Cold and desolate

Pulling up the barge’s spuds on a very chilly day

We pulled stakes – literally, the barge was “staked” in – from Deception Bay about three weeks ago (as written at the time when I had no internet service). However the weather deteriorating, and not having an anchor on the barge, meant we steamed around the bay doing circles for three days. Yes, there is no more fun a sailor can have, than that, idling around in circles. After a few days, and a favorable forecast, the captain decided to exit Deception Bay, and make a run to the lee side of Baffin Island, and down to the tip of the Labrador coast.

The tug is a considerable size tug, but still it bounced around a fair bit. Not wanting to take chances, I did some drugs, OK well, as close as I come
to them anyways, so I popped some Gravol. After a couple days of
bouncing around, I felt confident enough to wean myself off, and despite
being slightly nauseated, I was able to maintain function. Nice to get
my sea legs back, after many years threading the muddy waters of the St
Lawrence.
 

Looks can be deceiving – cold and rolling north Atlantic

It was my first time in this part of the world, the Labrador coast is a very dramatic sight. The steep ice covered shoreline rises dramatically from the Atlantic. Not a tree in sight, very few bird sightings. It is a scraggly coastline full of shoals and hazards. Not very inviting, but impressive to see. There was open discussion about the possibility of winding up on those shores and our ability to make it off again. These thoughts highlights the very obvious fact that a ship, is but a small spec on this landscape, and that our lives are so very fragile.

Canada’s Northern Labrador coast

On our way down – East, South East, we were treated to beautiful clear skies, and of course a considerable display of the Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights. Yellowish and subtly changing shape, they stretched out the width of the arctic night sky, making a cap shape over the north pole. The sky was quite visible as there was a total absence of any other man made light for as far as the eye could see.

Beautiful to most, not a place to “go ashore”