After running for 40 hours straight we arrived at the very northern tip of Labrador. I must say she saved the best for last. We arrived at O’Brien Harbour (60 deg 22.7’N, 064 deg 32.4′ W). Almost immediately we saw a polar bear on the left, then another swimming toward the shore. As we progressed up the fjord we saw 3 more. If you saw these magnificent animals move you’d be impressed. They don’t look graceful or fast, but they are both. They can climb up a cliff so fast it makes your head spin. Did I mention the stunning beauty of the straight up rock walls rising 2000′ from the water’s edge? We anchored at the head of the fiord where a stream enters.

Shane’s debut as a baker occurred today. He and Kip made a “monkey bread” which is a giant cinnamon roll for 10. The five of us rallied 🙂

Once again we were blessed with sunshine, light winds and calm seas. The temperature was in the mid 60’s but the water is getting colder and is about 33 degrees.

Pat wants to know how we can possibly top today. We went right by many icebergs without lingering. Are we becoming blasé? Tomorrow we cross Hudson Strait and into Nunavut!

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After logging more than 100 miles it was time to stop for the night. We chose Hebron Harbour (58 deg 12’N, 62 deg 37’W) which was next to Jerusalem. These looked like interesting places as they were home for another Moravian Mission. The mission itself was prefabricated in England in 1829. It was closed in 1959; the people were relocated to Nain by the Canadian Government. Many of the relocated people are back today reconstructing the mission; we saw several workers ashore. However, the anchorage was foul with kelp beds throughout the harbor and there was no safe place to anchor. We made the decision to run all night slowly with two on watch for bergs. We saw several. Fortunately, night light was good this far north, supplemented by the moon was really a dim twilight so we could see pretty well. This was a new experience for Pat & Shane.

As I write this email it is 6 AM and the engine has been running for 24 hours straight. We are headed for the tip of Labrador today and hope to cross into Nunavut tomorrow. (Current position is 58 deg 50.27’N, 62 deg 48.83′ W) We are all fine but tired. I am sure there are naps in our future! Oh, I should add, we are now officially in Polar Bear country. I don’t know when we will be able to send pictures again, but the mountains and fiords are simply breathtaking.

[Editor’s Note: The Skipper sent two locations in one day, which confounded the website map. Haha. We’re working on handling that, but in the mean time here’s a pinpoint for Hebron Harbor where they tried to anchor before deciding to press on through the night. See the next post for details.]

We left Nain at 6:30 PM and motored through Port Manvers Run. While we dined on pizza and salad. This is one of the prettiest parts of the trip – simply gorgeous. We had another beautiful sunset too. The currents were strong and we got both a 3 knot lift and a 3 knot adverse current in different sections of the run. We continue to see the Inukshuk rock formations on the high places of the hills/mountains like the one at the entrance to Nain & also represented on the Nunavut flag. The people build these everywhere we’ve been in Labrador.

The engine shut down problem is a failed fuel cut-off solenoid, so Shane now goes down into the engine room to manually operate the valve in order to shut down the motor. Fortunately, we don’t do it often.

We are surrounded by cliffs rising out of the cove to about 2000′ straight up. Reminds us of Yosemite or Punch Bowl cove in Alaska. We can’t wait to get up & see the sunrise against this backdrop.

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