OH, CANADA!! part 1

After a long winter of expensive refit work on BRAVO, encompassing both repairs and upgrades, we finally launched from Maine Yacht Center in May, and left Maine in early June.  It felt great to get underway, and we headed straight to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to clear customs and immigration.  (The process took a bit longer than usual, as we are packing a firearm for polar bear protection up north, and 3 agents came aboard for a thorough full boat inspection....no problem, all was on the up and up).

Arctic exploration schooner Bowdoin arriving at the town pier.  The schooner is now used as a training ship for maritime college students, and is heading up to Labrador.  They had planned on heading to Greenland, but we heard she turned back due to heavy pack ice.

We really like Lunenburg, with it's history of wooden boat building and the schooner trade.  The town has been well preserved, and it's easy to squint your eyes and imagine how it must have been 100 years ago, with the bay packed with schooners bound for the Grand Banks cod fishing grounds.  It was also a good social time, with a rendezvous with OCC members Brian and Helen on SV Helacious.

Then, after spending a few days in Halifax (good to see Sebastien again, from Boreal SV Dutch!) we headed up to Bras d'Or Lake, our turn around point for last summer's cruising season.  This time we didn't spend much time there, and headed quickly out of the lake, as we were eager to get to Newfoundland.  On the way we stopped at Kelly's Cove, where we met the crews of SV Chula and SV Sentijn, and on to Ingonish Harbor, for a good hike up to the top of the ski area.  

View from top of ski area at Ingonish, Bravo and Chula anchored down below

Navigation buoys normally marking the channel!!!

The crossing of the Cabot Strait can be a sporty one, but we had a good window.  We got in some good sailing, and a fair bit of motoring when the winds died.  Ended up after a couple of days in the Bay of Islands on Newfoundland's west coast.  It was a beautiful place, and we anchored for a few days in the little "bay within a bay", in the middle of Woods Island in the B of I.  Had a great hike around the south side of the island, passing through many abandoned cabins and settlements.

Here was our first exposure to the Canadian government's resettlement program.  From the 1950's through the 1970's, this was an effort by the government to get people to move from the many tiny villages and communities of Newfoundland and Labrador to the larger towns and cities, as a way of saving money on services to the remote settlements.  They offered some financial incentive to get people to relocate, and as a result, the coasts of N&L have many abandoned cabins and fishing outposts where people simply up and left.  It's eerie to walk through these areas where there are no longer any people living their previous lives.  Apparently there were over 300 communities, with over 30,000 people who moved voluntarily to their new lives.  (The government would not force people to move, but would no longer service the communities with power, water, transport, etc).

After a few days at Woods Island we headed north to Bonne Bay, in the heart of Gros Morne National Park.  It's a beautiful area, with deep fjords cut by the glaciers extending for miles inland.  We anchored at Lomond River, where we could catch some hiking trails.  The hiking proved to be good but muddy after a couple of days of hard rain.  No problem for the major wildlife we saw.....frogs on the trail and a minke whale who enjoyed fishing around the boat a few times over the couple of days we spent here.  Nice!

We're also in peak wildflower season, and everywhere we hike they've been putting on a great show!

Blue flag iris

Showy lady's slipper

We continued north east up the coast from Bonne Bay to the fishing village of Port Au Choix.  Again a mix of motoring and sailing, the final 30 miles of this stretch was in dense, pea soup fog.  Visibility was no more than 200 meters, often less, as we could see the mist swirling around the bow of the boat.  No fun entering the tight fishing harbor in the fog and trying to find a spot on the sea wall to tie up.  Happily while we were debating our alternatives (none obvious, or good!), a couple of fishermen motioned to a vacant section of wall in the corner of the basin where we could tie up.  Sweet!

Port Au Choix is purely a fishing harbor.  We're the only pleasure boat here, and as such, a bit of a novelty.  People have been incredibly friendly everywhere in Newfoundland.  For example, as I was walking back to the boat yesterday, one guy offered us use of his truck if we need it.  And this morning, a fisherman just in front of us on the dock knocked on the boat to tell us that he's not going out today because it's too rough, so he offered us a ride anywhere if we need supplies.  And then later, a guy loaned us his truck to go get some diesel in our jerry cans.  Nice.....

We were talking to one 90 year old character.  He had an interesting story of growing up in Red Bay, just a bit north of here in Labrador.  He is part Innuit, and was born with the help of a midwife who made her rounds by dog sled.  His family also got around with their dog teams.  The midwife raised a herd of goats, so she carried goat's milk to feed the infants if needed.  Everyone ate what they hunted; caribou, seal, birds, and other small game.  

Bravo at home in the inner harbor.

Port Au Choix was the home to four successive groups of indigenous people, dating back over 5500 years.  Many burial sites have been discovered on the peninsula, and today much of the area is designated a Canadian National Historic Site.  There's an excellent visitor's center describing this history of settlements, and some good hiking trails around the area.  Yesterday we hiked out to the center, and then continued hiking on the trail through Philip's Garden, which was the site of a major archeological exploration.  

We ran into a young caribou on the trail.  He wasn't at all shy, and just continued munching on ferns and other plants as we walked past him.  

This pond was a place where the indigenous communities on the beach cleaned their seals over a couple of thousand years.  The water is still algae filled due to the high levels of nutrients remaining in the water.

We've now been here for four days waiting out the weather.  The prevailing winds at this time of year are from the SW, perfect for heading NE up the coast.  But right after we arrived in the fog, the wind turned to a Nor' Easter, which has made the passage up the Strait of Belle Isle a rough one.  Added to the fact that there are still reported to be some ice bergs in the strait (which show up on radar) and smaller "growlers" (which don't), and we've decided to stay put for a couple of days until the weather improves.  No worries, it's been fun to walk around and explore between rain squalls!!!