wildlife

Newfoundland Epilogue

September 6, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: boat baby, Kids, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, provisioning, wildlife

All I can say is what a trip! We left Massachusetts around the middle of June and headed north to Nova Scotia. We discovered the brilliant Bras d’Or Lakes and circumnavigated Newfoundland in 2.5 months and with 3 kids under 5. Suffering from some form of dementia? Probably so.

So what was it like cruising with our now family of 5? I won’t lie it was tough. I thought we had it bad being on a boat with two kids but you toss in a baby and your life just went down the head. Our little man is a fantastic baby as far as babies go but you must remember that he’s still a baby. He always wants to be entertained and would prefer to be attached to my breast 24/7. I tried getting back into a little bit of homeschooling with the girls, they’re still quite young so it consists of reading books, worksheets and practicing letters, but eventually decided to take the summer off because every time I got set up to do an activity of course the baby needed my attention. He’s getting more into a routine now so I’m hoping to pick back up on the school work in a couple of weeks.

Other issues we found were that the kids didn’t really understand colder climates, they still wanted to run around with their panties on and refused to wear jackets. So for majority of the trip the girls didn’t want to be out on deck so were cabin bound until we went to shore. But when we went to shore oh boy did we have fun. Newfoundland has so many beautiful hiking trails that are so well kept that I swear they have little machete fairies lurking about. Oh and the whole island smells like Christmas. Everyday I would inhale and feel like I’m home – the smell of Christmas trees always makes you reminisce of your childhood Christmas’. Now I’m just rambling.

Even with all the beautiful hiking trails we noticed a lot of the locals in the smaller villages were quite unhealthy, fresh produce up there is not so much on the fresh side and the meat is quite expensive. Leaving NL I was happy to eat my last slice of stale bread in a while. I know I could just make my own bread but with 3 kids under 5 my mornings are a little full. If you’re planning on heading up to NL make sure you provision your boat with dry goods and clothes, things are pretty scarce on “the rock”

We didn’t stop much on the west coast, we were tracking icebergs and wanted to get all the way to the tip in order to catch them before it got too late. Sailing up the west coast was great, a little gusty but good. Everyday the weather report called for 15-20 knot winds and we got 25-30 everyday, but that’s ok our tank needs some wind to get her going. Up the west coast is where I decided that we needed a new boom, I bent that baby up real good. What can I say I’m a shitty sailor.

Icebergs! ICEBERGS! They were magnificent!!! Made the rush north all worth while. And it wasn’t all that cold up near them. We definitely do need to get better protection in our cockpit. We don’t have the typical sunken in cockpit, our deck is all one level so when those icy winds come howling there is no escaping them. We spent majority of our watch time sitting on a 2” ledge of our companion way. We put up our mosquito screen to try and help block some of the wind. It did pretty good but it was still bloody cold at times. I have now replaced the netting with clear plastic we picked up at a hardware store.

After the excitement of the bergs we didn’t really have a plan. Do we beat into the wind and retrace our steps back down the west coast or do we continue around and circumnavigate NL? the guide book mentioned that only real adventurous sailors circumnavigate and we thought that’s definitely not us but screw it we could catch the Labrador current down the east coast and make good time. Maybe we should have done our homework better. We motored majority of the way due to poor wind, from all that money we saved in free dockage we made it up in diesel. We wouldn’t change a thing, from the west to the north to the east to the south coast, Newfoundland has so much diversity. The west coast had the small towns that rarely saw visitors, the north had the icebergs, the east had the larger towns and beautiful buildings and the south had the outposts and waterfalls. Whales on the west, puffins on the east, caribou and moose in between.

So what have we learnt from the trip??

* I want a washing machine, and we WILL be getting one in Massachusetts

* You can never wear too many layers

* It is possible to mistake a high of 60 degrees for a heat wave of 95

* Always ALWAYS put a preventer on when sailing downwind

* Not all rocks are charted

* When it takes longer to pump out your poop then it takes to actually poop it’s time to rebuild the head

* Breastfeeding while trying not to puke on your baby is never fun

* Babies and kids may slow you down but they make you life more the richer

We didn’t find many blogs with information about cruising in Newfoundland so I hope if there are any cruisers looking for info on NL or NS that my blog helps out.

For now we are planning on coming north again next summer and maybe even further north. But plans are just plans, they could change once, twice, 10 zillion times – like our kids changing outfits in a day.

Goodbye Francois–we love you

August 21, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Kids, Newfoundland, wildlife

We will be leaving Francois after dinner this evening and heading for Halifax Nova Scotia. This will be our last day in Newfoundland, sad but we’re ready to move on.

The longest run we’ve done with all 3 kids was about 36 hours. This will be our dry run for Bermuda, lets see if we can hack it. If we don’t make it all the way there will be plenty of places to stop into on the way.

Halifax is 350 miles and to Bermuda from the States will be roughly 600 miles. 58 hours to Halifax but hopefully faster if we get good wind. Wish us luck!

Francois NL– where everyone knows your name

August 19, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Newfoundland, wildlife

Francois is an outpost, meaning that you can only get to and from here via water. There are no roads and no one owns a car. Their mode of transportation is four wheeler, walking and in the winter snowmobile/ skido. There is a ferry that comes in once a day bringing in mail, food and anyone wanting to go to the closest town. This community is so unique, Carl and I both got that giddy school girl feeling when coming in. The main roads, if you can call them that are narrow concrete, wide enough for a four wheeler other roads are for walking built out of lumber. There’s a waterfall that runs through the middle of town which gives them there water supply. The population is 90 people and every year it gets lower and lower. The town takes a vote every year on whether to accept money from the government to shut down the town and relocate, they need 90% vote and currently have only 50% to vacate. There are no for sale signs but we spoke with a husband and wife that recently moved here and they paid $10,000 for their place. The town has two stores for food, one will be closing down very soon.

We hiked up over the hill and picked wild blueberries, it’s amazing how the girls can go go go when they’re having fun. We almost made it up to the waterfall today but couldn’t find a trail and the terrain got too rugged for the girls.

This town is awesome and depressing at the same time. To think that in about 10 years that this place will only be a memory, just another abandoned outpost.

Carl taking out the garbage. Everything is burned here. We heard a few years back everyone got a little lazy and started dumping everything off to the side, they are back to burning everything again.

Little Pond, the towns water supply

Little mans first swing, what a perfect setting

Bridges and walkways join all the houses, the girls loved all the different levels

Waterfall running through town

Fjord I can’t remember the name of

August 18, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Newfoundland, wildlife

This morning we awoke with waterfalls surroundings us – spectacular! We sailed up a 5 mile long fjord yesterday, tall cliffs on either side and waterfalls around every corner. This place is truly magical. We named every waterfall we saw, of course after ourselves.

It rained quite heavy all night and we woke up the next day to light winds and surrounded by waterfalls cascading down from all directions. There are no towns up here just a salmon farm and 2 lonely cabins. If you’re in the area, definitely a great place to spend the night.

Sorry that I can’t remember the name of the Fjord, it’s to the east of Francois about 10 miles and it has the word arm in it… I think. We left our guide book out in the rain last night. I put it in the laz (where the generator, water maker, hot water heater ect are) to dry out. The baby now temporary sleeps in our cabin and the crib is by the door, thus I can’t look up the name…. and I’m too lazy to start up the gps nav stuff and figure it out.

Fortune NL–greatest boat race in the world

August 17, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Kids, Newfoundland, wildlife

We arrived at Fortune to find that the local Dory boat race was underway – the greatest boat race in the world! Locals team up in couples and it doesn’t matter if you’ve never rowed a boat in your life, as we found out from the first couple. You row around 2 markers twice then across the canal to fill a barrel with water using paint buckets and water from the canal, then row around the 2 markers twice again and back to the ramp where you run up saw a log in half with a two man saw. There were 8 couples competing and whomever gets the best time wins. Bloody terrific!

Fermeuse yard time

August 9, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Kids, Newfoundland, paint, projects, wildlife

We would like to thank all the guys at Fermeuse Marine Limited especially Francis and Noel for making our yard time a joy. Our girls were given candy, chips, coveralls and even a scooter! I’m sure we made them all nervous letting our girls run riot around their yard. The didn’t get in too much trouble they just like a good chat, well Pri does while Wags looms in the shadows. We’ve been out of the water for 4 days, most of those being rainy. Carl pressure washed the bottom, welded some patches and painted her up. We chose from the fisherman’s color palette and Pri picked blue. We were a little worried that it was very much Cinderella blue but once it dried it darkened a little and we’re ok with it now. Can’t miss us. Instead of saying “we’re the big boat over there” we can say “we’re the blue boat over there”. Nice.

Francis loaned us his truck to go to the corner store for some food on the first day. Noel drove us to (the only) restaurant up the road for dinner another day. Super nice people.

We highly recommend this boat yard to anyone travelling through the St. Johns area. We’ve never seen a cleaner yard and it allowed self service.

We finally got our moose shot. Noel (boat yard foreman) came and got me when he spied this lovely lady moose. Wonderful.

Big thanks to Don who lent us his truck for the day so we could do laundry, groceries and pic up Geo in St. Johns (1.5 hour drive from Fermeuse). It was a tight squeeze but we did it! The drive home wasn’t much fun. I was that crazed lady driving up close to the windscreen determined not to hit a moose. Who drives 1.5 hours in Newfoundland in the evening in dense fog while its raining? Oh yeah that would be us!

Thanks also to Jason for helping us paint our boat and giving us a bucket load of movies.

I wonder why we got lost in St. Johns??! Thanks for the shit directions little man!

4 days later and we’re going back in the water. Thanks Francis and the team at Fermeuse Marine Ltd, A+ boat yard/ daycare center. They all made us feel like family.

I always amazes me how the fog rolls into this place.

The sea monster stuck to our anchor. Ewww!

She’s big, blue and BEAUTIFUL.

my obsession with puffins

August 4, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: Newfoundland, wildlife

Beware, many puffin pictures!!! We motored passed Whitless Bay today (no wind). This is where the largest colony of Puffin birds can be found.. Brought me back to the days that I had a budgie in a cage. The whole island smelt like that cage. Way too many birds for the real estate.