LEWISPORTE
mollihawk's shadow
eddie nicholson
Fri 27 Jul 2012 07:26
We were joined by a school of dolphins as we crossed Notre Dame Bay on a sunny and calm day.
The entrance to Lewisporte begins some 8 miles out where there are a series of wonderful islands all wooded with little signs of habitation, one of which we dropped anchor behind for a late lunch. Some swam amongst the jellyfish, the braver of the crew and some watched with a beer in their hand!
We spotted an huge Osprey in the trees just above us and watched in awe as it perched on the top of a tree before flying away, we also noticed a few local boats out for a Sunday spin fishing.
Mollihawk motored between them and found the perfect spot.
It was in fact the first official day of the Cod season. All previous catches were apparently for research purposes!
We caught 5 Cod is as many seconds , one of which Mike landed with the help of the gaff was 7 kilos!!
Fresh Cod is hard to beat and we ate it for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner , we even gave some away to the not so successful local fishing folk!
Lewisporte has a modern marina and yacht club with all the services a new arrival would need most especially a very warm welcome.
We were welcomed to the Lewisporte Yacht Club by Captain Peter Watkins.
The first thing he said to us was 'here is my jeep you will need it to get around!' That is the type of kindness that is afforded to all tourists on the island by the Newfoundlanders ( Newfies for short).
Peter was instrumental in producing a pilot for the Notre Dame area which is a very high quality production and a further proof of his generosity he presented us all with a copy of his pilot.
Mollihawk's Shadow is now up on the hard having being taken out by travel lift ( we are the largest vessel they have even pulled out, which we only found out after she was chocked up!)
the boat yard here only is responsible for the marina and storage of boats, so we found a highly recommended company Coast to Coast Marine who manage the winterisation of many yachts and motor boats in Lewisporte. Ivan and Jean offer the full service required and we found them to be equally generous and helpful in settling Mollihawk down for the Winter even though the Summer has only just begun up there.
So we are now finished our 2012 leg of our Circumnavigation of the Atlantic.
None of us realised how beautiful a spot Newfoundland and Labrador was going to be and even though we covered some 1100 miles over a 3 week period, one could spend several seasons here and not be bored at all by its beauty.