlett in 1917. Stranded for 4 years, MacMillan had time to come up with the ideal ship for Arctic exploration, The Bowdoin. And now here's Donald MacMillan's ship, the Bowdoin being used to celebrate Bartlett. One good turn deserving another.

A light breeze filled the sails and we ghosted along.

Internet and fax connections had kept us tied to St. Anthony longer than we'd planned but with pending work questions at least caught up, we were ready to move on. The whole rest of Newfoundland awaited.

Procrastination!

It should be my nickname . . . anyway it's time to bring Andante home in time for our next adventure. We'll tell you about that after we've caught up.

Long live the blog!

If you're following we'd love to hear from you! Is there anybody out there . . .

Andante Theme song?

July 26, 2009

Still in St. Anthony.  One of the fun things about cruising in Newfoundland & Labrador is the people you meet.  We've been coming into the government docks a lot so you tend to get a lot of attention.  People stroll down to chat.  Fisherman wander over.  A Mom who's son thought we were a pirate ship . . . and a gentleman in St. Anthony who thought he'd heard a song called Andante by that great disco group Abba!  Before we left he brought down a copy of the lyrics.  I had to see if there was a video.

I don't think it's going to become our theme song but if anyone knows where I can get one of those blue jumpsuits for Russ . . . 

Pots that go splash in the day

St. Anthony, Newfoundland
July 25, 2009

St. Anthony, the local dialect strings it all together to come out “Sin ant ne”, is the biggest town on the Northern Peninsula, and our stop to re-fuel, re-provision and pick up some charts that we’d ordered through the local hardware store.

Craig, ship’s engineer from the Canadian Coast Guard’s vessel Harp, caught our lines at the public wharf. The Harp is responsible for patrolling Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula and all of Labrador! We chatted for a few minutes and he asked us over to meet the Captain. Captain Jerry Williams invited us on board and before we knew it we were sitting down in their mess being served a delicious seafood chowder. I can’t imagine this scene taking place on a U.S. Coast Guard boat as nice as they can be.

Before we left, the Captain gave us the entire huge pot of chowder. They’d had it for dinner and wouldn’t eat it anymore so . . .Well OK but I had no idea how we’d eat it all either.

The big to-do in St. Anthony was the arrival of the tall ship Bowdoin from Maine Maritime Academy and the accompanying Celebrate Bartlett extravaganza. Captain Bob Bartlett was captain of the ship that got Peary as far North as possible on his successful run to the North Pole in 1909. (I know, I know there are some dissenters that think he didn’t make it but hey, let’s not ruin the party!) The 100th year anniversary was serving as a time for Newfoundland to celebrate its local hero’s role in the expedition. Bartlett was from a long line of sea captains based out of Brigus, Newfoundland.

A flotilla of private boats was accompanying the Bowdoin and several arrived in anticipation of the big event. Jim Wyse of SV Staragan and his crew, Diane & Dwight arrived first. Jim was heavily involved with the committee organizing the celebration so had official duties. Cyril, a former fisherman, & his wife Madeline on their Nonsuch 36, Moomba, rounded out this fun loving group.

They invited us to dinner aboard Moomba and we were able to share the chowder! It was a great time with food, drink and lots of sailing/fishing stories as we all crowded around Moomba’s saloon.

Now that we’d managed to share all of the chowder I had this huge pot to clean. It wouldn’t fit in our sink so I took it to the dock’s hose. This was a regular garden hose but the water came out like it was a fire hose, shooting that beautiful stainless steel pot out into the harbor. “Quick launch the kayak. Launch the kayak!” I yelled as I ran over to Andante. Russ is not one to panic so he grabbed the boathook first and managed to fish the pot out of the water. Whew! I cleaned it and returned it to the Harp with some chocolate chip cookies inside.

The wharf was a little challenging. And the 5 ft. tidal range added to it. To leave the boat we stepped on the huge tire fender, then the top of this broken off railroad tie, and then this giant carriage bolt before hauling ourselves over the top.

Leif Eiriksson Slept Here

July 23, 2009
Quirpon, Newfoundland
51°35.8N
055°27.8W

The big attraction here was L’Anse aux Meadows, site of a Norse landing over 1000 years ago. They’d left their home and colonized Iceland and Greenland. The search for greener pastures led them to the tip of Newfoundland.

Russ has been reading Tony Horwitz’s A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering The New World. Horwitz makes the point that when the Norse landed in Newfoundland and met up with the locals, the two branches of the human family tree were meeting for the first time since one branch spread to Europe and the other across Asia and over the land bridge to North America. It did not go well.

Norse called the locals Skraeling which translates roughly as “screecher”, “wretch,” “ugly.” They were short and dark and to the tall, blond Norse must have looked alien indeed. And vice versa I’m sure. The first Norse/Skraeling encounter left 8 Skraeling dead and the Norse expedition leader, Thorvald, mortally wounded.

The Norse settled here anyway, began farming and eventually trading with the locals. Things turned sour in the diplomacy/trade department and the site was abandoned. But not before Gudrid gave birth to a boy. His name . . . Snorri. It would be almost 600 years before another child of European descent was born in North America.

We borrowed the ferryman’s car and drove up to L’anse Aux Meadows. It’s a National Park and Parks Canada has done a good job interpreting. Recreated buildings and costumed interpreters give you a sense of how the Norse lived and worked. Norse men and women and their Irish slaves made up the inhabitants.

I spoke with the Chief’s wife, Gudrin, who was embroidering a beautiful cape that she’d woven. Seeing her outside of the interpretive area I asked if her knowledge of weaving and sewing led her to the job or it was something she’d learned once she had the job. Growing up, she said, her Mother never taught her any of the sewing arts because she didn’t know them. Turns out her mother who had to sew clothes, hook rugs, knit scarves and mittens, etc. was determined that none of her girls would need to do such menial work and she never taught them. Two generations removed from needlecraft being a necessity, it’s become a pleasure. The interpreter is now teaching her mother how to knit.

Standing on the beach and looking out at the rocky, shallow Bay it was hard to see why they picked this place. But a thousand years ago the sea level was higher and this would’ve been a good spot for their shallow draft boats.

The Norse wore a lot of tools on their person so they wouldn’t loose them. One item really intrigued me – an earwax spoon. It’s a small wooden spoon used for, you guessed it, removing ear wax. Which begs two questions: Did they have that much more ear wax than we do now? and What did they do with it?

"Most Generous on Least Acquaintance" Award

July 23, 2009

Quirpon, Newfoundland
51°35.8N
055°27.8W

Our sail from Labrador back to Newfoundland was uneventful unless you count seeing our only iceberg with an arch and a thick fog that descended just as we reached land!

Quirpon (pronounced like car pool but with an "n")peeked out of the fog and revealed this small community of 219 bathed in sunshine. Our lines were caught by a kind gentleman. A few minutes of chatting and he mentioned that he ran the ferry for the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn. He'd be leaving shortly and not returning until 1pm the next day. His car was parked on the dock with the keys in it and we were welcome to it! Never did get his name, nor he ours. It really opens your eyes to what's possible in the world if you don't have to spend time protecting yourself from crime. The "Most Generous on Least Acquaintance" Award is a tough award to win in these parts. . . but the ferryman wins it.

If you're ever in these parts the Quirpon Inn is worth a visit:

Quirpon Lighthouse Inn

and tell the ferry operator, "Thank you!"

Return to Battle Harbour

Battle Harbour, Labrador

July 22, 2009

Have you ever experienced a magical place and then afterward tried to figure out if the magic was due to the locale or something that happened there or maybe it was all an illusion? Our first visit to Battle Harbour was filled with magic - music at our very first kitchen party, icebergs, and the experience of sitting on a rock watching giant humpback whales gobble up their dinner. So maybe this, our only repeat stop, was to see if the magic was real or imagined.

From our first visit

What the video doesn't show in that opening shot is the whale that dove right in front of us on a collision course.  All I saw were his flukes as he dove under.  My only comfort was that if they show their flukes it means they're going deep.

The feeding was amazing.  The fifty foot humpbacks seemed to work in teams of 3 driving the capelin, a small mackerel like fish, into a cove.  They circle the fish blowing bubbles which makes a bubble net around the fish.  Then they dive deep and come up through the trapped fish with their moths open.  

This second visit was minus the icebergs which had moved on and the whales which had left to  follow the capelin.  Gazing back at Battle Harbour from the top of neighboring Caribou Island, we could still feel the magic of this place.  But, we also knew that our first visit here was one in a million.