In PAB today, the ocean is not the glassy sea depicted in the video we took in between storms on the other side. Everyone in Newfoundland knows that plans contingent on weather are rarely carried out as expected.  Our ancestors who lived off the land and the sea often had to go out in dirty weather – they did not have the luxury of deciding, “Nah, not today”. Like we just did.

That decision was not made lightly mind you.  Lots of vacillating once again.   The pros and cons.  Rain drizzle and fog;  wind gusts….. All day.   Would be miserable sailing and 13 hours of it.    Only reason to do it would be so as not to add another day’s delay to the looming “deadline.”

And for a fleeting moment of insanity, we almost decided to change our plans to head for the straightest route to Bay Roberts, sailing day and night in shifts, to reach our destination sooner.  Without the stops into the gorgeous south coast of NF ports that we had been so looking forward to. A familiar saying about life came to mind – one that ends something like, “It’s not about the destination, but the journey…..”  

So many people will never have this opportunity that we have to see the Newfoundland coastline from the sea – to see what our discoverers saw – and why they stayed. The beauty of the cliffs, fiords, waterfalls….. The journey is what’s most important we decided. Not to mention the disappointment instead of envy that our friends would now experience (we prefer to be envied thank you😀)

So it’s another day in PAB – there are worst things:). After a hearty breakfast of eggs,beans,bologna,toast and homemade bakeapple jam, we’ve reprovisioned the boat once again, stocked up on extra diesel, refilled the water tank, topped up the propane tank. Stick to the original sail plan and rethink things once we are really out of time – we are, after all, in NF at least. All is well.