We’ve arrived!

Slowly, the contours of the Canadian coastline emerge from the oily-grey mixture of sea and clouds. Marie is the first to spot our destination, earning herself a shot of schnapps. The crew is over the moon. After a good 400 nautical miles, the northern tip of Labrador lies before us. Carefully and with full concentration, we sail slowly into a fjord whose flanks are characterised by rugged, barren rock formations. It is so deserted here that various areas are still marked as uncharted on Canadian nautical charts. We drop anchor in O’Brien Harbour.
Almost at the same time, we’re contacted on VHF channel 16 by a Canadian Coast Guard aircraft. They politely ask for our details, then wish us ‘happy sailing’.
The beer after dropping anchor tastes delicious. To mark the occasion, Miriam serves up some wonderful bread dumplings with mushroom ragout. After a peaceful night, the Canadian coastal handbook proves to be spot on. It describes some severe downdrafts for our anchorage. Suddenly, wisps of cloud race overhead and the wind picks up in gusts of up to 40 knots.

It’s getting uncomfortable. So we decide to move to another anchorage, which is surrounded by lower mountains and is therefore not expected to experience downdrafts. After 8 nautical miles southwards through choppy water, we drop anchor in Bowdoin Harbour. Although the wind is still blowing at 20 knots here, the Dagmar Aaen is much more stable.

It’s time for us to change our watches again. Not an easy task. The Canadian provinces (we’re in the border region between Quebec and Labrador) have different time zones (some with a difference of just 30 minutes), plus daylight saving time and UTC. The ship’s clock is set back three hours. This means we’re now six hours behind German time.

Our next destination is Torngat Mountains National Park.

Matze

Position: 60.379317, -64.538155