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2015 Tuesday August 23, 2022
It has been a glorious day of sailing! We left Catalina Harbour in Conception Bay at about 0900 this morning. Our course took us out around the magnificent head and white lighthouse at Cape Bonavista and then into Bonavista Bay. There is a puffin colony at Cape Bonavista and we sailed into a huge raft of hundreds of puffins sitting on the sea; they all took flight in spectacular fashion.
Entering Bonavista Bay it struck me that the landscape is less severe and jagged; the islands seem more weathered and rounded from a geological perspective. The bay also has many more islands than Conception and Trinity Bays to the south. It is also clearly evident that we are getting more off the beaten path. Fewer cruising boats make it this far up the coast.
We wanted a snug harbor for tonight as we work our way north. Looking at the charts, we settled on Burnside Harbour halfway in the bay. It is also the small port where the local ferry to St. Brendans departs three times a day. We tied to the north side of the ferry dock, leaving her berth on the other side open. The shores are ringed with colorful and weathered homes and fishing stages as in the photo above. It feels like just a bit more of a step back in time.
After dinner a number of locals came down to the ferry dock to chat, as they often do. Waterfronts in this part of the world are where people come to chat, visit and share news. Tonight, we were some of the news. Five or six people came by to chat with us. Mary Hogan was waiting for the ferry. She is from St. Brendans. Back when she was in school in the 1960s, there were 500 people living out on her island; today there are only 95. Young folk tend to move away. The fishery is smaller and there are few other jobs. Fisheries and outport life are linked together.
When the ferry came in, I hopped on the wharf to take her lines, a crewman tossing me a monkey's fist on the end of the heaving line attached to her hawser. The Captain of the ferry, the Grace Sparkes, also came to Tazzarin and visited with us; he has worked his whole life on boats. With fishing changing, he moved on to the oil rigs and now as ferry captain. Part of the joy of visiting these outports and tying to the wharf is a chance to meet the wonderful people. Bunside is a small harbor. There are only three or four small fishing skiffs and the ferry dock, and Tazzarin.
Tonight and tomorrow’s forecast is for 30+ knot winds and heavy winds. We hope to head on to the north side of the bay if the weather isn’t too bad in the morning.
Bill
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