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.

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We left Cartwright at 2 PM after effecting repairs. We had more fuel related problems. In addition, we had a leak in the exhaust manifold which allowed salt water to escape onto alternator #2. So we had trouble. The entire city turned out to check us out and offered help. We also met the ferry and the ferry captain and first mate who also offered help, but at the end of the day it was Shane to the rescue. Shane fabricated a cold patch to the exhaust using epoxy, rubberized tape and aluminum tape. I reworked the alternator so it again puts out 14 volts. Shane also cleaned out fuel lines and swapped out the on-engine fuel filter. In short all was in order & we were off. We only went about 50 miles in sloppy seas and overcast sky to Indian Harbour where we are anchored for the night. The boat ran really well.

What a beautiful and interesting place Indian Harbour is. It once was a hospital & fishing outpost but now has been abandoned since the late 90’s. Who knows why it was here; I surely can’t figure it out.

We are beginning to see the Inukshuk rock formations on the surrounding hilltops. For those who have read about the Nunavut flag elsewhere on the website will know that this is a landmark symbol the Inuit people used for for direction and is now the symbol of Nunavut and the Inuit people in general.

I am writing this at 11 PM and it is almost dark. The moon is about to rise over Indian Island. Sunrise will be about 4:40 AM. We also have left the heat wave of Nova Scotia behind and we are now in a cold climate – 50 degrees. Pat wore his silk long johns for the first time (picture that 🙂 The water is colder too, in the 40’s when no ice is present. We did see a small berg this afternoon and a growler plus some brash ice.

We will set out early tomorrow to make up some time. We will be traveling up the Labrador coast for the next few days. We still have 1400 miles to go go north before turning west. It’s off to bed.

Hope all is well on the home front – miss you all.

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We awoke at sunrise in Ingonish and said goodbye to John. The sunrise was fabulous and the day was gorgeous for a crossing; virtually no wind at all and in fact sometimes the sea was like glass. After 11.5 hours we pulled into the Government dock at Codroy, Newfoundland. The end of the wharf had silted in so I almost ran aground. Immediately we met Dean on the dock and shortly thereafter his fishing buddies. His wife, Carol Ann drove us to the local lighthouse and then to a restaurant for dinner. Kip had an interesting dish called fish cakes which was a combination of mash potatoes and cod – very good. We presented them with a pound of Peets. They will be shocked as they are used to instant. We are impressed by the beauty of this island and we haven’t yet seen much. Once again the people are warm and friendly.

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We’ll we finally left Baddeck behind & are “on the road again!” after a week. We didn’t leave until 4 PM because they located our much needed refrigerator compressor and got it shipped to Corner Brook that day! Praise God! We had our credit card rejected twice with the paying of the Baddeck bills, buying groceries, paying for the compressor….; after two calls to the Chase Bank fraud department later we were set. They were just doing their job wondering what a California boy was doing buying all sorts of things in Baddeck, NS. I had told them in advance but they blocked the card never-the-less.

The trip up the Great Bras d’Or was fantastic and we went past the Alexander Graham Bell mansion and under the beautiful Seal Island suspension bridge with a vertical clearance of 119′. We then went past Bird Islands and saw two whales on the way to Ingonish weaving between thousands of lobster pots. Kip took a million sunset pictures – fabulous. The boat is running great.

We have a second part shipment coming to Corner Brook to fix the remaining boat issues. We were to  meet up with our new friend John in Ingonish and hailed him on the radio. He guided us up a very narrow channel and we rafted up to his boat for the night. Surprise! Another new friend, Clark (Tartan 35) was there with some of his friends (John & Deborah) who own the mooring we rafted to. The next thing we were on their deck joining a party that was underway. Also there was Peter who owns Straight-MacKay, a commercial boat supply company here; the supplier of our much needed refrig compressor! He was so happy he had indirectly helped us. We had hamburgers on the grill; a great time. Did I tell you how wonderfully nice the people of NS and Cape Breton Island are?!

I am writing this at 6 AM the 12th and we are underway to Newfoundland. We awoke to an amazing sunrise so coming and going from Ingonish was in Technicolor. Today’s trip will be a long ocean passage; 12-14 hours we think. So far calm seas and the boat is running fine.

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