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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It is so much fun for us to get your comments, encouragement and prayer support. Thank you for writing back. The day started by again fueling up but this time the truck drove on a road behind the dock and we passed the nozzle by tying a line to it and pulling it across. No matter how we do it, the fuel is costing more than we anticipated by a lot. But then isn’t every one saying that?

The parts for the water maker arrived and Walt was able to fix it after one false start. So now we can again make fresh water from the salt water surrounding us at a rate of sixteen gallons an hour. Our neighbor on the dock, Gavin, helped Walt with fueling and the repair, then gave us a tour of Corner Brook and fed us a steak dinner after all this. Talk about hospitality! He and his wife, Val, live on their 41′ sailboat with their nine month old son in the summer months. They will lend us their car to pick up Skip, Pat and Shane tomorrow at the Deer Lake Airport.

The refrigerator compressor arrived and we have an 8:30 am appointment to get it installed. Then we will do the final provisioning before departing Wednesday.

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Did you know that Newfoundland is one half a time zone east of Nova Scotia time?  When we got here we set our watches ahead 30 minutes.  Walt said he did the same thing in India last year but I have never moved through half a time zone!  Newfoundland is also the 10th largest island in the world.

We were off early again this morning and did another 100 plus mile day which took us 13 hours.  We were so grateful that the seas were calm and wind less than 20 knots all the way.  We saw three boats all day so we really felt we had the sea to ourselves.  The west coast of Newfoundland is unlike anything we have ever seen with rugged cliffs 1000 feet high dropping to the sea.  On the way into the Bay of Islands we had four whale sightings!  One surfaced and dove seven times in a row much to our delight!  It took us two hours to motor through the bay and arrive at Corner Brook; it is huge.  We had made arrangements with the Bay of Islands Yacht Club to stay here until our crew arrives Tuesday. We were greeted by many friendly folks who were expecting us.  A  phone call revealed our water maker parts are here and we hope to hear the refrigerator parts arrive tomorrow. The club is nice with laundry facilities, showers and wifi!  We have been offered the use of a car already and are planning to do the final provisioning for the trip Tuesday.

I had purchased most of our fruit and vegetables in Halifax and put them below the floor boards.  The 97 degree days in Baddeck caused about a third of the apples and oranges to rot so there is more to get now. We are ready to get to bed!  We find we now get woozy being on land and feel like it is moving all over the place!

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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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