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1900 Friday, August 18, 2023
Today began with an 0645 departure from Fogo. Soon, main and jib were set, moving us along on the 45 miles to Lumsden. The morning was lovely as we glided between the islands west and south of Fogo, then into the more open waters. Lumsden loes midway along a stretch of straight coast of Newfoundland with few other harbors. There are scattered islets and sunken ledges to be wary of. By noon the breeze had faded away and the engine trundled us along.
We do have a nice bouquet of wildflowers from Fogo to remind us of the island.
Thankfully, the days run was interrupted by several wildlife sightings. First was a tern that spent a minute or two courting the little windvane at the top of Tazzarin's mast; the bird was vocal through the encounter.
For the second day in a row, we began running into massive rafts of hundreds of sooty shearwaters. During a half hour, we must have seen thousands of the elegant, dark birds. They would wait as the boat approached and then all start rushing to take flight, flapping wings and walking on water until airborne, leaving trails of small splashes.
Surely, the sooty shearwaters were there for a reason, feeding. It turned out that humpback and minke whales were in the area for the same thing. As Tazzarin slid along, the show of birds and whales kept us entertained. It is another tribute to the amazing productivity of these northern waters.
Annie and I took turns steering or keeping watch as the autopilot steered towards Lumsden. As we turned in towards the harbor entrance, we ntook note of the rare sandunes and sandy beach areas around Lumsden; seldom do you find sandunes in Newfoundland. We tied up to the fishing wharf at about 1530.
Tomorrow we will get going extra early to hopefully make the 45 miles to Bonavista, where we may stay for two days during worse weather and headwinds.
Bill
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