9/11/10 "Fog implies visibility of less than 1 mile" : Ramea to Rose Blanche

Ann writes:

The early morning forecast wasn't great, but we decided to move on. We followed the ferry out of the harbor in the fog. I tried taking just half of a meclizine pill which seemed ideal, but I still dozed off staring into the grey fog.

Reefed Mainsail

By 2 there was hazy sunshine, and it was quite nice around 5pm when the other Morgan caught our lines off the floating dock in Rose Blanche.

We ran up to our favorite Newfoundland Restaurant, Fisherman's Friend, where I had a more sensible meal of Seafood chowder and pan-fried cod. Jon and I had to share the last partridgeberry parfait for dessert. Meals at the restaurant are accompanied by recordings of Newfoundland folk songs which are a bit sad, speaking of the difficult lifestyle, death of the fishing industry, and leaving ones family village forever.


Jon writes:

The forecast was light for this day, but then a north east gale warning for the following day. The wave rider buoy off the Burgeo Bank was still reporting 8 ft seas, but it didn't look that bad and the wind was predicted to be southeast shifting to southwest at 10-15 which would not be too bad to work our way west. The strategy was to get west far enough to make the sail back across the Cabot Strait to Nova Scotia a single day's sail, rather than overnight, because the weather had become rather unpredictable more than about 18 hours out. So we left Ramea and found no more than 6 knots of wind from the southwest, motorsailing all the way to Rose Blanche. We knew this harbor to be well protected from a north wind. We tied to a float at the end of the public dock, and as we were talking to the locals in relative calm a sudden puff of cold north wind signaled that the gale was coming. And it blew that night a steady 32 knots gusting up to 38. But tied to the float directly into the wind in that small protected harbor it was much quieter than the two days at Ramea, or the one at Harbor Breton. The following day was calmer, but still a gale warning in the Cabot Strait, so we explored Rose Blanche more thoroughly and prepared the boat to leave early the following morning.

Rose Blanche from the lighthouse (click to expand)