Departing St. John's
From here the trip is all new and gets a bit serious. We are technically entering the ice berg zone, though we're unlikely to see any for a while, and things get rather remote with parts and harbors few and far between, only getting more so as we head to Greenland afterwards and then after all that have a long trip eastbound towards Europe before regular services will be available again.
Whalie Bird and Karma set off at the crack of dawn and immediately upon leaving the harbor were becalmed. Both yachts drifted around taking photos of each other with the dramatic cliffs in the background which was rather enjoyable for a while before the slapping sails got a bit tiring and we each started our iron sails to make a few actual miles.
Whalie Bird was thinking they'd head to Bonavista, a town around 2 capes from where we were about 80nms away, hoping to be there before it was pitch black. We were thinking of going to Catalina Harbour as on Google Maps, the last time we checked, it looked like the final place to get diesel before Greenland. That turned out not to be true but we didn't know that until we were there.
We sailed in sight of each other for a while before Whalie Bird headed a bit further offshore as they were heading further and then the fog came in and that was the last we saw of them. We sailed along down wind, with the pole up, at a leisurely pace between spouts of fog and clear skies.
Cata - Line - Uh Harbour
Coming around the corner the harbor had a clear entrance and was around a few different corners. The town looked cute perched amongst the not so tall hills and even though the wind picked up and was getting a bit cold by the time we entered the harbor proper it was rather calm. Being there was a lot of room on the fishing wharf we headed there once realizing our initial plan was actually someone's private dock off their house.
Alongside there were friendly fisherman with difficult to understand accents waving and saying hello, and an older gentleman drove up just to take a look and offered us a ride to the petrol-station to do a run of diesel jerry can filling of the boat, how kind! The ride was further than we thought so we were thankful he took us. Off to bed, it was a long day.
Gettin' to know the locals
Right off the rip the next morning we were surrounded by activity as fishing boats came in and unloaded their catch, snow crab this time. The captain of a boat now unloaded came over and within 5 minutes had offered Heather a few crabs and they brought us 5 of the tasty buggers! Informing us another boat was coming along to unload we had to move just over to the other wall which they also assisted with the lines for making it a very smooth process.
The vibe was much better here for getting things done so it turned into a day of boat projects with us putting a stern light on (that took way too long), getting our port of call on the stern, organizing some of the stuff inside, addressing our malfunctioning outboard, and so on. During this chaos a fancy RIB tour boat came over just to say hello. It was a little funny as there were guests onboard but the captian and his wife were the chatty, interested in what was going on, ones. They said "oh we're havin' a fire tonight, blue house just down the road, if you'd like come on ovah!" and with that they took off.
Firepit
Over at what turned out to be Jamie's and Safara's house, which we just found by walking up the road until we saw a fire in a back yard and walking through the gate, we had a grand ole time like we were old friends just chatting and looking at the scenery in the darkness of the very late night. They operate a tour company which they had just started this summer and it was already doing pretty well, along side AirBnBs. Apparently this part of Newfoundland is having a bit of a boom with tourism and they were getting in on the ground floor with their "Salt Water Tours" whale watching tours in the go fast RIB which you could combo with staying in one of their places. Immediately we were invited to come along on any tour which wasn't already booked, in trade for us taking them out sailing as they'd never been on a sailboat before. Perfect!
Sharing Sailing
Thinking we'd hear from them earlier we sort of pottered around in the morning but decided to go on a walk. Just before we were heading out they stopped by and said their tour of that day was full but that they'd love to go sailing around 18h00 or so. Alright! Sounds like a plan!
We managed to squeeze in a little hike to these cool arch rocks the next little town over and get back just in time. Along the way we saw Safara who said "I hope it's no issue, my sister in law is really excited about coming sailing, it's been a dream of hers!". Before we were back we got a call from Jamie who said he and his brother were really looking forward to sailing and they confirmed the time. We were wondering at this point how many people we'd have but it was looking like it'd be a good day no matter the party size.
We met Howard and Rita and welcomed them aboard Karma along with Safara and Jamie who all came bearing snacks and beers. Off the dock was easy and away we went. Everyone had experience on boats but never sailboats. Jamie was really interested and kept asking what every line we moved did or was for, and he was the one who hoisted the mainsail, under Heather's direction, when the time came. Everyone else was mainly interested in riding along but Rita, who'd dreamed of going on a sailboat since she was a kid, was excited to steer once we were under sail.
Funnily enough, this turned out to probably be one of the coldest sails we've had aboard as the fog rolled in and only a mile offshore we were unable to see land. Everyone was having a great time, passing snacks around, drinkin' beers, and holding on as we turned to go up wind and get a bit of heel on for the full sailing experience.
Newfoundland Garage
We turned around to make it back before dark and had a smooth re-entry to the fish dock, everyone aboard being helpful. Overall a very successful trip! We were invited back to their garage as apparently that's what one does in Newfoundland, where we sat around on stools and chatted long into the night. Here we met another friend of theirs and now ours called "Dave". He caught our lines as we arrived back with the sailing party and drove us over to Jamie's house. "Yup, stage 4 cancer but I'm just goin' to St. John's every few weeks to zap it with double radiation. I don't let that shit slow me down, just speed bumps. Flat out 100% of the time" Dave radiates positivity in a stern but somehow also extremely friendly manor.
Fishin'
Dave, a Newfie who has spent his life on the water fishin', took us out on his go fast fiberglass, I guess I'd say "panga" but 22 or so foot center console boat to catch some Newfoundland Cod. "You can't get your hook down there're so many. Hardly fishin' we'll just be catchin'!" He came by, knocked on the hull while we were still asleep, and within 5 minutes we were aboard heading out at 40kts through the now familiar harbor entrance into a bright and sunny morning.
First passing the lighthouse rock he showed us on the depth sounder what we were looking for and when he saw a patch we stopped, began drifting, and casted up wind of the boat's drift. We were jigging and sure enough, pretty much right away, he was reeling one up and then so was Heather. We all had them on the line almost immediately. Once onboard we were told to just flip them into a big plastic box and drop the hook right back down.
We tried 3 spots, the second one being right next to another fishing boat. "Oh everyone knows me, we can go right up on them if we want" and as we approached the other fishing boat held up what they had caught and were excited we were out there! Hooks down, cod up, droppin' 'em in the box and repeat.
It was hardly half an hour and we were heading back to Catalina to fillet them. Flat out Dave's boat did 55kts I think which is always very surprising to us who spend so much time moving along at 6. Making a pitstop at Jamie's water front house to see his wharf he's building, "how's the depth out there boys! Lookin' good? Oh when I get another 10 or so feet built here, fuck!" takes drag of cigerette, excited about moving the tour business to his own dock.
We shot under a low down bridge and right up to Dave's place, also on the water, where we were handed a fishin' beer (it was 10am) and we got to work filleting, or Dave did and we watched, as he whipped through 15 fish in about 15 minutes. We saved some for Jamie and the rest was ours (we have some in the freezer still) and we were off, Dave dropping us back at Karma literally just in time for us to leave to meet Jamie and take one of his tours.
Salt Water Tours
We already knew it was a nice day out being as we were just out there. Perfect for a tour in a go fast boat and Jamie was excited to have us along with the other actual guests aboard. First up we got suited for survival suits, listened to about a 30 second safety talk, "don't stand up while we are moving. Have fun!" and we were off.
While we didn't see whales we had a lovely afternoon driving around the different scenic parts of the bay. We of course came past Karma again and had to tell our story to the other paying guests. The evening was easily ended again in a garage hangout classic Newfoundland style.
Departure
We were set to be off, there was a nice weather window not yet all the way to Greenland which would've been about 780nms, but one 4 days to Labrador which would close the gap to being less than 600 and therefore making it possible to have an accurate forecast for the whole way.
We spent the chilly evening on the dock readying the boat and befriending an offshore fisherman who copied all of his waypoints and charts for the entire Labrador coast and Greenland coast. He also let us plug our boat in to charge directly to his fishing boat as he was already running his generator all night. How kind!
Once again, early morning, we were out of the now very familiar habour to us for the last time, northbound we were.
