As I start this blog, we are sitting at anchor in Port Saunders, Newfoundland. It's a bit rainy out and Dave is trying to psych himself up to go for a swim. Not the recreational type, as the water is only 13 deg C, but out of necessity. Yesterday we had a problem which we think is related to something on the prop shaft, so he is going down to have a look at the line cutter, which he suspects may be the issue.
He's already taken some photos with the underwater camera, which don't show any major damage, so that is a good thing. We set of from Cow Head yesterday morning with a forecast for winds of 20 knots from the south. We were expecting a good sail up the coast, but the wind didn't show up, so we motor sailed for a few hours until it dropped off and we had to furl the jib and just motor. After about 6 hours underway we had done 40 miles, which was excellent progress, due in part to a very favourable current adding a knot or more to our speed over the ground. And then a vibration started... and then it got worse. We put the engine in neutral and it went away. We put it in forward and it came back, accompanied by a metallic grinding sound... not good. We put the engine in reverse... no vibration, no grinding. Dave looked at the engine and everything looked okay there. So we unfurled the jib and sailed.
The wind was very light and almost directly behind us, so we drifted along at a painfully slow 2-3 knots (over the ground - thank goodness for the current) for about 3 hours. We were approaching Keppel Island, at the entrance to the bay where Port Saunders is located when the wind pretty well died. We knew we were moving slightly because we could still steer the boat, but we were going so slowly that the knot meter wouldn't register any speed and the plotter only showed us moving occasionally when we made enough progress for it to update. After bobbing around for an hour with the wind dropping even more, Dave decided to try backing in past the island, thinking if we got in the lee we would get out of the swells and be able to get the engine on the dinghy and use the dinghy to drive us in.
If anyone was watching us trying to back Romana into the harbour they must have thought we were nuts! We have no steerage, so it was kind of like tacking erratically backwards - ridiculous. In the end Dave put it in idle forward and we crept into the harbour hoping we weren't doing any further damage. We were both relieved when we anchored near the south shore of the harbour almost 12 hours (and only 53 miles) after we left Cow Head. Minutes after we put the anchor down, it started to rain, so in a way it was perfect timing!
It was raining when I wrote my last blog, in Neddies Harbour. After sitting around the boat all morning we were all happy to get off the boat when there was a bit of a lull in the rain and we got suited up in our rain gear and walked down to the Marine Service Centre, where they have an Aquarium associated with Memorial University, and they give tours. We had an interesting tour, learning a lot about the aquatic life of the area, and seeing a bunch of sea creatures up close. Deborah and I were a little disappointed to find out that the woman who gave us the tour was a psych major rather than a biologist, but she did an adequate job.
After the aquarium we went over to the pub, where we were told they had wifi. They also had french fries, beer, and even more exciting, heat! We sat up on the second level overlooking the bay, toasty warm, while we took advantage of the wifi and the power plugs to check email, post blogs, charge devices etc. Back at the boat that evening it was so cold that we fired up the kerosene lamp to try to warm the cabin up a bit.
Friday morning the weather had improved, and soon the sun was out! We decided to head down the East Arm of Bonne Bay towards Lomond Cove, where there was a campground with some trails and apparently showers. There was no wind, so we motored down the arm and anchored in the cove then packed a lunch and headed to shore to hike the Lomond River trail. While hunting for the showers, we ran into the caretaker for the campground, who told us they had HOT showers just up the hill.
Looking forward to HOT showers later that day, we set off on the Lomond River trail. Despite the rain the day before the trail wasn't nearly as muddy as we had expected. We encountered some bugs for almost the first time in our hikes (it's probably been too cold for them) but mostly around the fresh water streams, and if we kept moving it wasn't too bad. We saw quite a few toads, and a ton of lady slippers, which were in perfect bloom, and lovely. After lunch by the river we hiked back and found that the clouds had all cleared away and we had a great view of Killdevil Mountain on the other side of the arm.
While we were hiking, Bill made up this song (sung to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad":
I'm becoming a Newfoundlander
All the live long day
Wearing t-shirt, short and flip flops
From the start of May
Can't you hear my teeth a-chattering
It's Morse Code for I'm OK
I'm becoming a Newfoundlander
And I wouldn't have it any other way
We went back to the boat to get our shower stuff and had one of those showers - the ones that feel so amazing because you haven't had one in over a week! And the water was HOT, HOT, HOT! It was great. Back at the boat we watched Minke whales playing in the water and Deborah tried hard to watch the sunset (despite the fact that it was setting behind the hills we did see some beautiful pink skies and orange on the hills).
Saturday morning we went for a hike in the other direction, to a place called Stanleyville, which was once a logging community, with a big wharf with sailing ships tied up to - we saw photos. Now it is just a pebbly beach in a cove with a meadow behind it and a couple of the red chairs put there by the Park. It was a nice hike through the forest over a hill to the beach, which was very interesting - tons of different shaped pebbles and shells to sift through. We wandered the beach, sat in the chairs, watched the whales and ate wild strawberries. We've been eating them on many of our hikes and they are delicious, but the meadow by this beach had more than we have seen anywhere so far.
After we hiked back to the boat and had lunch we hauuled up the anchor and headed back up the Arm. Our original plan was to go to Rocky Harbour, but although in the cove the wind had been SE, when we got out into the Arm it was about 15-20 knots NW, right in our face, and not a good direction to be in Rocky Harbour. We decided instead to go back and anchor in Neddies Harbour. As it was the last night Bill and Deborah were on board, we went out for supper at the Black Spruce Restaurant, taking the dinghy across the harbour to make the walk shorter.
We couldn't get a reservation until 8 p.m. so it was after 10 when we got back in the dinghy to head back to Romana. Halfway back, Bill realized he had left his hat behind, so the guys dropped Deborah and I off at the boat and headed back to get it. While they were on their way, Dave received a phone call from Michelle, telling him that our newest grandchild, Sophie Michelle Huber had finally arrived! When Dave and Bill got back to the boat, he told me to look on my phone (Deborah and I had been sitting in the cockpit chatting and enjoying the perfectly still, clear night) and there were photos of Sophie.
Sunday morning we said goodbye to Bill and Deborah, who got their taxi to the airport at 11:30. Twenty minutes later we had the dinghy on the davits, the anchor up and we were on our way north - destination Cow Head. It was a beautiful sunny day, but still pretty cold in the wind. As usual we were heading straight into it as we motored out off Bonne Bay, past Rocky Harbour and Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse. As soon as we got out of the bay the wind dropped off to nothing. We motored up the coast, enjoying the views of Gros Morne, Western Brook Pond and other features of the Park that we had seen from land. It got so warm under the dodger that I actually got down to my t-shirt for the first time since we have been in Newfoundland!
We arrived at Cow Head around 5 p.m. and tied up to the wharf there. The wharf is out on an island, which is connected via an isthmus (so I guess it isn't really an island) to the town. We decided to walk in to town to stretch our legs and see if they had a store. Once we crossed the isthmus, I found out from a fellow at a B & B that they had "the best grocery store in the park" five minutes up the road, so we went to check it out. Although we had no bags or backpacks to lug groceries in, we did have Dave's wallet, so we stocked up with what we thought was a reasonable amount (including a bottle of rum) and walked back to the boat laden with bags.
That evening cocktail hour was a bit more low key than it was while Bill and Deborah were aboard. Now that it is just the two of us again it is different. It was great to have them with us to explore, especially doing all the hiking in Gros Morne. And it is nice to have extra help when we need it and we had lots of fun with them. Also, having other people on board gives you new perspective and fresh eyes. We can appreciate how lucky we are to be able to travel this way and see things that you don't get to see from land. Bill came up with a great phrase, which I plan to use in the future. When we were trying to figure out how to get somewhere he said "Is it dinghable?", meaning "can we get there in the dinghy?". You see things differently (literally and figuratively) when you travel by boat.
We decided to stay another night in Cow Head, so on Monday, Dave got the folding bikes out and assembled them and we set off on a little tour. We biked through the town and out to the Shallow Bay Campground, where there was supposed to be a spectacular sandy beach. It wasn't exactly beach weather - sprinkles of rain, a cold wind and overcast skies - so we didn't pay the park fee to go and have a look, but we took a loop out to the highway and back down into Cow Head. We got a few more groceries and then stopped in a lovely little Botanical Garden, in a church yard just across the street from the grocery store to eat our lunch. The garden was put together and is maintained by a community group and it is full of both wild and cultivated plants - they wanted to see what they could grow here with some TLC and they have done a great job. Unfortunately a couple of minutes after we sat down to eat it started to rain, so we got back on the bikes and went back to the boat to finish our lunch there.
Later on that afternoon, when the rain had pretty much fizzled out, we took the bikes to the trailhead of the Lighthouse Trail, a community built and maintained trail on the island, and not far from the boat. We hiked this pretty little trail, with a couple of lookoffs at the rocky shore, a stop at the recently refurbished (but non functioning) lighthouse, then up a trail along some cliffs to Big Hill, where they boast of the best views of the hills of Gros Morne. It was a bit cloudy, but still pretty impressive. We learned that the island, which was called Summerside, was where the people lived during the summer, while they were fishing, and then they moved back into the town, which was called Winterside, across the 'Sandbar' which is what they called the isthmus. Apparently a while back they re-settled the island community, which seems a bit strange to us as it is only a 20 minute walk, 6 minute bike ride, and probably a 2 minute drive from the island to town.
We are having a hard time finding places to leave our garbage, as it seems the wharves here don't have dumpsters or garbage cans, which makes it a bit of a challenge, and we were not really prepared with as much warm clothing as we have needed for the cold weather (we are even pushing the limit of 'repeat wears' for boaters) but those are just minor inconveniences compared to how much we have been enjoying this beautiful place.
Our next destination is Port Au Choix, which is only about 15 miles away, so hopefully the line cutter is fixed and we will be on our away again soon.
NOTE: I am posting this blog from Port Au Choix. Our problem appears to be fixed after two swims and some work on the coupling by Dave.
He's already taken some photos with the underwater camera, which don't show any major damage, so that is a good thing. We set of from Cow Head yesterday morning with a forecast for winds of 20 knots from the south. We were expecting a good sail up the coast, but the wind didn't show up, so we motor sailed for a few hours until it dropped off and we had to furl the jib and just motor. After about 6 hours underway we had done 40 miles, which was excellent progress, due in part to a very favourable current adding a knot or more to our speed over the ground. And then a vibration started... and then it got worse. We put the engine in neutral and it went away. We put it in forward and it came back, accompanied by a metallic grinding sound... not good. We put the engine in reverse... no vibration, no grinding. Dave looked at the engine and everything looked okay there. So we unfurled the jib and sailed.
The wind was very light and almost directly behind us, so we drifted along at a painfully slow 2-3 knots (over the ground - thank goodness for the current) for about 3 hours. We were approaching Keppel Island, at the entrance to the bay where Port Saunders is located when the wind pretty well died. We knew we were moving slightly because we could still steer the boat, but we were going so slowly that the knot meter wouldn't register any speed and the plotter only showed us moving occasionally when we made enough progress for it to update. After bobbing around for an hour with the wind dropping even more, Dave decided to try backing in past the island, thinking if we got in the lee we would get out of the swells and be able to get the engine on the dinghy and use the dinghy to drive us in.
If anyone was watching us trying to back Romana into the harbour they must have thought we were nuts! We have no steerage, so it was kind of like tacking erratically backwards - ridiculous. In the end Dave put it in idle forward and we crept into the harbour hoping we weren't doing any further damage. We were both relieved when we anchored near the south shore of the harbour almost 12 hours (and only 53 miles) after we left Cow Head. Minutes after we put the anchor down, it started to rain, so in a way it was perfect timing!
It was raining when I wrote my last blog, in Neddies Harbour. After sitting around the boat all morning we were all happy to get off the boat when there was a bit of a lull in the rain and we got suited up in our rain gear and walked down to the Marine Service Centre, where they have an Aquarium associated with Memorial University, and they give tours. We had an interesting tour, learning a lot about the aquatic life of the area, and seeing a bunch of sea creatures up close. Deborah and I were a little disappointed to find out that the woman who gave us the tour was a psych major rather than a biologist, but she did an adequate job.
After the aquarium we went over to the pub, where we were told they had wifi. They also had french fries, beer, and even more exciting, heat! We sat up on the second level overlooking the bay, toasty warm, while we took advantage of the wifi and the power plugs to check email, post blogs, charge devices etc. Back at the boat that evening it was so cold that we fired up the kerosene lamp to try to warm the cabin up a bit.
Friday morning the weather had improved, and soon the sun was out! We decided to head down the East Arm of Bonne Bay towards Lomond Cove, where there was a campground with some trails and apparently showers. There was no wind, so we motored down the arm and anchored in the cove then packed a lunch and headed to shore to hike the Lomond River trail. While hunting for the showers, we ran into the caretaker for the campground, who told us they had HOT showers just up the hill.
Looking forward to HOT showers later that day, we set off on the Lomond River trail. Despite the rain the day before the trail wasn't nearly as muddy as we had expected. We encountered some bugs for almost the first time in our hikes (it's probably been too cold for them) but mostly around the fresh water streams, and if we kept moving it wasn't too bad. We saw quite a few toads, and a ton of lady slippers, which were in perfect bloom, and lovely. After lunch by the river we hiked back and found that the clouds had all cleared away and we had a great view of Killdevil Mountain on the other side of the arm.
While we were hiking, Bill made up this song (sung to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad":
I'm becoming a Newfoundlander
All the live long day
Wearing t-shirt, short and flip flops
From the start of May
Can't you hear my teeth a-chattering
It's Morse Code for I'm OK
I'm becoming a Newfoundlander
And I wouldn't have it any other way
We went back to the boat to get our shower stuff and had one of those showers - the ones that feel so amazing because you haven't had one in over a week! And the water was HOT, HOT, HOT! It was great. Back at the boat we watched Minke whales playing in the water and Deborah tried hard to watch the sunset (despite the fact that it was setting behind the hills we did see some beautiful pink skies and orange on the hills).
Saturday morning we went for a hike in the other direction, to a place called Stanleyville, which was once a logging community, with a big wharf with sailing ships tied up to - we saw photos. Now it is just a pebbly beach in a cove with a meadow behind it and a couple of the red chairs put there by the Park. It was a nice hike through the forest over a hill to the beach, which was very interesting - tons of different shaped pebbles and shells to sift through. We wandered the beach, sat in the chairs, watched the whales and ate wild strawberries. We've been eating them on many of our hikes and they are delicious, but the meadow by this beach had more than we have seen anywhere so far.
After we hiked back to the boat and had lunch we hauuled up the anchor and headed back up the Arm. Our original plan was to go to Rocky Harbour, but although in the cove the wind had been SE, when we got out into the Arm it was about 15-20 knots NW, right in our face, and not a good direction to be in Rocky Harbour. We decided instead to go back and anchor in Neddies Harbour. As it was the last night Bill and Deborah were on board, we went out for supper at the Black Spruce Restaurant, taking the dinghy across the harbour to make the walk shorter.
We couldn't get a reservation until 8 p.m. so it was after 10 when we got back in the dinghy to head back to Romana. Halfway back, Bill realized he had left his hat behind, so the guys dropped Deborah and I off at the boat and headed back to get it. While they were on their way, Dave received a phone call from Michelle, telling him that our newest grandchild, Sophie Michelle Huber had finally arrived! When Dave and Bill got back to the boat, he told me to look on my phone (Deborah and I had been sitting in the cockpit chatting and enjoying the perfectly still, clear night) and there were photos of Sophie.
Sunday morning we said goodbye to Bill and Deborah, who got their taxi to the airport at 11:30. Twenty minutes later we had the dinghy on the davits, the anchor up and we were on our way north - destination Cow Head. It was a beautiful sunny day, but still pretty cold in the wind. As usual we were heading straight into it as we motored out off Bonne Bay, past Rocky Harbour and Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse. As soon as we got out of the bay the wind dropped off to nothing. We motored up the coast, enjoying the views of Gros Morne, Western Brook Pond and other features of the Park that we had seen from land. It got so warm under the dodger that I actually got down to my t-shirt for the first time since we have been in Newfoundland!
We arrived at Cow Head around 5 p.m. and tied up to the wharf there. The wharf is out on an island, which is connected via an isthmus (so I guess it isn't really an island) to the town. We decided to walk in to town to stretch our legs and see if they had a store. Once we crossed the isthmus, I found out from a fellow at a B & B that they had "the best grocery store in the park" five minutes up the road, so we went to check it out. Although we had no bags or backpacks to lug groceries in, we did have Dave's wallet, so we stocked up with what we thought was a reasonable amount (including a bottle of rum) and walked back to the boat laden with bags.
That evening cocktail hour was a bit more low key than it was while Bill and Deborah were aboard. Now that it is just the two of us again it is different. It was great to have them with us to explore, especially doing all the hiking in Gros Morne. And it is nice to have extra help when we need it and we had lots of fun with them. Also, having other people on board gives you new perspective and fresh eyes. We can appreciate how lucky we are to be able to travel this way and see things that you don't get to see from land. Bill came up with a great phrase, which I plan to use in the future. When we were trying to figure out how to get somewhere he said "Is it dinghable?", meaning "can we get there in the dinghy?". You see things differently (literally and figuratively) when you travel by boat.
We decided to stay another night in Cow Head, so on Monday, Dave got the folding bikes out and assembled them and we set off on a little tour. We biked through the town and out to the Shallow Bay Campground, where there was supposed to be a spectacular sandy beach. It wasn't exactly beach weather - sprinkles of rain, a cold wind and overcast skies - so we didn't pay the park fee to go and have a look, but we took a loop out to the highway and back down into Cow Head. We got a few more groceries and then stopped in a lovely little Botanical Garden, in a church yard just across the street from the grocery store to eat our lunch. The garden was put together and is maintained by a community group and it is full of both wild and cultivated plants - they wanted to see what they could grow here with some TLC and they have done a great job. Unfortunately a couple of minutes after we sat down to eat it started to rain, so we got back on the bikes and went back to the boat to finish our lunch there.
Later on that afternoon, when the rain had pretty much fizzled out, we took the bikes to the trailhead of the Lighthouse Trail, a community built and maintained trail on the island, and not far from the boat. We hiked this pretty little trail, with a couple of lookoffs at the rocky shore, a stop at the recently refurbished (but non functioning) lighthouse, then up a trail along some cliffs to Big Hill, where they boast of the best views of the hills of Gros Morne. It was a bit cloudy, but still pretty impressive. We learned that the island, which was called Summerside, was where the people lived during the summer, while they were fishing, and then they moved back into the town, which was called Winterside, across the 'Sandbar' which is what they called the isthmus. Apparently a while back they re-settled the island community, which seems a bit strange to us as it is only a 20 minute walk, 6 minute bike ride, and probably a 2 minute drive from the island to town.
We are having a hard time finding places to leave our garbage, as it seems the wharves here don't have dumpsters or garbage cans, which makes it a bit of a challenge, and we were not really prepared with as much warm clothing as we have needed for the cold weather (we are even pushing the limit of 'repeat wears' for boaters) but those are just minor inconveniences compared to how much we have been enjoying this beautiful place.
Our next destination is Port Au Choix, which is only about 15 miles away, so hopefully the line cutter is fixed and we will be on our away again soon.
NOTE: I am posting this blog from Port Au Choix. Our problem appears to be fixed after two swims and some work on the coupling by Dave.