Sunday August 9^th

Groceries, tourist shop, post sent. We had a lovely visit with Dan and Dom and we heard about their Viking Route westward passage – left UK in April, north through Scotland and the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, then Labrador/Newfoundland, and we shared our ideas for Newfoundland.  They reported that Eastern Greenland was accessible due to reduced ice, and they were able to explore into Fjords that would normally be impassible (hello global warming). As it turned out, they had been roughly 1 day ahead of us coming down the Labrador Coast having made Canadian landfall just south of Cartwright.

We got our shore tasks done during the best of the day, as thick fog rolled into St.Anthony harbour that evening.

Monday August 10^th

By early morning the harbour had cleared of fog, and Dan and Dom set off at 8am. We were waiting for the fresh water access at the Grenfell dock. It is the first real ‘fill’ since Havre St Pierre! So now showers can be a little more often and a little longer!! We set off at 10am and headed SW 12nm to one of the many anchorages in Hare Bay (yes, one of the many Hare Bays in Nfld). Of course, it was motoring head to wind but once out in the open water, the sea state was manageable (0.5m swells) with the swells off our port bow. A pod of dolphins came close to check us out – they are so much bigger in person! The wind came up and we could have sailed the last 40 minutes but…we are becoming lazy cruisers.

 We chose to head to Maiden Arm as it was written up well in the CCA Guide. Dom and Ali had both highlighted it. It is a long cove that turns left, then right, then right then left with each of these turns providing a possible bay to anchor in.

We always check our AIS before deciding on an anchorage because we value privacy and respect other’s privacy. No AIS was showing in the bay so in we went only to discover Endeavour, Dan and Dom, had arrived into the inner bay. We dropped anchor in the earlier bay in 6m of water with ample distance for both of us to appreciate this quiet anchorage.

Not sure of our plans, but the next North wind could take us across +100nm to Fogo Is where we could then begin to head south to Lewisporte. It is also the last chance to see some dolphins/whales as once in the Notre Dame Bay area there is not the ‘big’ marine life.

August 11^th

If you could design the close-to-ideal anchorage, this would be it.  With the multiple bends in the entrance and the low rolling hills surrounding it, the bay remains flat calm regardless of what is happening out in the larger bay.  Each of the “bays” is large enough, and shallow enough (5-6m) with lots of swing room and solid sticky mud to anchor in. The shores are lined with ‘smelly’ pines, lots of birdlife, jellyfish, and you can hear the crash of waves in the distance. A great place to spend a couple of days.

August 12^th

Woke to steady rain, so settled in for a lazy morning of reading, puttering and catching up on a few boat tasks (never ending to keep her shipshape). Thankfully the rain stopped and the skies (sorta) cleared, so we launched the dinghy to explore the bays.  The shores are mostly steeper rocks and the trees come down the shoreline, so we could only boulder up the brook till impassable.

August 13^th

Cloudy calm morning……watched a caribou work their way around the shoreline munching on …?grass? amongst the rocks. We were interested in exploring more of Hare Bay so, despite the perfection of this anchorage, left to go further west into Hare Bay  …bit of a mistake……never make a sailing decision with checking an updated weather forecast (it can change as rapidly as they can publish the weather).  We moved about 8nm west to south of MacGray Island and had put the hook down.  Yesterday’s forecast was for steady SSE (10-15 kts) winds but this was not what was forming up.  Set up Starlink, checked the weather and yup…updated forecast had winds swinging to the north 15-20 kts, which would make this new anchorage wide open to swells, wind and put us on a lee shore. So had lunch and hauled up anchor. Moved back to Maiden Arm to discover that Endeavour had also left, so we anchored in the inner bay.  That same caribou was still there and watched from the shore not 50m away, completely unconcerned about our presence.

The north wind blew the clouds away, so we were offered a clear night sky (we have not had that many of those) so we stayed up late to watch the Perseids meteor shower and enjoyed a perfect night sky full of stars.

August 14^th

To the west of the end of bay was a river/march/tidal flat, so we laced up our waterproof hikers(!) and motored ashore during a falling tide.  At low tide, the entire marsh/plain is entirely accessible, albeit mushy, and covered in low grasses which can clearly survive being immersed in saltwater.  While we expected to find critters and stuff in the tidal pools, we found lots of ‘beached’ Lions mane jellyfish – kinda weird… were they able to survive until the tide came back in? A question for google…

We followed hoof tracks up out of the swamp to the western ridge and spotted a large bull moose grazing on the ridge above us. Luckily we were downwind so he was not aware of us so he did not move away. We had not taken the cameras so no photos.  

Enjoyed another clear starry night… takes your breath away.

August 15^th

Notwithstanding our limited confidence in weather forecasts, the expectation of winds shifting to the north (to push us down the bay) on Saturday remained intact, so we thought we should explore another anchorage before departing.

Fishot Island, east of Hare Bay, looked promising, with a sheltered harbour and potentially good hiking on the islands so off we went.  It is not well charted but the reported depth was 7m at the north entrance, and notes in the CCA Guide suggested that a sailboat (with 7’ draught) had successfully anchored there. We brought the keel up so that our draught was  about 1.5-2 m and slowed the boat down to mosey our way in.  As we entered the narrowest part of the entrance the chart showed 5m, but our depth sounder went did not…it went quickly from 5 to 1 (!?) and we were aground.  Thankfully, we were watching the depth sounder, so as it rapidly shallowed (20 seconds) we slammed the boat in reverse so it was more of a bump than a crash, but it still stopped us cold.  After a string of very bad words, we pulled the keel up the rest of the way, dropped the bowthruster and, once afloat, did a ‘U’ turn, picking our way carefully out of there.

It looked like a gorgeous anchorage but not for us. Another time maybe.  Plan B…we selected Admiralty Cove, 6nm south on the mainland. It had enough protection to deal with the existing ESE winds and the expected north winds.  It is a pretty cove with a young caribou on the island next to us, but before we could get the dinghy launched to go exploring, a solid rain came in so we settled in for a quiet afternoon/evening.

August 16^th

North winds are here…we will be leaving at noon today to make the 115nm SSE run ( overnight) across Notre Dame Bay to Fogo Island.