A school of Dolphins accompanied us part way into the Ramea shoals today – they were definitely playing with us. Heavy sea swells made for a very unsteady hand but managed to capture a little video to prove it !

A walk about Ramea proved to be everything we expected.   Everyone we met chatted us up – one degree of separation with each one – all knew a Pushthrough or Pass Island relative – and everyone knew the infamous  Jim Oxford – and were eager to share some tales 😉.

Beautiful, friendly, quaint – so typical of this wonderful Province.

Ramea Lighthouse

All lighthouses look alike don’t they?  Great day on the water – gonna go walkabout – fill you in later.  Dolphins played along side us as we approached – got some bad video to post later 😄

Scott’s Cove

PAB Behind us.

It’s off to Ramea we go!

Here comes the Fog again

Surprise !  Guess what just arrived?  Fog.  July 3, 2015 in PAB.   2 more sailboats showed up today, crew bruised and battered.   Everything soaked.  ‘Twas the right thing to stay and wait it out – like a friend said, better that than end up on a rocky and desolate shore.

Think we’ve seen all there is of PAB!  Definitely leaving tomorrow.  We think.  Will say goodnight and leave you with a favorite poem of endurance, strength, and human will.

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the same winds that blow,
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
‘Tis the will of the soul,
That decides the goal,
And not the calm nor the strife.

Remember that scene in Groundhog Day where Bill Murray wakes up to the 6:00 am clock radio alarm playing “I got you babe”? Every day…….

We were rudely awakened once again to our 5 am iPhone alarm, which oddly enough ( not planned for this trip) is the sound of a foghorn moaning.  The Cap’n poked his head out the companionway just like the groundhog and said, once again, “Nope, not today”. Then with the finesse of a contortionist, crawled back to his cozy bunk in the aft quarter berth.

Well, not quite like that.  More like another hour or so of checking the forecast and consulting with our Halifax crew, who, although unable to complete this part of the journey with us in body, are still very much with us in heart and soul 😀.  They say tomorrow is better.  Another consultant agrees these winds are nasty.   But then again, always unpredictable, so may have to bite the bullet and resolve to having another nasty day of boating to get home anytime this month.

Boating requires much strategic thinking.  Another factor this morn was the precarious docking circumstance we find ourselves in.  The floating dock we chose to tie up to 3 ( yes 3) days ago in PAB was perhaps not the best choice.   Took us a full half hour to plan and walk through our exit strategy, which was beginning to sound like a carefully maneuvered  wartime plan of attack on the enemy, before concluding our army was just too small.   We’d wait to enlist the help of some locals to keep us from crashing into the adjacent boats in the narrow space we had with the howling wind blowing the wrong way once again.

Two more sailboats have been here for the last several days with us.  One from France which is going our way as well.  Another which came in from Halifax and was very close to us as we neared NF shores but needed to be towed in, it’s engine had “give out”.   And later this morning another showed up, from where we don’t yet know.  It will be interesting to hear their story shortly.

Haven’t given up on going somewhere today.  We’ll see.   Come What May.😀

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.

Summertime Port aux Basque

The sounds of summer are all around today.  So familiar – and so different from the 13 hour constant sound of the ocean waves, wind and boat engine we experienced yesterday.

Lawn mower humming in the distance, birds chirping, clothes flapping on the line, laughter of children playing nearby…… We hone in on each of them and smile.  Blissful.  Taking time to relish the moment before planning the next sail day.

And reflecting once again on another warm welcome received upon our arrival – assistance dockside, a feed of lobsters that we did not even have to crack!  Fabulous meals prepared and frozen to provision our vessel for another week. Blocks of ice being made for our cooler.  And reflecting on the accolades and relief expressed by our friends from afar.

We feel loved and content 🙂

Land Ho!  Cape Breton was in sight more than halfway across – Hoped once we lost sight of it, NF would then be in sight on the other side.  There’s a certain comfort in actually seeing your destination – false comfort of course – the depth finder stopped measuring after 600 feet of icy water.  But such was not to be – NF came into sight about 20 miles out.  Having a drink of rum dockside now – exhausted.  New auto helm conked out 4 hours in, Mount Pearl crew on their own to sail the rest of the way.  Halifax crew had to disembark at Baddeck – heartbroken to lose them.  Fill you in later – feast of lobster and cod awaits.

Safe and sound.

Pushing off at 5:30 – 15 hour sail to reach the other coast.  5 tons of boat to weave through the maze of lobster pots before hitting the open ocean. Hoping to get some pics of life in the Cabot Strait.

Looking forward to seeing that first glimpse of NF coastline.