We arrived in Bay Bulls, a small fishing port just south of St John’s that has become famous for its whale watching and puffin colonies. At Bay Bulls we replaced needed to replace our wind turbine, solar panel and alternator, all of which had conked out one after another on crossing the Cabot Straits.
Bay Bulls
Fort Amherst and Signal Hill, St John’s
Over the next few days we saw countless whales, puffins and dolphins, often very close to us.
Whale!
Puffins
Whale
Port Union lighthouse
Cape Cove anchorage
Callum
All was well. We were enjoying cruising the Newfoundland coast, taking our time and stopping every night for a full night’s rest. Little did we know we’d be sailing this route twice more under less favourable circumstances…
The trouble started in Southwest bay, just south of St Lunaire.
We spent a peaceful evening on shore, where a small group of caribou came right up to us.
Caribou Southwest Bay
Next morning as we were motoring out of the narrow bay, our engine started surging and losing power. We tied up to the St Lunaire wharf and I changed the fuel filters and bled the fuel lines. This seemed to solve the problem. Our parents met us there and we took them out to see a giant iceberg just out of the harbour. The iceberg was over 200 feet high one of two of the largest ones to pass Newfoundland this spring
200 foot Iceberg tour with our parents
Dad at the tiller
On our return the motor started acting up and surging again. We spent a couple days in St Lunaire trying to fix the problem, but to no avail.
We did get the opportunity to visit L’Anse Aux Meadows,the Viking settlement, which is where the first Europeans landed in North America in the form of Leif Erikson and his followers over a thousand years ago.
The sod longhouse at L’Anse aux Meadows
Returning to their Viking roots
With limited resources to fix our engine in St Lunaire, we decided to sail the 300nm back to Petty Harbour.
This proved to be a long and cold undertaking, with strong headwinds most of the way.
Sailing back to St John’s