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

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We were off early and motored to Nain arriving around 2:00 pm with many local children running to meet us at the dock. After getting secured a new friend, Mark, led Skip, Pat and Kip to the hardware store and local hotel where we were able to get on line. Downloading all your comments is like getting lots of mail and we all enjoy it. Thanks! Nain is inland and the winds and seas are less aggressive so there are trees again giving the scenery a look of the Yosemite high country. Very beautiful! The water was like glass today so we moved along quickly.

Many have asked what a typical day is like aboard. Pat is up by 4:30am and Walt by 5:00am who then starts the motor and rousts out the rest of us. We run until 10:30 pm when it gets dark and put as much water under the boat as we can. We eat breakfast underway around 6:00am, lunch at noon and dinner around 7:00pm. We have used most of the fresh things and are into the dried beans, peas, bulgur and brown rice made usually into soups. I use a pressure cooker and can soften these dried things in no time. We have had fresh bread and cookies. We use noise canceling headphones and listen to tapes, DVDs and CDs, we read, plan the day’s route, I knit and everyone naps when they can as you can see! 🙂 We have had lots of laughs as Shane sneaks around and uses our own cameras to take goofy pictures of us unaware! Skip locked himself in his room and we let him call for a while! Pat threatened to shoot a ice berg to see what would happen! Shane and Skip like to shower in the cock pit while the rest want to be warm. We went for three days without seeing another boat so who cares?! We have been having fun.

As we pulled in Walt could not turn off the engine. He made a quick call to Maine and has been at work while I am writing this so hopefully we can continue on tonight further. Skip and Walt plotted out the whole trip and think we are on a good pace to make it and the ice reports have been encouraging.

[editor’s note: be sure to look back at the last 3 days of posts. New photos have been added]

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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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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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