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1800 Sunday, August 20, 2023
With the wind still blowing out of the southeast, we spent the day right in the lovely Puddingbag Cove into which we sought refuge yesterday. The photo above, taken with my drone, shows Tazzarin at anchor with the entrance of the cove in the back, top of the image.
Last evening, feeling settled in this protected cove, we shared cocktails of Newfoundland Iceberg Rum poured over some of the last of the Iceberg ice I had in the icebox. We had a pasta dinner; however, I found myself thinking about some of the traditional air dried fish we had seen curing in Lumsden a couple days ago. Some Newfoundlanders still do things in the traditional ways.
Today, we launched the inflatable dinghy and toured around the little pockets of the cove, and took a hike ashore. As far as Newfoundlanders doing things in traditional ways, we noticed some wooden lobster traps neatly piled on the shore. From what we have seen, the majority of lobster traps in use here are still the wooden ones, not the wire mesh seen across New England. Some round crab pots were also nested in a stack nearby. They were piled just above the clearly visible high tide line on the rocks. Later, a local fisherman would come by the cove in a sweet, little, blue skiff with a make-and-break, one lung, gas engine - now that is surely traditional!
Together, Annie and I strolled across the lichen covered rocks, through peaty soils and blueberry barrens, catching glimpses of the boat riding easily at anchor.
Safety: Some of you have asked me about safety gear. I do have a lot of safety related gear aboard Tazzarin: Liferaft with rations and emergency signals; type 1 life jackets; saffety harnesses with inflatable life jackets, strobelights, whistles and personal AIS beacons; horseshoe lifering; MOM with inflatable lifelong, tall buoy with strobe and dropped to deploy in a man overboard emergency; Lifeline and block and tackle for retrieving crew from the water; throw rope; a vessel AIS transponder; SPOT GPS tracker that posts our location in near real time and can send an SOS; vessel Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon; personal EPIRB; spot light; parachute flares; smoke signals; sea dye marker to assist aircraft in spotting; a very full featured medical kit with prescription drugs including various antibiotics and pain killers; a handheld Iridium satellite phone, fixed mount VHF radio; singlesideband radio; three waterproof handheld VHF radios, one with DSC emergency calling, a wetsuit;.the list goes on. Needless to say, there is a a lot of emergency equipment aboard. It is probably the area of preparing the boat that gets the most of my attention. And, deserves it. I am a believer in safety first.
Tomorrow, we hope to head on to Bonavista, if the wind behaves and shifts to the southwest.
Bill
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