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Four weeks along the South Coast of Newfoundland aboard the “Concertina” from mid-July to mid-August 2006. |
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| Tuesday, 25 July 2006 | Chapel Island Tickle to Harbour Breton and Jerseyman Harbour; |
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| Tuesday the 25th began with moderate northerly winds that allowed us to sail dead before it out past Belloram and its many fish pens. This vista is from the south looking towards the Belloram mainland, Chapel Island to the right and St. Jacques Island with the lighthouse far right. | ||
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After rounding that impressive lighthouse we squared away on a westerly course passing Boxey Head and St. John’s Bay with the breeze becoming gentle SW. | |
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| By mid-afternoon we were tied up alongside Harbour Breton’s so-called Marine Centre wharf in need of diesel fuel and food provisioning. It took the kind intervention of a local fishing skipper to negotiate our access to the fuel supply. The Sobey’s store adjacent to the dock was quite willing to do business with us and even allowed us to run the loaded shopping cart right down to the schooner. | ||
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A little shy of being in such a busy town, we chose to leave the dock after our necessities were met, passing up any further exploration ashore there. |
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We motored across to Jerseyman Harbour and anchored once again off the end of the spit. A couple out mackerel fishing came alongside and after fish and boat talk they gave us a handful of fat mackerel before heading back to Harbour Breton. They had lived in Riverport for ten years or so back when the fishing was good and knew Lunenburg from firsthand experience. We learned from them that the rusted hulk on the eastern shore was a fishing vessel that had broken mooring in Harbour Breton in a storm and been driven into Jerseyman Harbour. The hulk on the western shore was the remains of a coastal ferry. | |
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We rowed ashore and started a driftwood blaze on the beach for cooking our split fish and foil-wrapped vegetables (a la Peter Moore). We explored the graveyard in the field above the beach. Aside from one house at the south end of the harbour, and a camp at the north end of the harbour, the graveyard was about all that was left to show that at one time there had been an active shore-fishing community of more than 200 homes here . | |
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| The evening sunlight put a warm glow on the harbour shore, the schooner, the rusted abandoned fishing vessel and one visible house foundation. One is touched by the melancholy absence of people at such a time and place. | ||
Monday, 24 July 2006  |
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Wednesday, 26 July 2006 |