August 29

Today we left early and made a push for Battle Harbour before the south winds built up, since they were in our face. Finley’s careful planning paid off as usual;  only the last few hours were tough. Waves on the bow are tough — the boat shudders, slows from six knots to four, and only slowly regains its momentum before it slams into a new one. But it was a beautiful sparkling day, the water was up to 50°, the face full of spray was only occasional, and we made it to Battle Harbour in time for “hot” showers and supper in the dining room.

Battle Harbour is a special and beautiful place. It has been the gateway to Labrador for 200 years, the supply point for salt, gear, and supplies to the Newfoundland fishermen who came up to the Labrador coast for the summer season. When cod fishing was closed in 1989, the few functioning outports that remained were doomed, Battle Harbour among them. The merchant there gave all the buildings to a conservation trust, which has saved some and reconstructed others. So coming into the wharf here is like touching on a bygone era.  Quite different from Makkovik (previous described)! The trust made some of the buildings into a museum, one into a general store and dining room, and others into guest cottages. It’s open from July to the middle of September. Make it your destination on your next visit to Newfoundland!  A tour group of about 35 people from California (elderly — not like me!) are here for the night. Finley is on the board of directors, so we received a royal welcome from Katherine, the tall effusive youthful director from St. Johns, including hugs and a bottle of wine with supper. Katherine knows what the sailors want: a hot shower, laundry, dinner off the boat (roast beef, not fish), and an internet connection.

After the other guests had left and we were sitting around chatting, in came a piece of cake with a candle on it — for my birthday, which was today! Talk about timing. It couldn’t have been more congenial. Sitting in this old wooden building, looking out over the tundra-covered rock at south winds blowing twenty knots and fog coming in, I felt the full import of this adventure — the sea, the landscape, the northern ruggedness, the companionship of people who endure it, the comfort of returning to port. The Inuit portion of the trip (Hudson Bay) had a different flavor from this Labrador portion.