Safely alongside in Battle Harbour
Saxon Blue's Blog
Harvey Jones and Andrea Stokes
Wed 1 Sep 2010 23:50
Well, we did it! By far our longest passage yet of 855 miles non-stop in 5 days and 5 hours. A lot of it was extremely hard work with the boat lurching around all over the place. It was very fast, though. I wasn't sea-sick which was a pleasant surprise. I felt strange for the first two days but I'd got over it before the really high winds struck so I was OK for the rest of the trip. I had to be careful, though, so I wasn't overeating (for once) and I was careful not to try reading while going along or anything like that. With the sea so rough, we didn't see much wildlife but, as we came into the coast this afternoon, we were accompanied by five White Beaked Dolphins. They spent ages rushing in and out of our bow-wave and just messing about. It was a lovely end to the passage.
We're now moored alongside a wonky old wooden dock in Battle Harbour which is basically a village-sized museum. This used to be a cod-fishing port used by the people of Newfoundland who would come up North to Labrador for the summer. This particular port was the most important one of the whole fishery and was founded in 1775 by people from Poole in Dorset. It's now owned by a Trust who've spent tons of time and money on making it lovely. It's a really relaxed sort of place and we're going to have time for a look around tomorrow morning. It's amazing how many of the places we've visited were founded by Europeans in their pursuit of sea creatures. It's also amazing how the economics of salt cod worked. I thought it was a cheap food but here were people travelling across the Atlantic to catch, gut, split, salt, dry and barrel it, all by hand, before shipping it right back to Europe to be sold. Amazing.
We're looking forward to a proper long sleep tonight without being wedged against the lee-cloths. Who knows, I might even have a shower!
Harvey
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