Threading the Needle

Fogo Island, Newfoundland August 10, 2009

“Rock! 10 feet to port,” came from the bow.

“20 feet. 15, 35,” came from down below.

“There’s a ledge coming out starboard side. Head to port a little. Careful,” came from me at the companionway

We’ve been sticking to our ever vigilant motto on this trip but 2 more sets of eyes and hands allow us a bit more margin. Combined with this area being more thoroughly charted and there just being more people around and we’re picking little slots to slip through. You know the kind, rocks to the left, rocks to the right. It’s breathtaking and qualifies as aerobic exercise when your nerves get your heart rate up that high!

Russ’ sisters, Patty and Debbie made the long drive up from the States. Up here they call the US East Coast, “the Boston States.” (I can imagine how my Southern family would take to that!) Everyone in Newfoundland has a story about the Marine Atlantic ferry, the big car ferry that connects Newfoundland to Nova Scotia. Due to a recent fire on one of the ships, the ferries were all running behind. Debbie and Patty ended up sleeping on the floor of the Atlantic Vision’s lounge.

In the above instance we were threading our way between Lower Head and the off lying rocks around Twillingate. Debbie was on the bow, Patty was on the depthfinder below and I was watching on the chartplotter with Russ at the helm.

We’re stopping at places we’ve been hearing about in songs and reading about in books for so long. First was Moreton’s Harbour where Russ and Debbie rowed ashore and waited out an intense downpour under a dockside awning. Their fellow awning mates told them there’d been a big wedding in town last night and everyone was hung over but we should all come ashore for coffee in the morning.

Next day it was onto Twillingate and that thrilling entrance, accompanied by some squid hounds. Great walking out to the cliffs Andante had sailed under on the way in, back through a small cemetery tucked into a little valley looking out over the sea and out to a huge cross. Some local boats suggested RJ’s restaurant and we splurged on a night out.

Andante threaded the needle between Twillingate and Burnt Island on the way to Fogo with all of us womanning a different station. Those rocks seem awfully close!

Fogo has been deemed one of the four corners of the Earth by the Flat Earth Society. A hike out to Brimstone Head meant we were actually standing on the corner!

They think the last Great Auk, a penguin like bird, was killed here. They didn’t know what it was so they saved the skin. It fed their family for 3 meals . . .

It’s crowded here!

Lewisporte Yacht Club

Lewisporte, NL

August 7, 2009

We shared a quiet anchorage with hundreds of moon jellyfish in Welsh Cove where it felt like we were the only people on Earth.

Then onto Boat Harbour, reported to be haunted by a Beothuk ghost, one of Newfoundland’s aboriginal people. The last tribal member died in 1829. It’s said that strange things happen to boats that spend time in this little cove with a few houses and stacks of lobster pots on the shore. Sure enough, our weird incident happened in the morning. Russ dropped the dinghy line thinking it was tied on at the end! A brief moment contemplating swimming for the dinghy and he took a big leap and managed to land in the dinghy versus the water. Someone’s laughing!

This is Notre Dame Bay, one of the crown jewels of Newfoundland cruising. There are enough coves and islands here to keep you exploring for many years. Our goal was the Lewisporte Yacht Club located at the foot of the Bay where we were rendezvousing with Russ’s sisters in a few days time.

We were amazed to see other recreational sailboats! 5 guys (not selling cheeseburgers!) took our lines. Turns out they were taking a boating class and were glad for the practice. That kind of hospitality marked our stay here.

Bonnie & Joe on Deep Powder, Vermonters that keep their boat here and cruise in the summers, gave me a lift to the grocery store and then we had an impromptu potluck with other sailors. Newfoundlanders Wayne & Elaine, Bruce and Lynn, Peter and Carolyn entertained us with boating stories and tales of Newfoundland. It’s the longest we’ve been in the company of others since we left home!

So, considering our home county has a population of 512,790 living in 588 square miles, (That’s 872 people per square mile.) Newfoundland’s population of just under 478,684 spread out over 69,214 square miles (6.9 people per square mile but that’s a little off since about 70% of the population live in St. John)it’s hard to believe this area feels crowded to us . . . but it does!

One is the Lonliest number . . .

One is the Loneliest Number

Round Harbour, Newfoundland

49° 55’N 55° 44’W

August 4, 2009

It’s easy to look back on the past with rose colored glasses and totally forget the backbreaking work it took just to survive. Charlie Foss reminded us of that as we sat in his kitchen sipping tea and telling stories. I asked him if he’d played around the cliffs as a young boy.

“Oh no,” he said, “You couldn’t wander away from the fish flakes in case it rained. We yong ‘uns would have to cover up the drying fish before they got ruined. When we weren’t doing that it was watching the sheep and pigs or any number of chores. My six year old sister worked like a 16 year old.”

Charlie went to the one room schoolhouse through 8^th grade but didn’t learn much. There was never time to do homework but when he missed spelling something right, the teacher would hit them with a ruler or stick. He wouldn’t cry and in the 2^nd grade the teacher hit him so hard it raised blood welts and he had the scar to prove it.

Kind of takes the rosy glasses off . . . but doesn’t blind us to the beauty of this spot today. Round Harbour is exactly that an almost perfect round bowl with houses built up all around. There are pictures of fish flakes, large flat structures used to dry fish, filling up every available space and all of it covered with drying cod. Today it’s a mix of colorful houses but most are empty and Charlie is the only full time resident. Yep, come winter he’s the only one here. So far the government keeps the road plowed so his mail can be delivered but as he put it, it’d be cheaper for them to pay him to move!

Nice hike out to the cliffs and we met a few more residents. There’s a beautiful Anglican Church and a nice place to stretch your legs. The anchorage is open to the swell and we were rocked to sleep at night.

We've come a long way baby!

View 2009 Newfoundland/Labrador Cruise in a larger map

Anchor symbols indicate where we've anchored! The sailboat symbols indicate where we anchored in cases where we doubled our track.

We've come a long way baby!

Ancient Peoples

Fleur de Lys, Newfoundland

50 08' N -56 06'W

August 1, 2009

Our land home is in the mid-Atlantic of the United States, the most populous part of the country. It’s easy to feel far removed from nature, from history, and from the people that originally inhabited the area. There’s something about Newfoundland though that makes it all seem . . . closer to the bone, more accessible.

Lanse Aux Meadows showed us a window into the Vikings. Fleur De Lys (flower of lilies) showed us the ancient peoples, Dorsets. This is a bustling little town and we’d inadvertently hit it during the Dorset Festival weekend.

The Dorset people inhabited the area between 1100 and 1600 years ago. What drew them to this area were the soapstone cliffs just outside of the present town. Bowls shapes were roughed out in place, chiseled off and then hollowed out and finished. Today the cliffs bear the bowl shaped indentations made by these ancient peoples. It was easy to stand there and picture scaffolding set up along the cliff face, the sound of children as they ran around and talking amongst the adults. The Dorsets traded these items, making this one of the first commercial mining operations in the world.

There are some bowls roughed out but not chiseled off the wall. What interrupted their work? What caused them to abandon this place?

The modern local people didn’t think anything of those strange shapes in the cliffs. Children played and explored there. It was just part of what had always been there. In the early 19990’s archeologist “discovered” the site and began excavating. If you visit there’s a wonderful museum that interprets the Dorset history and early European activities in the area.

Hiking trails lead from in back of the museum past the soapstone cliffs and out to the headland. Reminder – soapstone is slippery! Gorgeous views with whale watching and guillemots with their striking colors – bright orange feet and white wing patches.

Outdoor concert started at 10:30pm! Great music and dancing. Chatted with some local folks and then tumbled into bed. These long daylight hours can be exhausting . . .

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!

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