 |
|
||||
|
|||||
|
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
| Route Map | ||
| Weather Map | ||
| Daily Journal | ||
Q & A |
||
| Special Reports | ||
| Education Section | ||
| The Game | ||
Greenland Tourism's Project Leif 2000
Solitude has its advantages
Log Date: August 30, 1998
Author: John Abbott
Lat/Lon: 58.36 N, 62.35 W
Location: At anchor, Bluebell Island
Weather: Starry and clear
Sightings: Caribou and big hare
From John Abbott:
Well, another day of sailing with our friend the SE wind brought us a grand total
of 11 miles southward progress - roughly what we can row now in slack waters and
no head wind. It's disappointing how our raging torrent of two weeks ago has been
reduced to a trickle, but we are remaining patient and trying to find the humor in
our current fortune.
|
A view of our Bluebell Island anchorage. Note the fog on the east side of the island. |
While it's fashionable aboard Snorri to "pooh pooh" these intrusions as obsession and sport for those on "the outside," Clinton's predicament has - in a twisted way - helped put our trifling
challenge of being 500 miles from our destination in perspective. Anyway, we're all kind of bummed that these are the matters that have the nation gripped while we continue to celebrate the wildness of this coast.
Ah, Labrador...this sunny, stony coastal wonderland, with caribou herds as thick as the black flies are inland; and arctic hare so big they could back down a Rottweiler. We used to think that polar bears were something to be worried about until we began to happen upon these monsters during onshore explorations!
Perhaps when the explorer Jacques Cartier proclaimed Labrador to be a worthless and barren wasteland unfit even for such a gift that "God might see unfit to give to Cain," he had, in truth, seen a hare on its hind legs (they're 3 ft. tall, I swear) and was forced to retreat to his ships to hoist anchor. Alice certainly wouldn't have chased these "rabbits" into their holes (hare actually live aboveground and graze all year long) for the psychedelic Wonderland she might find herself in with an arctic hare might be a very unpleasant trip.
The other day while hiking in Saglek Bay, I related a day in the life of coastal Labrador to some
friends back in Vermont...my feelings here of child-like discovery. The feeling of experiencing my surroundings with a kind of wonder that I'm rarely able to feel amidst the interruptions demanded by my daily life in Vermont.
Hodding, Rob, Doug, and I went to get water onshore, jugs in tow. Distances are incredibly hard to judge here, due to the lack of size cues (no trees, buildings, people in your field of vision). Upon returning to Snorri, we bathed in the waters of a glacial lake outflow and watched a whale float by.
The afternoon brought hours of blueberry picking, climbing on granite outcroppings and cairn building. Punctuated by the greeting of a sea eagle as it flew, screeching, overhead...then dove out of sight (an omen for winds on the way?). Then the tracking and watching of those incredible hare.
Later, Eric and I hid and watched two caribou feed from just 20 yards away. These are a few of my favorite things. The ones that keep us all nourished as we face the eternal hunger for favorable wind....