Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

Nunaventurous Newfoundanimals

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Here are a few of the indigenous inhabitants that we’ve documented so far:

Safe Departure

Friday, July 25th, 2008

All was well with the bears for the night and we are off at 6 AM after Pat fished for a half hour (skunked.) We have AMAZING pictures of the bears – some very close with Pat’s telephoto lens…

Harrigan Harbour, Labrador

Monday, July 21st, 2008

We departed Webeck Harbour today at 7:15 AM after cleaning the watermaker filters and topping up the batteries. When Shane pulled up the anchor there were several spiny sea urchins on the chain. The day before he found pink worms the size of his small finger in the sea weed we were anchored in that he also hauled up! UGH! We went about 100 nautical miles further north in absolutely perfect weather and calm seas to Nunaksaluk Island and anchored at Harrigan Harbour. We haven’t seen another boat for the last three days; since Cartwright. By the way, the boat engine is running great since the repairs.

The surrounding area is very rugged, rocky with few trees and reminds us some of Caples Lake area above the tree line near Lake Tahoe. There are no signs of human intervention here except a navigational light and on a far mountain top, a radar tracking station! We saw an incredible number of icebergs today- maybe 50- throughout the day so the frequency is really increasing. We saw a couple up close and personal: wait for the pictures when we get internet access. We also saw a fata morgana. This is an arctic mirage created by cold water and warm air (it got as high as 76 degrees today.) The mirage looked like a 100 foot high wall with multiple bergs; very bizarre and fortunately for us unreal! We spent time on the flybridge which was lovely.

The refrigerator died completely today. It is sad that after two repair men worked on it, it is now worse than when we started. DEAD! The good news is we picked up some glacial ice from the bergs and have two ice chests full.

Tomorrow we are off to Nain which is the northern most ferry stop in Labrador. There is an active Moravian Mission there which we hope to visit along with getting fuel. We hope to access the internet and download pictures there. Who knows when the next opportunity will occur.

Kip is keeping us well fed; no complaints in that department. Even Mr. Boselli is happy!

We send our love to you guys and miss you so much. What an adventure this is.

Finding Iceberg Alley

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Tonight we landed in a place called Cartwright, Labrador and found a grocery store, fuel and a pub with wifi so we can jump on and share some of the dramatic and majestic pictures of icebergs we saw today and yesterday. The coast of Labrador is called Iceberg Alley and we have begun to see them coming past us like large cruise ships. They calve large bergy bits and chunks of ice so Shane netted some ice for the cooler; filled it with two pieces!  Humpback whales were feeding and even breeched near our boat; Pat caught the splash with his telephoto.  He also caught the great puffin picture.  

In the afternoon the seas picked up, it began to rain and became really choppy. Approaching Cartwright our engine faltered and we motored to dock with the get home motor. So tomorrow will be another day of trouble shooting. Pray for wisdom for the men to diagnose and correct the problem for good. We’ll update tomorrow with the results.


I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go — Genesis 28:15