Position Report: 1900 August 9, 2010
58° 38′ 13.7″ N ~ 062° 05′ 01.8´W course. 112° True, speed 3.2 kts. 18 miles of the coast in the Sea of Labrador
I warmed my beans and bacon again tonight. I had been snacking on them cold since I made them yesterday. I made hot tea, too. And I tied the tea bag to the cup handle just the way Captain Lem always did, a half-hitch with the brand tag to hold it in place. I need the warmth of that, too. The fog is back.
The fog came with the north wind I so want. It’s not the soul chilling fog of Baffin Bay that obscures the water just off the bow, but it is fog nonetheless. But that’s what happens in this part of the world and I deal with it. I call out on the radio to “any vessel in the area of … this is the CAP’N LEM entering fog at…. Please come back with your position, over.” No one has yet responded. No one is here! But there might be and it is the “might be” that makes the fog so arduous. There might be an iceberg. They come marching to the shores of Labrador like an old medieval foot soldier to the shield wall to die each in their turn.
This fog, here out at sea, ebbs and flows like the tides and gives me a break now and again showing me what’s out there, nothing, confirming what my wonderful little Furuno Model 1622 Marine Radar, which was not work in Baffin Bay and now so wonderfully is working, shows me, nothing. Nothing out there is a very good thing, in the fog off the coast of Labrador.
I thought of running for Hebron but then I’d be back in with the rocks and shoals and the huge Atlantic swell that I battled yesterday to get out here. Hebron will be one of those places I guess I’ll never get to visit. To bad, Hebron has a history. Instead I’m aiming for a point 60 miles away that will take me far off the Mugford and her Tickle.
I have three more hours of daylight to help and then the fog and the dark. Ah, but now I have my blessed sea room. Sea Room! It gives me comfort like a pillow.
