Puffin 360

Today we sailed with wind on the nose  and curcumnavigated Bird island seeing Puffins & Seals. Later as we entered the channel to the Bras Dor Lake we faced a 4.5 knots of tidal current. We thought we had timed it well but under estimated the amount of water the had to come through that channel. We hooked on to a moring ball just past the 119' high Seal Island Bridge. Another fine day in the martimes.

    

    

         

                                                                

    

Newfoundland to Nova Scotia passage

               Head lands at Ingonish 

Left at 3:00 pm and made a qiuick stop to fortify our cod supply but no luck. We saw many large Dolphins and one jumped straight up and clear on the water by five feet, quite a site.

For dinner we baked up a lasagna underway.

Sailed through the night on four hour shifts with a two hour break, so we had two crew on all the time. The winds were 8-16 on the nose again but due to the distance we motor sailed. The water warmed up somewhat after we crossed the Laurentian Channel (trench) and nobody was cold which was good. As we approached the entrance to the harbour the Katabatic winds increased to 23 knots coming off the mountains. 

We landed at South Ingonish Harbour about 7:30 and had a swim, beer, breakfast and a map, I think that is enough for a country song even without a truck. We cooked up a cod fish dinner and retired early.

There is a beutiful beach and world class golf coarse here. It is also home to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

                  New docks

              Stud Puffins on the loose

Aug 2, Cod Country

                       Before

Today on route back to Port Aux Basques the winds light and with only one Mackeral on ice, we stopped to catch a couple more. But guess what, the cod were junping into our boat. We got in about noon and had time to reprovisioning before Keith arrived that evening. 

                         After

          Quiet P A B evening.

Aug 01 Rose Blanche to Burnt Islands

 

Darrell and I sailed with wind on the nose, full beat, 21 miles to go 10.  Burnt Islands have a well used set of floating docks for recreational boaters. Well protected harbour. Very picturess with many sunkers at the harbour entrance.

July 31. La Poile to Rose Blanch

We move the Summer wine up the La Poile fiord and anchored for a breakfast of cod and eggs. Then caught a Mackeral and had a quick dip, very refreshing in the ice cold bay and then sailed out to meet 20 knots on the nose. We arrived at Rose Blanche at 7 pm after  sailing 31 miles for a 14 mile leg. 

Jully30 Le Poile

                  La Poile

We checked out the light house and fishing museum then sailed from Rose Banche to Le Poile. 

Caught another cod on the way with one try of the jig.  Dead down wind 7 kts. 

Small outport no roads, the family sedan was a quad with a trailer. Lots of the cloth lines were sporting salted cod out to dry. The pretty little town with ferry acess only has a school with grades 1 -9 but only four children. 

            Rose Blanche

       Rose Blanche light house

Crew change

               Mo and Darrell

We left St. John's and drove back across the province to Port Aux Basques with a brief stop at Terra Nova National Park. Our first day back was filled with boat chores and reprovisioning. The next morning was rainy so we lazed around to noon before driving to Rose Blanche to see the rebuilt light house and the smaller harbours along the way. 

That evening we were invited for diner at Keith Allen and Grace Savouy house. We had meet Keith on the wharf, he works out of Winnipeg and resides there in the winter months, other example of just how nice the people are in Newfoundland.

Thursday we turn in the rental car after we had racked up 3000 k at Deer Lake Airport, Joann departs and

Darrell arrives for the next leg of our adventure and he and I take the cab back down to Port Aux Basques.

Alabama's Morreen O'Sulavan introduced herself to Darrell and I the minute we got back to Port Aux Basques. Mo as she calls herself had lived on a sailboat for 40 years until it got ruined in a hurricane in 2005. She is up here in Newfoundland with her dog "Honey" traveling around by van. We cooked up a pot of muscles and shares supper with her enjoying her stories and the carry on the dock. By the way she is 82 years old, and her eyes still shine like diamonds quite a women. 

The Astrolabe Dance at the arena that night had 3 bands of which we heard two was poorly attended by the locals. The dance is part of a annual fundraising weekend to support the museum, hopefully the rest of the festivities are better attended. 

Friday morning brought fog and rain, so we waited until 2 pm to leave for Rose Blanche along the way we stopped to catch a cod fish for dinner.

                 Keith and Grace