Newfoundland 2015, Balden Cove, Sam Hitch's Harbour, Little Bay
08 August 2015 | Little Bay
Krow, sunny!
Saturday August 8th
mmmmm Pancakes with Sagona blueberries and forbidden peaches. We left our anchorage and headed back out the winding narrows out into Northeastern Arm when I asked Dave, 'Have you seen Kato?' 'He must be here somewhere' He replied. I thought we had better make sure, otherwise we needed to head back to search the shorelines of the anchorage for a wet kitty!
Dave searched both cabins and every Kato nook below and could not find him. I had a moment of panic and ran down after passing 'auto' over to Dave. He was nowhere below.
'He's here'! Dave called out. Perched on the very back of the boat in the sun was our cat. He was tethered quickly and brought to the helms station. He preferred to be under the back bench outside, after all it felt summer-ish now. I have to curb my bad habit of imagining the worst. That is not the dog I want leading my sled.
We had cell service as we came out towards Harbour Breton and both of us were checking emails and Facebook, when I looked up for a check as we rounded the bend there was a tanker blocking the channel. Now it is not the same texting and driving as on a boat only doing 5 knots with plenty of space around us... but still we chided ourselves. We turned on the AIS and found it was a Canadian tanker heading into Harbour Breton, so we slowed down and gave it time to dock while we used the cell service Harbour Breton offered us.
What a magnificent day! The sun shone on the pink coastline highlighting the mossy 'Irish' green and darker conifer forests.
The winds were too light and in the wrong direction coming almost behind us, but we brought out Mac the mainsail to play anyway and sailed along some pretty spectacular shorelines.
Technology. Here we are gazing around at such beauty while we call family and upload pictures, check emails and such, look up the weather and tide charts needed ahead when we may not have internet, all the luxuries of land out here on the ocean. So different than when Farley and Claire sailed through here in the 1960's. I wondered if they too realized that words like magnificent, spellbinding, gorgeous and beautiful were just inadequate for the feasts our eyes were experiencing.
We motor sailed all the way from Baldwins Cove but as we rounded Pass Island Jenny came out, full sail and we shut Willi down for a while. We quietly floated along these spectacular, ever changing shorelines of Fortune Bay and headed up the arm to Sam Hitch's Harbour.
We passed more fish farms on the way in to the pretty little cove and tried to drop anchor. We needed a secure anchorage as high winds and rain were forecast and were a bit concerned at how hard it was to get a good hold here with the anchor, and Dave is an excellent anchor-man. In the little cove there were two cabins and a mooring line with a little red dory hitched to it, patiently waiting for it's people to come back.
We took our Origami out, Kato squirming to get going, bounded down and hopped right in, nose to the wind. Around the cove checking depths we found it shelved up quickly right at the shore leaving us not much swing room in the event of high winds, and awkward rear tie off places. Hmmm.
We discovered the pert red dory was plastic and a third full of water, but constructed to stay afloat no matter. Times they are a changin'!
We dingied up to a beautiful waterfall and had a good chuckle at Kato who had never seen one close up before. He went between trying to hide in the bow and sticking his nose right into it trying to figure out just what this was. There was not a place to get out and walk as the forests rose right up out of the rugged rock, where there was ability to land held the two cottages and as they looked quite lived in it felt a bit rude to land there, even for Kato.
We went back to the boat and I cooked us up a Pad Thai with all the veggies that needed using right as Dave came in and said he felt we should move as the holding was not good and the forecasts were for pretty high winds.
Lids on the pots, propane off we pulled anchor and headed to the next cove we read about in the guide books.
This was also a very pretty cove and we tried setting the anchor where it was recommended but found no holding. We moved to the other end of the little cove but Dave could not get the anchor to set there either, but did bring up a huge oily kelp with the anchor. He would not let me keep it to dry on the bow, "Too oily" he said. "It would make a mess". We decided to give up on that cove as well and try the next one. Prudence in the lead, the forecasts were not easy for that night, although it looked clear.
We left that cove and went into the next arm as light was fading and found a beautiful waterfall with adequate holding to the west of the waterfall. We felt it prudent to also put on a rear line to shore, something we have not had to do yet this trip, so Dave got out in the dingy, (having to remove Kato who was not going on that trip). I fed him the line from the big reel on our stern and he secured us to shore via two trees that had died but were still secured into the rock.
We were unbelievably close to shore, strung like a pearl between the anchor and the shore, we were not going anywhere. Dusk was settling in as we ate a late dinner and prepared for the wind and rain expected.