The 600 mile sail to Labrador took four and a half days, was pretty comfortable and included 48 hours of motoring. We started looking for icebergs way too early and only began seeing a few about 20 miles off the coast. First stop was a deserted fishing village called Smokey Tickle. For some reason huge wharfs and fish factories were built just a year or two before the whole industry collapsed. For a while people continued to use the cabins but now they are all in ruins.
I decided to have a bath in this pond along with a million mosquitos before the rain and thunder began. It was a great place for walking and poking about amongst the old buildings.
We had a foggy trip to Cartwright to clear in at the local police station where everyone chatted with us and fed us cake over the several hours it took as the paperwork was faxed to Goose Bay and back with the official stamp. The policeman was just finishing a three year stint there so was emptying his freezer and gave us moose and wild salmon to try.
We saw our last icebergs on the way south from there, feeling both happy and sad about that as we love photographing them but they also give us a bit of an adrenalin rush as we move amongst them.
We did quite long days as we rushed south. Punchbowl was 72 miles away, another abandoned fishing village and from there down to Lady's Arm which felt very gloomy with a few houses and a lot of mess, no road access, grey weather....
Last stop was Fox Harbour where we sat out some wind until we could get over to Newfoundland. A week in Labrador wasn't nearly enough but we leave with good memories of friendly people, beautiful anchorages and villages trying to survive.
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