Cruising Newfoundland and Labrador

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Ed, What a treat!,very enjoyable ,interested in viewing the others when available. Thanks for posting.
 
Sailing in Fortune and Placentia Bays - Newfoundland

Hi:

I just finished a new video of my boating in the Fortune and Placentia Bays of the South Coast of Newfoundland.

Check it out

https://youtu.be/TtXEopeCgM0

Cheers

Ed O'Reilly
 
Excellent videos - I appreciate the high quality. They tell a story from the heart, the essence of cruising.

Thanks so much - I'm now a subscriber!!!

Peter
 
Excellent video and narration ,most enjoyable!
 
Beautiful video, and so well and artfully done. The tone reminds me of Tony Fleming's videos on Venture. See, right there, that video is yet another example of why we've ultimately given up the idea of doing the whole Great Loop, and doing the northern arc instead. When we have our boat shipped to Duluth in a few years and and sail into the outside world, there are so many beautiful places to see and things to do, we'll be lucky if we ever have time to get south of New York City or at the very most, the Chesapeake. A whole life is too short. That video also confirms our plans to initially do the St. Lawrence Seaway instead of the Erie Canal, even though the St. Lawrence is big and scary and mostly commercial. The Great Lakes, Newfoundland and Labrador, the coast of Maine, New England, the Hudson, then back up to the Erie Canal, the Trent Severn, Georgian Bay... I'll be lucky to ever get south of my family's old home on the Connecticut River. If Xanadu ever makes it back to Gillette Castle, we'll be lucky.
 
It’s great to see you documenting the Labrador and sharing this big remote rocky coasts and the generous quiet people who tough it out up there. Though it’s been years since I had seal flipper pie or char, you can keep the pie might taste better when it’s 20° below. I still write to friends in the Cape Charles region and Hearts Desire in Trinity Bay and treasure their friendship. I almost leased a small house near Makkovic just for the solace and fishing. That little Fisher you’re running looks like a perfect vessel for your travels. Very nice and guessing you’ve got some range to be running this coast.

The coast of Labrador is so remote and rocky it’s like the rest of the world has forgotten it. In the Summer months when the people are allowed to go home to their fishing villages a more friendly people is hard to imagine as you enter their secluded bays. I made two cruises as far as Hebron in 2006 & 2007 aboard a friend’s converted North Sea trawler. At that time I believe we only saw one or two well found sail yachts from Germany and Denmark other than that we ran into the Lewisport, Newfoundland ferry-mailboat and a couple of coastal freight providers. Good charts and reliable soundings were pretty much non-existent then. We had all the available GPS charts, though very vague, but little info except Melville, Cartwright and larger settlements with regular seasonal supply boats entered. So we made a point to quiz the ferry captains for any info they could share. It looks like things have really changed since then but I now see there are several big cruise ships sticking their noses into these tickles and lovely harbors. I’m sure the natives love the new found income but it’s a very short season.

We also ran into Hawke’s Harbor and spent a day there exploring, photography and imagining what a grisly stinking place it must have been cutting up whales, pressure cooking the meat, drying and shipping back to Norway to feed the mink farming industry. The facility was run and owned by Norwegians and a man named Johan Borgen. He had several whaling vessels two of which are stranded or sunk still in the Southwest end of the harbor as seen in your nice video. Almost all of the Scottish built steam winches, boilers and ovens remain though fire consumed all wooden structures. I even saw a couple of harpoon cannons laying about. It was an incredible sight and by today’s standards hard to believe. This was only one of a few whaling stations but I heard there was another bigger one on Grady Island.

I was amazed that local people travel only by two means. Small OB boats in the Summer as roads are non-existent or snow machines when things freeze up hard. They run these snow machines both on the ground and along the frozen coast line often pulling Komatiks, a cargo carrying sled. Up around Nain the big wolf like Huskies are still used and at night it’s not safe walking around as they are turned out and often have to fend for themselves. Big dogs scary ! Lots of ice bergs some so large they blocked out big chunks of the horizon. And smaller growlers with bright blue streaks and bergy bits that are very dangerous. Running up to Nain we saw several hunter’s encampments along the shore with box like structures elevated about 8’ off the ground on poles. Each of these doghouse looking shelters had small round holes in the front facing the sea. I was told the holes would let a Inuit hunter in but keep a polar bear out. The Inuit hunters used seal skin and bent wood kayaks to hunt seals and small whales I was told. I’m sure things have changed a bit in the past eighteen years but I’ll never forget such a place.

Thanks for sharing and keep telling the rest of the world

Rick
 
I made many wonderful trips to Newfoundland for work and hope to cruise there someday. Thanks for sharing, that was great to watch.
 
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