FOURCHE HARBOUR North East Cove. 50:31.49N 56:19.40W

mollihawk's shadow
eddie nicholson
Sat 21 Jul 2012 01:57


Could you pack any more into one day?
Wind, rain, sun, ice bergs, whales, fjords, cod fishing and amazing sailing all day!

Up at 5.30 and gone from St.Lunaire at 6am.

A wet, windy and miserable start to the day as we headed into the last of the gale which had seen a small 40 foot shrimp trawler lost at sea with 3 family aboard, she was due back to the harbour we were sheltering in! It was later found by the coast guard ,and thankfully all were well aboard. We didn't discover what the problem was but there was a very concerned atmosphere on the dock all day.

At 7.30 am the crew were treated to the sight many that had been hoping for an ICEBERG!
It was first spotted on the horizon, a magnificent 3 storey berg!
The camera crew assembled and we circled this magic sight while avoiding the bergy bits that floated around the main attraction.

Back on course after the minor detour and headed for our lunch stop, the Irish village we had heard about, Conch harbour. The sail there was cold and breezy with winds of 20 knots behind us. As we headed up the fjord to lunch the winds were gusting 30 knots due to the funnelling effect and the harbour was very tight and challenging especially for the bow thruster!

We finally tied up to a trawler and went visiting those who were flying Irish flags outside their houses!.
This is a port once of 500 people and now only 150 live here.
The graveyard gave the full story, Carney, Hunt, Casey, Flynn, Tobin, Byrne Carroll, all of Eire decent. the accents of the locals is uncannily like home.West Waterford in particular.

>From the boat you can see the whole village ,school, church, graveyard,and a scattering of houses. The usual falling down water front properties all of wooden construction are scattered among very small occupied huts and boats pulled up on wooden slipways made from logs.
It has,as all the ports do the signs of a tough existence and this is only the Summer!

The fisherman told us that the Cod were plentiful but commercially they were prohibited from fishing them. Dermot found a quick way around the licensing system and caught a few Cod as we went out the Fjord! Dinner secured we headed for FOURCHE, a large uninhabited Fjord recommended to us by Doug and Dale OCC.

By 8pm we had arrived at the mouth of the FOURCHE fjord having sailed 80 miles with a following breeze all day and amazing sailing.

To top the day off the entrance was blocked by two Humpbacked whales who preformed for the camera crew as the Iceberg had done earlier in the day! Tails in the air what a sight!

We finished off by having a Cod dinner in a beautifully secluded fjord all alone amongst the high wooded cliffs and some falling down settlers cabins.

Definitely a day never to be forgotten.