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.

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Jenny and I received a phone call tonight from our intrepid adventures. They called on the satellite phone, and it worked about as well as a cell phone. I scribbled notes as fast as I could, and here’s the latest:

They left this morning at 5:00am to make the push across Belle Isle Straight between Newfoundland and Labrador. The seas were calm and smooth most of the day, and clear with occasional fog. En route, they encountered a pod of minke whales. At least they think they were minkes, because they only saw fins and not a tail. Apparently the options are humpback, fin whale or minke, and the later is shy about revealing their hindquarters.

Iceberg ahoy! Today they saw a really big, Titanic-sinker iceberg rising 100 feet above the water out a shroud of fog. The crew reported the water temperature went from 13ºC down to 2ºC as they went by. This monster created its own fog bank in an otherwise clear area. Beautiful, and a little scary too. It showed up like an island on the radar. We’re looking forward to seeing pictures of these two aquatic encounters!

Williams Harbour is a flourishing metropolis of 59 people, so no internet, but lots of fishermen. In other news, the crew is adjusting to boat life. Skip and Walt are brushing up on all the new electronics that went into the boat. Shane is studying the manuals for the boats engines. Kip is knitting and cooking. Pat is fighting off a cold, and winning (good news!). Oh, and they’ve decided to return the parts for the fridge and just make do with ice in the coolers.

About this time the phone went dead. Probably a cloud interfering with the satellite, or a polar bear. Stay tuned!

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We were so excited this morning we could hardly sleep! We pulled out at 6:40 this morning and it was an absolutely beautiful day all day long and this land-lubber didn’t get sick! Skipper Walt had suspected that he had something tangled in the prop so the low man on the Totum pole Shane put on his wet-suit and went in the water. He found this wrapped around the prop and shaft. He cut it loose and the boat ran so much better, Shane is the Hero for the day! We docked the night in Port aux Choix it is a great place for exploring. A 1/2 gallon of milk is $5.00, more expensive than diesel fuel! For our first day it was grand. I’ll let Shane add his comments. Thanks for your prayers, we have many more days ahead of us.

“Its a great feeling jumping into unknown waters and swimming underneath to take a look at “something” that could be wrong. Its nice and bright on the surface but underneath it gets real dark in a hurry!! Its amazing how fast it will take your breath away, and with a 15′ beam its a bit of a swim.”

Cheers!

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Walt borrowed Gavin’s car and picked up Pat, Shane and Skip who all arrived within an hour of each other at Deer Lake Airport. They unloaded their things and we ate a pasta dinner together. What fun to see them all and share the excitement of starting out together tomorrow.  The tanks are full and we have all the food we can carry so we are ready.  

However the refrig is not fixed.  The compressor arrived without a strategic part so the mechanic was unable to fix it.  It keeps at 8 degrees in the freezer and 50 in the main box so we are making ice and using the two coolers.  Quite soon we will have all the ice we need for our coolers!  🙂

So we are planning an early start in the morning!  Wednesday is supposed to be clear and sunny.

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