7/18/04   Port aux Choix        <Port aux Choix Images>

Position:

50-42.33 N
57-21.16 W

Port aux Choix Newfoundland

Today's handy boating tip:  When selecting a boating destination, Port aux Choix beats Baie des Rochers every time [Port of Choice/Bay of Rocks].

Finally on the move again -- previous anchorage and setting lulled me to take a rest for a few days.  Plus, the weather was not great for traveling on the sea.  The weather is problematic.  Being small, I must pick my weather, but up here that can be difficult.  There is still snow on the hills at higher altitudes, and a good day on the water here compares to a fairly miserable day in Maine.  My CG buddies tell me that now I also have to think about ice bergs -- the big ones will show up on radar but the little ones will sink you -- think floating block of concrete.  Travel by daylight only is now be the rule.

Weather.  I have a weather fax that used to work but doesn't much anymore -- antenna or receiver issues I suspect.  The good news is that the same machine has a NAVTEX receiver in it and prints NAVTEX reports, which up here are excellent - quite precise and timely, even if the weather news is often bad.  NAVTEX is probably more valuable than the weather faxes.  Newfoundland is divided into around twenty regions and each region is separately forecast twice a day.  I am now entering the "Belle Isle" region, having been in "Northeast Gulf" most of the day, and previously in "Port au Port."

Here is a sample NAVTEX report:

181222UTC
ENVIRONMENT CANADA FORECASTS ALL TIMES UNIVERSAL ALL SPEEDS IN KNOTS VALID 18JULY/05Z-20JULY/02Z
BELLE ISLE.  LIGHT.  18/19Z SW15 GUSTS 25.  19/14Z SW25 GUSTS 35.  18/05Z-1810Z FOG PATCHES.  19/04Z-20/02Z FOG PATCHES.  19/18Z-20/02Z SHOWERS.
NORTHEAST GULF.  V10-15.  18/17Z LIGHT.  19/14Z S10-15.  19/23Z SE25-30.  18/05Z-19/00Z FOG PATCHES.  19/00Z-20/02Z  FOG BANKS.  18/05Z-18/10Z  OCCASIONAL SHOWERS/DRIZZLE.  19/00Z-20-02Z  FOG BANKS.  18/05Z-18/10Z OCCASIONAL SHOWERS/DRIZZLE.  19/00Z-19/18Z OCCASIONAL DRIZZLE.  19/18Z-20/02Z RAIN.
GULF-PORT AU PORT.  . . .  continues . . .

You get the idea.  The forecast is issued on July 18 at 12:22 Greenwich Mean Time (or UTC or Z for "Zulu").  Newfoundland Daylight Time is 1.5 hours ahead of Maine (yes, one and one half hours), and 2.5 hours behind GMT.  Thus this forecast was issued at about 10:00 am local time today.  It says that winds in the Northeast Gulf, where I started, should have been variable from 10-15 knots, turning to light after 1700Z or 2:30PM (about right).  It also says that in Belle Isle (the region I am entering), the winds should be light until 1900Z on the 18th (4:30PM) then go to Southwest 15 knots gusts to 25, then on Monday at 11:30 am (14Z) to SW25 with gusts to 35.  Monday is not a day for my little boat to be on the water getting battered by 35 know gusts and 25 knot winds.

On another note, I spent last night at the town dock in Norris Point (Bonne Bay), retrieving my anchor and stowing my dinghy on its davits in the evening so that I could get an early start.  Norris Point is right in the middle of the national park and there are at least four identifiable constituencies: (1) cod fisherman, (2) tourists, (3) adventure tour purveyors, and (4) academics at the research station/aquarium run by Memorial University.  Polarlys, "The Newfie Boat Dog" (TM), sucks them all in.  The young (mostly ladies - though a very few lucky young gentlemen) summer researchers at the research station cause visible consternation for the young fisherman, since these young'uns, as it were, are, after all, SCIENTISTS in training -- the very same scientists with whom they are at war over the available cod stock.  The fisherman insist there are plenty of fish (above and beyond the quota) and point to their catch.  But it doesn't take much science to observe that the catch is all relatively small fish whereas adult cod reach sizes seldom seen on the docks.  The fisherman want to take everything they can today, the scientists who feed the government regulatory system insist on letting stocks grow.  Hence, the mutual displeasure.  But now the conundrum, those lovely young lasses, scientists in training, look soo lonely on Saturday night to the handsome young fisherfolk.  Meanwhile, the young adventure tour ladies , not scientists, and very buff, unfortunately have their own equally buff young men and probably wouldn't be caught dead with a stinky cod fisherman anyway.  Such is life on a remote dock on Saturday night.

Polarlys, "The Newfie Boat Dog" (TM), meanwhile has all the fishing techiniques down -- good old fashion TROLLING where he coyly drifts by an unsuspecting target looking especially cute; LONG-LINING (where fisherman use really long lines -- miles [we're not talking monofilament here, more like 1/4 inch nylon rope] -- with baited hooks the size of cigarette packs at regular intervals) - here Polarlys drags as far out as possible past packs of targets snaring multiple pet-givers in each pass; and, finally GILL-NETTING, where he wraps his leash around groups of tourists and snags them all with a particularly cultivated slobbering head shake. 

All for now.